The following transcript was created using artificial intelligence and may contain typos, omissions, or other errors.

Rebecca Elrod: Hi, my name is Rebecca Elrod, and I'm a part of the communications team at the Foundation for Physical Therapy Research. We're recording this episode in July 2024, and I'm currently glued to my screens for this year's Olympic Games.

I am fangirling over the world-class Olympic and Paralympic athletes who are representing their countries in Paris this summer. And of course, the physical therapist behind the scenes working to keep these elite competitors at the top of their game.

In this episode, I'll introduce you to Julia Gorman, a physical therapist, who almost qualified to go to the Olympics in 1992 as a swimmer. And who is now heading to Paris with USA Swimming's open water swimming team. I learned so much about the sport and enjoyed talking to Julia about what she's looking forward to at the games.

But first, I'm pleased to be joined by Shefali Christopher, associate professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Science at Tufts DPT Seattle program. She is heading to her second Olympics with the USA Paratriathlon team after joining the team in Tokyo in 2021. Shefali, thank you so much for joining us.

Shefali Christopher: Thank you so much for having me.

Rebecca: Talk about just something amazing. I'm so excited to chat with you. My father participated in triathlons, so I think it's absolutely fascinating to see what people are doing with a Paratriathlon Team and I was just wondering like how did you get involved with the USA Paratriathlon?

Shefali: Yeah. Thanks for asking that question. So it's actually all thanks to the APTA, because I, you know, I started speaking at CSM when I was, you know, a young PT about, you know, triathlon, triathlon injury because at the time I noticed that that weren't very many talks on that. I also got very, very involved in the Sports Academy and the different special interest groups and the Adaptive Athlete Group was one of the groups and at the time Shana Harrington was the chair of the group and I mentioned to her, I wanted to get more involved and she knew my interest in triathlon.

So we were trying to figure out how to get me class to become a classifier for triathlon and a classifier someone who, you know evaluates the athlete and decides based on their impairment level which category they would race in so that it's more fair that you're racing against people with the same abilities. And so we're trying to figure that out.

And in 2018, the Paratriathlon manager emailed Shana and said we're looking to start taking a physical therapist with us on different international trips when we're competing and we would love some recommendations and she reached out to me and said I think this is right up your alley. You know, send me your resume or send your resume to Amanda Duke. At the time, she was the manager and we did.

And uh, the rest is kind of history because I've been traveling to about two to three international races with them since then, gotten to know the team pretty well and so really have the APTA and you know, joining the APTA and getting involved to thank for this start and I love to tell the story at CSM, where different places where I do the presentation so that you know other PT's who are trying to get their foot in the door can see how important and how helpful the networking and being a part of our organization is.

Rebecca: I feel like that's such a good point. Having a strong network will open up so many doors and opportunities to you that it's just honestly invaluable and I love that you love talking about the story because you're gonna clearly be talking about it a lot. And I was just curious like what personally draws you to this sport, to paratriathlon, and just triathlons in general, and to these athletes?

Shefali: Yeah. So you know they're elite athletes, but now they've got one more thing to work through, whether it's like how to make that prosthetic, you know, perform at the highest level as well.

Yeah, we're talking about aerodynamics. What are we going to do to reduce the drag and the friction in the wind tunnel? You know, do we wear a prosthetic? Do we bike with one leg? There's so many unique performance challenges that it's even more like exciting to see them compete.

Ah, and it just makes everyone's brains work even more than you know are able bodied athletes. So that is one thing that really. You know, excites me like when there's an injury, you're not just thinking about well, let's rest this side. The other side it's gonna take over. Yeah, there may not be the ability to rely on the other side because that has a prosthetic on it. Or it's because of the prosthetic that, you know, we have the injury. So now what do we do? So it just makes my. It excites me to have a slightly bigger challenge when working with these athletes and they're really finding a way to perform at the highest level.

