theNYCphysio

In January 2023, I received the email from USATF that I had been appointed to their staff for the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile. I loved my time at the last Pan American Games in 2019 and couldn’t be more stoked to be heading to South America again with USATF and Team USA! The catch this time? I was appointed not just as a physical therapist, but as THE medical lead for the entire USATF medical staff and athletes. Thus my responsibilities were much greater this time around.

In 2019, we had 3 athletic trainers, 1 massage therapist, 1 acupuncturist/PT, 1 PT, 1 chiropractor, 1 sports psychologist, and 1 MD (9 total providers). This year, our medical staff consisted of 1 athletic trainer, 2 massage therapists, 2 PTs, 1 chiropractor, 1 sports psychologist, and 1 MD (8 total providers). So we had one less provider than in 2019. This made for some creative scheduling on my part, especially with only 1 full time athletic trainer!

Like in 2019, I arrived early to help cover our athletes in the marathon. As opposed to the Olympics where the marathon is one of the absolute last events of the Games, the Pan American Games schedules it as one of the first events. I am not sure why this was, but it meant that I was there for the entirety of the games. The rest of the athletes and staff arrived approximately a week later as their events were held towards the end of the Games.

The 2019 Pan American Games were held in August, but the 2023 Games were held in October. I think this was due to the fact that Santiago was way down in the Southern Hemisphere. So it was essentially spring in Chile. Because of the timing (and 2024 being an Olympic year), it was less than ideal for track athletes to compete in this event, even if it meant something as big as representing Team USA in the 3rd largest multisporting event in the world.

As a result, we ended up with only one marathoner. As for the rest of the track and field team, we couldn’t fill a full roster because the college season was in full swing as well as it being the offseason for most of our top tiered athletes going into an Olympic Year.

Upon arrival, the Athlete’s Village was still under construction! There was so much dust everywhere, it was insane! I could swear there was a thick layer of dust and dirt throughout the Village walkways as well as on the floors of our housing! Speaking of housing, our rooms were once again very tiny! At least we had a balcony this time around!

Because I only had one marathon athlete to tend to, I spent a lot of time hanging out with the USA Racquetball team and their athletic trainer, who happened to be a friend of mine. As it turns out, his staff shared an apartment with the staff of the USA Mens Basketball 3X3 team. So consequently I hung out with them a lot as well. I even walked the Opening Ceremonies with both teams! What’s crazy was I was the lone representative for the USA Track and Field Team at the Opening Ceremonies! Historically we were the largest team for Team USA at any given Games, yet I was only a party of 1 (the marathoner stayed back at the Village to spare his legs as his event was in a couple of days).

With USA Racquetball’s ATC/LMT Rodger Fleming

On my off times, I watched USA Racquetball compete as well as the 3X3 team practice. It was fun traveling around Santiago and getting to know both teams. Racquetball was not an Olympic sport, so this was one of their biggest events. 3×3 Basketball was just added to the Olympic program at the Tokyo games and I am happy to say the USA Mens team qualified for Paris for the first time recently! I got to know their coach as we clicked right away. He recently had taken up running so we conversed a lot about how to build up his mileage etc. He was such a big fan that he even literally ran from the Athlete’s Village to the marathon course and back to cheer on our lone marathoner! That was amazing!

A few days after the marathon, the rest of the staff and athletes finally arrived in Santiago. From then on it was a blur. I spent a lot of time trying to properly schedule our med staff at the Village and at the Track. What made it more difficult was that we needed one dedicated provider for our multis athletes (decathlon and heptathlon). The person for this task was our lone full time athletic trainer! So unfortunately I was left even more short handed elsewhere. Needless to say, the rest of my medical staff had to work longer hours than I wanted throughout the Games. But they handled it well and I will forever be grateful to them. 

With the legendary Carl Lewis!

After the Games, we did not get to attend the Closing Ceremonies like in 2019. However, we were able to visit the sites around Santiago. This was my second time serving as a medical lead for USATF, but first time as part of Team USA! Events like the Pan American Games hit differently as any other track and field event as we are housed together with all the other USA athletes and staff from different sports and live in a Village with all of the competing countries. It really is an electric atmosphere where sport sometimes seems less important than the trading of collectible pins!