theNYCphysio

Many times as a traveling sports physio, you need to be super flexible (within reason of course). A call can happen at any time for last minute coverage. I decline some trips and say yes to others. It’s hard to say no when you’re doing things you love, traveling to places you’ve never been, and treating high level athletes that appreciate what you do. On the other hand, it’s hard to say yes when I have a practice to run, patients who count on me, and a wife that I hate leaving at home.

In 2017, I was in Utah for an event with the US Snowboard Team when they asked if I would be interested to cover a last minute slopestyle World Cup in Italy. Apparently, most of the staff was covering the X Games so they needed someone out in Italy asap. 

Whenever a team asks if I would be interested in covering an event last minute, they approach me with the understanding that I am under no obligation to say yes. Although, I could tell they were in desperate need this time. So if I could make it work, I should say yes. In this instance, it was possible. I just had to make sure my patients were covered back home. Fortunately it all worked out.

Because this assignment was so last minute and my help was sorely needed, they said I could make a stop at home before heading to Italy. This meant that I would miss the qualification rounds, which was not ideal. Especially if someone got hurt. However, they were happy just to have someone out there for their athletes. Even if I only covered the latter part of the event.

I arrived in Milan a couple days later and picked up the rental car. Thankfully, they reserved an automatic, as *gulp* I do not drive stick! The main highways in Italy are called autostradas and aren’t much different than the autobahn. There’s lots of lanes with the left lanes reserved for the fastest cars. Along the way, I passed many cars. However, within seconds out of no where a car would be right on my tail. It was so stressful! So for the most part I avoided the left lanes! From Milan, I was headed to a mountain called Seiser Alm in the Dolomites of northeast Italy. It was an absolutely beautiful drive. 

I arrived at the hotel where the snowboard team was staying. Unfortunately, only one of them made it through the qualification rounds. So I didn’t have to treat many athletes that evening. The freeski team was staying at another hotel up mountain which didn’t have parking. They had a few athletes make it through qualifications. But because I had no where to park, I couldn’t treat any of them at their hotel. 

Logistically, this was a nightmare for anyone that needed anything from me at the hotel. Fortunately, the coaches and athletes understood that most of my duties would occur on the mountain on this trip.

The next day, I met one snowboarder and a few freeskiers at the gondola and headed up to the base. Once there, they pointed where the slopestyle course was located. I nodded and told them I would meet them there. 

The snowboarder didn’t make it past this round. So I was left with only the freeskiers. Unfortunately, one of the athlete’s fell off a rail during a training run and hurt her back fairly badly. The coach radioed me to meet them. I quickly assessed her, consulted with the coach and athlete, did a quick manipulation, and left it up to them as to whether they felt she should continue competing.

Ultimately she did which was a great decision. Her pain subsided and she ended up on her first World Cup podium! Immediately following, one of the guys also ended up on his first podium as well! As most of our top slopestylers were at the X Games, getting on the podium was a nice surprise for our team.

After the event, I wanted to enjoy the mountain. There wasn’t much snow so the mountain was mostly ribbon trails. But that didn’t stop me. I did a few solo runs and took some photos. Most of the athletes were staying in Europe, so the next day I drove myself back to Milan and headed home. It was a whirlwind couple of weeks that was more than worth my time!