You know, if you watch the blind athletes, I mean, I'm just like, I'm always just my, you know, my breath is taken away because they're running, biking, swimming at the fastest speed they can with a small little tether attached to a guide or on a tandem bike, you know, and I can I can barely trust myself when I'm on my bike forget anyone else. But you know, at the end of the day the Paratriathlon Team, they're just such a great humans. They also treat me really well and respect me, and which has been probably the longevity of why I've worked with the team.

They've always treated me as part of the team and trusted the therapeutic alliance and our my recommendations, and so it's been a really great atmosphere, culture and team to work with.

Rebecca: And I just would love to hear more about your experience and even at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, because I'm sure that that was different with COVID and everything.

And I was wondering if you could just talk a little bit about that and maybe what your favorite memory is from those games.

Shefali: Yeah, you know, Tokyo was very unique. I think one of the biggest things is a lot of the athletes can have their families, family and friends to come and watch them at probably the highlight of their career. So that was really sad, you know, cause one of us was going anywhere, even my high school games. Like I wanted my family to come and cheer.

So that that's gonna be really different this year and I'm really excited to see what the electricity of the crowds you know, while the athletes are swimming, biking, and running will bring and, you know, I think it'll just be like a very different experience from there. Also, you know, we will be, you know, taking precautions against any sort of illness, but it won't be as uh consuming like I don't believe we'll be testing for COVID every day and you know, waiting anxiously for what it says.

And you know, all the other things that were in place. I think this year the welcome experience when you get there, the athletes will have the ability to try on their clothes and see their names on the screens and things like that, which last year everything was just put in the rooms because you couldn't really do much.

So I'm actually more excited for the athletes to have these amazing experiences, especially those that haven't been to a game as before, because they get to have the true whole experience with, you know, all the pomp and splendor that they deserve that will be at this games.

And then my favorite memory from 2021 was probably the wheelchair race where Kendall Gretsch you know, took over the Australian racer right on the blue carpet at the finish. And I was in the medical tent when I had this, like view of the screen. So I could watch the race, but I could also see the finish line very clearly and I was watching on the screen and I don't know when I went from the screen to the to the race to the screen, but I just remember I have a video of it. Actually, I'm screaming so loudly and so obnoxiously. You know, because it was just so crazy that, you know, the whole race she was behind and. And it was by I would encourage you to pull up that video.

Kendall Gretsch, Tokyo 2021, and just watch because like she just takes her in the last few seconds and get for the gold medal and it's just spectacular racing. And later when I stopped yelling obnoxiously and looked around, it was all the Australian team. And so I felt even worse that I was behaving so. But you know you get in the moment and this crazy thing is happening and, you know, in Kendall is just a fantastic human who's very soft spoken and you know, just such a professional that to watch her, you know, do her thing, and take over and just a small smile at the end. It was pretty spectacular so.

Rebecca: Giving me chills describing it. I can. I can't imagine what it's like seeing that in person and being by the Australian team is hilarious coincidence, considering I know that. I'm sure that you, the U.S. athletes, that she was really happy to have you there and in that sea of, I wonder if it was green last year cuz I know it's green this year.

Shefali: And then. It yeah. Yeah. And act. And actually it was enclosed. So is even louder because it was pretty hot in Tokyo. So we were in this AC room with the ice packs and things like that, so she I don't think could hear me particularly, but I'm sure the Australian coaches and their representatives in that room could hear me.

Rebecca: Umm interesting. I did not realize that that makes a lot of sense, and I just love hearing this. Honestly, is there like another story that you feel like you would want to share about just working with these athletes to just mean so much to you and you call back to pretty often?

Shefali: Yeah. You know, I think I have another story from the games. We had an athlete who took a little bit of a spill on a run. We they were doing training camp and Kona and then flying to Tokyo and when they went down, broke the AFO [ankle-foot orthosis], and it broke in a way where like almost at the ankle malleolus structure where the screw goes in and all the weight is on that piece.

So no mount of super glue or duct tape or anything was going to fix this and there would be prosthetists at the village, but we were still, you know, a few days away from getting there and had to walk through the airports and do travel and all of that. And so I was very thankful at that moment that the that PTs graduate as generalists because I had to pull out my neuro brain. I had to pull out, you know, cause her foot was going into tacticity. And so I had to figure out how do I temporarily tape this foot to give some relief. How do I What can I make? How can I help?

The story gets even funny now, but the we fed there we were doing an overnight in Waikiki in Honolulu. And so the plan was she would FedEx the AFO to a prosthetist in Honolulu, and then they would be able to help. But apparently FedEx is not as fast over there. So we reached before the AFO reached and it was a little bit of a panicky situation.

Also, I was really grateful to have a former resident who worked on base there and she dropped a bag of supplies that our hotel, you know, just all the stars have to align for all this to happen. And so she dropped a bag of, you know, just ankle braces and different things that I could use to get her to Tokyo. And the athlete, you know, had a very, we got her there and her she had a very successful event.

And so it was. It was. It was. It's my favorite memory because you know the pressures on you gotta figure out what to do to help the athlete and get them there.

And all while you know, keeping everybody around calm and like you know the trying to work through it. I think you know the biggest thing that I learned from that whole experience is just the amazing. I mean, it sounds really cliche, but teamwork makes the dream work, right? And you know everybody, no matter what popped up umm, we just worked as a team. There was one instance where we had to, you know, work with some athletes over some other incident that happened and no one spoke. We just like moved into our roles and took care of business and it was very telling to me that we had worked together. We knew what how each other ticked. We knew each other's strengths and it just everyone just kind of moved into those roles without any communication and took over and we got everyone through.

So it's stuff like that that makes you, you know, thankful for these opportunities. And yeah, really think about how what amazing experiences that this can bring so.

Rebecca: Yes. And I think it speaks to the skill, you know, not only of these athletes, but of the people providing for them to be able to be so adaptive and to just sort of know what you're doing and go straight into it. That's really interesting and I'm sure physical therapists alike will appreciate that story because, like you said, you learned a lot. You didn't just learn one specialization and that really helped you, in this type of unique and specialized kind of situation.

Shefali: Right.

Rebecca: So I think.

Shefali: Yeah, it was a lot of digging in deep into the layers and thanking the different professors from school for letting it stick. That it could come back as quickly as it did in an emergency situation, so.

Rebecca: Well, just how amazing. Honestly, that's so great and I was wondering if you could just talk a little bit more of like how working with you know these type of elites athletes challenges you as professional. I'm sure that's one instance. But you know, you could go general or even another situation where you felt really like ‘I was challenged as a physical therapist.'

Shefali: Yeah. I think the biggest thing is my brain is always working because of the different impairments that they have, right, like I mentioned earlier, you could be working on knee pain, but the knee is connected to a prosthetic. That is, you're trying to evaluate this at. Is it the prosthetic is it that gait? Is it their strength?

You know what happened here? Or you're trying to rehab and do something, but they have a sore a wound injury or something where they cannot put on the prosthetic.

You know, it's really like takes all the different areas of physical therapy and you know, you, you just never know what you're going to have to work through with an athlete.

I'm trying to think of other examples, but I think those are some of the highlights, but you know, really just the challenge, the challenge of OK here is a neuro, uh a patient with neuro impairments, but is coming to you for an orthopedic injury.

So I can't just stretch the way I would stretch anybody. I have to make sure that I don't make the foot more spastic while we're trying to get it to relax and go into dorsiflexion.

So it's that kind of thing that really, you know, makes my makes me excited to go because it's making my brain work so hard and trying to fix them, not fix, but they're to figure out the puzzle of how do we get this person to the finish line compared to, you know, maybe, you know, the recreational athlete who comes in and they're having, you know, running pain like, OK, let's strengthen a little bit. You know you have both legs, you know? Let's get some double leg work and let's get now, let's move to single leg, you know, it may be a situation where we can't do that with this para athlete.

And so just thinking quick and pivoting and using clinical reasoning, it's probably what like and lights the fire in me to keep treating this these athletes.

Rebecca: Yeah, that sounds really interesting. I personally love a good puzzle, so I probably would really enjoy that type of situation, even though I'm not a physical therapist clearly. It's interesting that you touched on, you know, sort of working with them versus, you know, working with someone who has running pain. And it made me think about, you know, I know you're an associate professor, but also like, I'm sure you interact with people clinically. And I was wondering if you could talk more about how like your day job, you know when you're not working with these elite athletes sort of compares to training them and training these individuals that have a lot more necessarily going on with them than someone else.

Shefali: Yeah. So my day job, I'm more in academia now, and so it's a good balance to what I'm doing. You know, I'm helping the next generation, kind of, learn about this population. Uh, be ready to treat this population. I do a lot of mentorship for others who want to work with para sports. So mentoring them, you know, especially if they come from a strong sports background with an undergrad in athletic training or, you know, residency, I really tell them to spend more time on like neuro content and working through that.
So, you know, treating athletes is treating athletes right. And I did a lot of that in my last position in the Elon athletic training room. I would see, you know, a day full of athletes, but you know, so all athletes are the same. All elite athletes are the same. Here we just have to work through a few different impairments because really I don't feel like this paratriathlon team uh behaves like a different from any other athletes. They're all striving for to be the top of their, you know, the top of the game. They're working as hard as they can. And they're really like professionals. And so that I just love it and it they're the same, just slightly different impairments to work around when prescribing exercise or you know different modalities and things like that.

Rebecca: Yeah. It's and you touched a little bit on, you know when with mentoring and when people come to you, when students come to you and they say this is like something I would like to do, what you do now. And I was wondering what other advice you would give to students and physical therapist who wanna work with elite athletes or athletes like the USA paratriathlon team in the future.

Shefali: Yeah, the biggest you know. Biggest probably advice would be you know get connected, start networking, you know, go to the go to CSM, go to talks by people who work with these athletes, you know. OK. Uh, when you're looking for, you know, residencies. If you're working, if you have a strong sports background, thinking about a new residency, or if you have, you know, or just sports residency and see and see, look into the ones that give you maybe access to para athletes or opportunities to work with para athletes. And if they don't, are they giving you opportunities to work with really high-level athletes so that when you when teams are looking for your qualifications, they can say like ohh, they've worked with high-level athletes, they have these experiences. You know, they're right for the job. And I guess the biggest feedback would be this doesn't happen overnight. It's going to be, excuse me. It's gonna be a really hard work, you know, work hard, do well, be the best clinician you can every day, because that will seep over into you know who you are as you grow into as a professional. You know, don't take shortcuts, you know, do the do the things that that make you who you are and you know I did a lot of community outreach, lot of running talks, a lot of bike fits like it with the local community that didn't you know, it was just free education of like what PTs do and you know, and that built my caseload of a lot of triathletes, which made me better at treating them.
And then you know when I got this opportunity, I think I did a decent enough job that they kept me on. So it's been a long road. I mean, in 2018 was a while back now when I started working with the team and you know, just be yourself and be modest. And I think all of those qualities, you know, it's about the athletes. It's not about the PT, you know. So if you if you just be a pro and do a good work that the opportunity that you got will keep going so.

Rebecca: That's great advice and I think honestly can apply to just future things in life and I really appreciate it. So thank you again so much for joining with us, for talking with us. I really, really appreciated hearing everything from you.

I think it's fascinating as someone whose father specialized in neuro and worked with people in wheelchairs in DC and so to hear sort of like the elite athlete version of it and how you are interactions with them is really cool and I really, really appreciate it.

Shefali: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Rebecca: I am now joined by Julia Gorman, a PT who will be traveling to Paris in just a couple of days for the Olympic Games as a part of medical staff for USA Swimming. Welcome, Julia. It's so great to have you on.

Julia Gorman: Thank you. 

Rebecca: I just will say reading a little bit about you, I am like fangirling and I mean I'm not surprised I get to talk to such amazing people.
But I loved seeing, you know, not only your history with swimming, but with physical therapy too. And the USA team. And I was just wondering if you could tell me a little bit about your journey with swimming and sort of how you started working with USA Swimming.

Julia: Yeah, sure. Yeah. So, you know, I started as an athlete at, you know, seven years old like everybody else at the summer swim club and went on to the local Y and then on to a club called North Baltimore Aquatic Club, which is fantastic club that's been around since 1967 or 1968 and has developed an amazing age group program and multiple Olympians in the most well-known one is Michael Phelps. Uh, so we had and there's many more in addition to him.

And so I swam there and made it to the national level as a late high schooler and into college. Where I swam my freshman year actually was Miami. And then I moved up to the University of Florida and was excited to swim well for them. Have a couple NCAA championships and when I retired I went back and coached a little bit, including a young Michael Phelps before I went to PT school. And in that process somewhere where I think I was recommended by a coach or something to look into what I call the dry side of the sport.

So I knew there was an organization called USA Swimming that was part of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, and I became an athlete representative, and so I spent several years volunteering for the organization as an athlete representative, served on a couple of committees, including the Board of Directors, so that when I graduated from PT School, I knew that they had a Sports Medicine committee. And so I just automatically joined that.

So that was an easy an easy thing for me to jump on and then from there that committee has evolved over a number of years. And to what we have now, which is called a sports medicine network, which is an amazing network of providers all over the country and that it are there to help you know from age group all the way up to elite athletes. And that group from that group and from that committee is how the USA Swimming has a process to pick therapists, and it's an the eclectic group, so I'm not there just with therapist. The USOPC. There's physicians. There's PAs. There's massage therapist, athletic trainers, nutritionists, mental health professionals, so it's a big eclectic group and everybody pitches in. So it's an amazing group of colleagues to be a part of and from that group anyway, there is a process to pick providers for competitions national and international. Does that answer the question?

Rebecca: Yes, and wow, that is. So I when I saw that you worked with Michael Phelps, I was like oh my gosh, that is that's crazy to think and so impressive. It just sounds like your career or worked out in such a beautiful way, especially since you clearly have a passion for the sport. So I would like to pull you back to when you were qualifying participating in the Olympic qualifying and I was just wondering sort of how that experience being able to witness you know, firsthand what these athletes go through by participating in yourself can impact or influence, if at all, your work with them now as a PT?

Julia: Yeah. Ah, right. Right. No, I actually, I really do think that it's a of great benefit.

And occasionally a funny story. When we first started this, uh, we had a domestic competition, where we were helping to do some lactate and I was watching the events and watching the athletes come, you know, to us to do their lactate and everything. And I was getting nervous that they were like, late for their event because of, you know, if I was swimming, I would have been warming up and going here and going there.

And finally, the woman in charge was like you have to stop because they know what they're you know, they're doing their thing. But in general it is helpful.

You know, you know the flow of the events, you know, kind of you kind of have a sense of what they may or may not be feeling, just a sense it's all up to them.

Every athlete is different and everybody prepares differently, but I think it at least it gives you a respect for, you know, some nuances of the sport, timing wise you understand the flow and you can. One benefit for me actually I've been doing this long enough that I happen to know a lot of people. So you know if something extra is needed in the other duties assigned department, I can sometimes have a good idea as to who to go to or a familiar face that can just make it just more familiar and more comfortable for everybody. So I definitely I think it's been a benefit.

Rebecca: That. That's amazing. I can appreciate the hard the difficulty of taking yourself out of the position and being like, oh, if I was in that, I would be feeling this type of way and sort of just wondering in general if you could just touch on, you know, how it feels to know that you're gonna be at the Olympics just talking about sort of the feeling that you have. And honestly, any prep they might have done and then just as a little bit of a note, if while you're there, you're going to be supporting what sports you can be supporting and if you can't actually go to any to support in person?

Julia: So I've been so USA Swimming has now pool swimming and open water swimming. So open water swimming has come to the arena of Olympic sports a little later in the game. The first time open water swimming was entered, it was in 2008. And so USA Swimming, while we you know, it's all under the same umbrella, they actually do have you know some different providers with each.

So I in 2013, my first event was actually in 2009, which was a dual in the pool event in Manchester, England. And that was a phenomenal event right before Christmas, my son didn't think I made it home for Christmas. He was young, but I did.

But in 2013, I was offered to travel with the pool to Russia or to travel with the open water team to Spain, and I chose Spain. And it was a beautiful venue and it was my first time working in open water event.

So since that time I have worked mostly open water events, a few pool events here and there with International Swimming League, NCAA, and some with USA Swimming.

But with the USA Swimming I've worked multiple World Championships and other events in the pipeline and so with open water swimming we that's who I'll be with in the Olympics because there events are August 8th and 9th.
The pool swimming is actually going on right now and they have a staff of four wonderful providers with them at the moment.

So I will get in there, we're actually going a little bit early, so I get to watch some and you know, cheer them on. So we actually do have some tickets to my family is going, we have some tickets to the pool swimming. We're gonna check out a little fencing. That's my daughter's into some fencing. My husband is into some water polo and then we're just going to see what else we can see when we get there.

But the open water is obviously the focus and they it's on this, you know, theoretically assuming all goes well, it will be in the Seine and so that hopefully will have, you know, an opportunity for lots of people to come and be on the sidelines and cheering everybody on because it is, it's a fascinating sport. That's, you know, a little bit more, perhaps like one coach described a little bit more like cycling because there's drafting and that can that's very different than obviously in the pool. So yeah.

Rebecca: You talked a little bit about open water swimming being like cycling and I was wondering if you could just talk a little bit more about like why it's unique when it comes to, you know, keeping athletes healthy and well. My dad did triathlons, and I remember him talking about swimming in the Potomac and people just like hitting him and pulling him down when he was swimming.

Julia: Yeah.

Rebecca: And that's so scary to me.

Julia: Oh yeah.

Rebecca: And I'm sure these athletes are probably more controlled than people who are participating in this triathlon. But I was wondering if you could just touch a little bit more on you know.

Julia: Well.

Rebecca: I know how it comes to keeping them healthy and well, especially as their PT.

Julia: Absolutely. So no swimming is swimming and I have one of our, umm amazing staff members that USA Swimming Keenan Robinson mentioned that you know, sometimes you know a flush or a massage is a massage no matter you know what event they're coming from, which is absolutely true. So the basics are all the same.

What's unique to a little bit to open water is obviously something USA Swimming has been working on a lot recently is the high risk of concussion because indeed they are in open water, they are drafting, umm, you know, we'd like to think that all of any hitting or everything is unintentional. And I certainly believe that.

Umm, so you know, but it can happen that we have an athlete fortunately with no concussion, but last summer, one of our male athletes at the World Championships in Fukuoka had his goggles kick, you know, kick in the face and his goggles snapped off.

So you know, things like that do happen. Umm. Fortunately, not too much. So that is one, the high risk of concussion is one. Because they site, so in other words, you know when you're swimming, the goal is to swim straight because there's no line on the bottom of the pool.

So and you're, you know, siting items in the area, you have to lift your head a lot more. So I would say there's a little bit more spine work, particularly in the cervical spine. The hips and the lumbar area also contribute to that a lot, although in swimming in general we're seeing a lot more hip and uh acetabular and labral issues with the advent of a lot more underwater dolphin kicking. So that's kind of in general both in swimming in an open water. Umm. But like you said and then with the drafting right, that's very different than in the pool.

The two other things that are you know unique are weather you know we certainly have been at a race, we had a race actually in Calais, France where it's sunny, hail, rain, thunder, and lightning all in the middle of one race. So weather can make a big difference and that can also determine whether water the other part of weather is and water conditions, water temperature. It can make a race if it's too cold become a wet suit race which is unique and different versus the open water suits. And then obviously and it can also be very hot and that provides some dangers in and of itself.

Sadly, number of years ago, USA Swimming did have an athlete who did pass away in a race and they, USA Swimming was able to uh kind of lead in getting some rules and regulations a little more streamlined to help minimize that risk again in the future, which has been good and then obviously water, jellyfish, lice and all that type of stuff is you know, part of mostly the physician's job but you know we help with that a little bit too.

Rebecca: Things I did not realize that also came into play when you're swimming in open water. How fascinating.

Julia: All that.

Rebecca: And like I said, quite scary for me. May never participate in one of those type of activities, but like.

Julia: And the water type of water in too because you know, it could be an ocean swim. It could be a river swim. It could be a lake swim, so we know with ocean swims, there's salt waters. So there's a lot of preparation for that with lubing and that type of thing, yeah.

Rebecca: Just sort of curious coming from you know, this is such a fixation, you know, working with these elite athletes. And I was wondering if you could go a little bit broader with us and talk more about sort of your day job and how it compares to treating these elite athletes in these events.

And just yeah, just elaborate a little bit more on the differences and sort of what your experience has been. And honestly, you could just say what you like about both and what you feel like is also a challenge about both.

Julia: Sure. So my day job is, my husband and I have had a well we still do have a small orthopaedic clinic in Dover, Delaware: Edelman Spine and Orthopaedic Physical Therapy.

And we opened that when my son was an infant. I don't recommend that all the time, but we had an opportunity 2005. And so we see general orthopedics, it's been great. We have a, you know, a lovely town here and obviously in this kind of area, we probably do see. Umm well, I know that I know we do see a fair bit of you know our Medicare age group.

But we have all sorts and that and we see age group swimmers, high school swimmers, college swimmers, and other sports as well. And then as part of the network, what is the goal of the network is that you know, in Dover, Delaware, we are strategically located between New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, D.C.  and Maryland.

So if an athlete at a club in those areas is really looking for a PT that is not, because they're not, you know, getting what they need from somebody with our experience in their area, they we've certainly have seen athletes from clubs in all those states, so that they'll come and travel to see us, which is nice.

We've also been out to do a couple clinics also in you know the area as well, which is always a lot of fun. So and you know, as most PTs know, I mean the it's always you know you get into the profession to because it's so fun and wonderful to see people make progress and improve upon their daily life.
So you know, one of the biggest things is, you know, most of the people in my clinic come in. They they've had, they have an issue. They have had surgery. They sprained.

They strained, car accident, work, whatever it is that brought them to the doctor, or even to us directly. Because we do have direct access. But, umm, so you're helping them get back to the goals that that, that you and they set together. Same thing with athletes. A little bit of the difference there is, you know, we work on athletes who are there for performance. So it's not necessarily to heal and some of the PT profession is like that as well and which is always good for people who just want to be healthier and want education and a little bit of work on that.

So and with the athletes, it's performance. Occasionally you do get some, I mean, athletes certainly and swimmers are not always included in that, have issues. You know it's, you know, it's not unusual. You know, when we see elite performances, you always think that you know the stars of the line. This is a, you know, amazing athlete who's doing great and is healthy as a, you know, healthy as ever and all that kind of stuff. But you know athletes, and this has been shown in all sorts of stories from the Olympics recently and along the line they have injuries, they have good days and bad days.

They have, you know, things to work through. And so they're just like the rest of us. But they have a chosen pathway and dedication and a team around them to work towards their goals, which in this case is, you know, pretty amazing performance. So. So that's the one thing that's a little different is maybe the majority of my work with the athletes is a little more of, you know, race prep, race recovery and not necessarily injury, although we do get to certainly still get some of that. Umm.

And it's a little different also in terms of when you travel with the team, you're there for that, you know, the goal is that time frame. You get to sometimes educate for some longer time longer term effects and talk to coaches and maybe if they're an NCAA institution there they're college athletic trainer or whoever it is, so you can have some long term recommendations. But the goal is the you know the week to in this case, you know four or five weeks that you're there for them to perform then and there –  immediately.

Rebecca: Yeah, that last part I feel like would be something that would make such a difference. When you have such a large event that you know you're preparing and doing so much more that it's like, this is the day, it's like, how can we make them the best possible version of themselves today? We've been practicing for it, but like, how can we actually do it?

Julia: Exactly.

Rebecca: So that's really cool to hear the difference. And I think it's very not.
It's not surprising to me as a physical therapist, because I'm obviously biased towards bit for you to be like, yeah, they're normal people too. I just treat them. It's like they might have a medal or two, but they're normal people. I think that's so sweet to say.

Julia: Yep. And they are. And I will say, you know, they are very, you know, I have some of my colleagues have worked with other sports more than I have. I have been mostly with. I did a little bit of golf in the past, but mostly with and golf is like this as well, but mostly swimming as opposed to other sports underneath the USOPC umbrella. But they are gracious. They are thankful. They're appreciative and that always is, you know a brings, you know, great joy to the job.

Rebecca: No, that sounds lovely. I know you've talked about, you know, going to see fencing and some pool swimming and other things. But I'm curious what your most looking forward to for being at the games in Paris, whether it's just touring around Paris or it can be Olympic related. I just am curious to hear what you would have to say.

Julia: Well, there's two. Number one, I get to go with my family, and that's a real love of mine. So I'm very excited for all of us to be there, sometimes together and sometimes a little bit apart, but to share with, you know, my biggest support system is important. So we're all excited to go and then from an Olympic point of view.

I mean, I love Paris, but this is the time to buckle down and help these athletes. I'm excited for them to race. I'm excited for them to be prepared to race and there's nothing like hearing and watching uh, the American flag being raised, the American anthem being played at the games. It is just such a phenomenal life inspiring event that I look forward to seeing if we can do that.

Rebecca: That's I can appreciate that. That sounds really. I'll magical. That's the only word I could come off like.

Julia: It is.

Rebecca: When you go to Disneyland and you walk in and.

Julia: It is. It's very cool. Yeah. Yeah, it's magical.

Rebecca: My question for you is, I guess it doesn't really apply to me, but it will apply to my brother, which is, what is your advice for students and physical therapists who wanna work with elite athletes in the future?

Julia: Umm. Yes. So most of the time, people are athletes themselves, but they don't have to be, that type of thing. So, but I would recommend again, I found the dry side of the sport. Every sport has an organization that helps run it, and there's got to be a well. There is a sports medicine aspect to it. So getting involved in the sports medicine network or and going to meetings and inquiring about courses, the USOPC has a pathway to do that.

So you can go through the USOPC itself, but each sport should have their own pathway as well. So whenever you know USA Soccer, I'm sure has one. Actually I know they have one. USA Gymnastics has one, all those kind of things. So I would definitely look into the volunteering aspect of the sports organization. And it can be local too. They're local aspects to it, and then you can work your way up, or you can look national and go from there.

And it does take, you know, it's a volunteer and you're volunteering your time.
So it does take a, you know, a commitment that's different than when I was an athlete, but it's still a commitment, so.

Rebecca: Umm, that's a great point. OK, let's all the questions that I have, I do like to ask this if there were anything final thoughts, anything else that you felt like you would like to share or say, new questions I didn't ask.

Julia: You know, I've been a member since 1995, when I went to PT school. It's been a long time. So you know we're very supportive of the APTA and all they've done and you know it's a nice match with. I mean, there's so many aspects of physical therapy, but having this one niche is everybody's got our niche. I actually do aquatic physical therapy as well. And I think that my background in the water certainly helps that as well, but it's a nice, it's a nice combination and physical therapists have a good place at the in the performance avenue of our profession as well. So it's great and we're just really excited for Paris coming up here.

Rebecca: No, thank you so much. It was lovely talking with you. Really appreciate being able to hear from you firsthand. I am genuinely. I was fangirling before, but now I'm fangirling even more after this conversation and we'll definitely be telling my parents who are both physical therapists about this amazing person I got to talk to who is gonna go to the Olympics. So thank you again.

Julia: Well, well, thank you so much for asking me. I appreciate it.