Honored to talk to all of you guys. So I'm just going to share with you my path to becoming an Olympic and Paralympic team physician. It's been pretty exciting, and I hope I can share some good tips for you guys. So first of all, my interest in becoming an Olympic physician was just from the inspiration that you gain from these athletes. The energy, passion, commitment, the drive of the Olympic and even more so the Paralympic athletes is incredible, and it inspires all of us. So I started out as Freddy Fu's first female fellow, and I was very lucky to train with him. And that was a platform for me to get into sports medicine. So I moved to Crested Butte, and I work in Crested Butte Tire Riding, Gunnison, Colorado. And it is that gorgeous. Nobody's been there. It's pretty amazing. And then a year after I got into practice, I got involved with USA Cycling. So that's a national governing body, an NGB. And back in the mid-'90s, when I went on my first world championship trip with them to Perth, Australia, there was nobody there to teach me the ropes. I had no idea what I was doing. And every time I went to one of these trips, I learned more. And the way I learned more is I became friends with coaches, other health care professionals, the trainers, the other docs from all the different countries. You can learn so much from them and from their experiences. And every time I went on a trip, every year, a couple times a year, I learned more. So at least back then, when you're a traveling sports medicine doc, you have to be everything. You have to treat colds, rashes, head injuries. You have to be the mental health professional. And of course, you have to take care of musculoskeletal injuries as well. So you have to know how to pack, and you have to be prepared for anything. So it's important to be a team player. That's my biggest pearl to all of you. Be a team player. Get to know the athletes, the coaches, the mechanics, the medical staff in other countries, et cetera. So for instance, if I'm at a track cycling event, I wouldn't just sit there and wait for somebody to crash. I would schlep the bikes from the trailer to the track. I would get coffee for the coaches. I would just do anything to support the team, because that's your job. You're basically the team behind the team. And it's not about you. It's about the athlete. So I was very fortunate to do my two-week volunteer stint at the US Olympic Training Center. Now it's called the US Olympic and Paralympic Training Center. And I had the amazing, exciting moment to meet Eric Heiden. He had just finished his two weeks of volunteer there. And as some of you may know, he won five gold medals in 1980 for speed skating. And then he became an orthopedic surgeon. So I was a big fan of his back in the day. And then I guess I did good enough at the training center. I was invited to be the team physician for alpine skiing. And as mentioned earlier, it helps if you can ski if you're going to cover the ski team. Because you have to be on the mountain. You've got to follow them down the hill. And if they get hurt, you have to be able to get to them without hurting yourself. So I was at the Winter World University Games, which was extremely exciting. And then I got invited to an Olympic Games, which is, I still can't believe it happened. But it was in Athens. I was the cycling doc. And I was also the taekwondo doc. But it wasn't just that. At least back then, we were there for Team USA. Everybody we were taking care of. So I'm covering the cycling and taekwondo events. But when I'm not doing that, I'm in the sports medicine clinic that we build. And I'm taking care of all the athletes. And it's super exciting to do that. The staff's amazing. You have the best athletic trainers, massage therapists, dieticians, and acupuncturists in our country. And security's awesome. This is Larry Buendorf, that guy on the right. He took a bullet for President Ford way back in the day. And then he became the US Olympic Committee's head security for decades. And I never felt unsafe when Larry was around. He was incredible. So doping is a big deal. Again, back in the day, there was no formal training. How do you protect your athletes from getting a doping violation? Now there is. And USADA training is now mandated by the USOPC if you're going to cover a Games. But back then, you just had to learn as you go. This is Tyler Hamilton in the center. He won the gold medal in the time trials. And Bobby Dulick won the bronze. And we call them the vampires. When the vampires came around and said, hey, after the urine test, I want your cyclist in the village for a blood test tomorrow morning, Tyler flipped out. No, I have to catch a flight. I have to go home tonight. Sure enough, he was going to lose his medal if he didn't show up for his blood test. So he did. And he tested positive for blood doping. The Greeks accidentally froze the bee sample, so they couldn't prove it. But several months later, he got another violation for the same thing in another international competition. And ultimately, after years of fighting it, saying that he had an unborn twin and that's why he had a different DNA in his blood, he got caught and he lost his medal. So the most exciting thing I've ever done, and I've been to seven Olympic and Paralympic games, is improvising for this athlete. So judo athlete lining up three minutes before the competition. And she had been wearing the same gi, which is their outfit, their training gear, or their competition gear, for all week. But the judge that was there that day saw this little logo on her gi. And he says, no, no, no, no, you can't compete in that. She's flipping out. And again, we're the team behind the team. Our job is to not let the athlete worry about anything but their competition. So I said, don't worry. I grabbed her gi, I ran to the back, I got some 3-0 nylon, ripped off a piece of material from another gi, sewed this patch around the logo really quick, ran back, put it on her back. 30 seconds to go, and he said, okay. And she won a bronze. It was incredible. So improvising is really the most exciting thing. So there was no medicine involved, but surgical skill for suturing came in handy. So back then, the motto was, as a healthcare professional, do one and you're done. But luckily, I was asked to be the chief medical officer at the Summer World University Games. They were grooming me to be a CMO. And that was very exciting. And then, 2008, they wanted me to go to the Olympic Games in Beijing. But a week later, I said, yes, of course. But a week later, I found out I was pregnant, and I would have had my boy in China. And they said, no, don't, don't. I was gonna go. I'm like, I can make this work. But I didn't. But that's okay, because I had an amazing baby boy. That's me doing a knee scope, and all of a sudden there was water on the floor, and the staff said, is that arthroscopy fluid, or did Dr. Beam just break her water? And then, several hours later, I had this beautiful boy, and this girl, she's right over there, Skyler. Sorry, Skyler. So life, you have to have a balance. So a week later, I'm back to work with the baby, and I said, you know what? I had a good run with the Olympic Committee. It's okay. But luckily, in 2011, they asked me to be the chief medical officer at the Pan Am Games. So, another pearl. Get to know your medical contacts before the games. So, here's an athlete at wrestler, fracture dislocation of his elbow. I run to the ER, knock on the ER door. They weren't gonna let me in, at all. And I wanna be there for my athlete. That's our job. So, I make contacts, I get on the phone. I gave the CMO of the hospital already all these pins, and all these hats, and shirts, et cetera. And that's how you make friends, is the pins. He got me in immediately, and I got to treat my athlete. So it's important to know the right people. So I usually go a week or two in advance of the games, get to know the hospital system, all the people that you need to know so you can take care of your athletes. In 2012, I was fortunate to be the venue medical director at the High Performance Training Center at the London Games. And I got to meet my favorite athletes, the horses. So, the equestrian team had one doc. The horses had two vets, two chiropractors, two athletic trainers, two acupuncturists. Incredible what these horses get. And I got to watch the jumping finals. I used to be a jumper. Five rows from the queen, in her backyard. So it was pretty, pretty exciting. And then, I thought it was over, and in 2014, a dream come true. They asked me to be chief medical officer at the Sochi Winter Olympics. And that was incredible. Another pearl. If you can, learn the local language. So it was such a huge honor for me to become a CMO of an Olympic Games. I started learning Russian that day. I had one year. I spent a year learning Russian, how to read it, how to speak it, and it came in handy. So for a year, I'm speaking Russian in my office, and my staff is like, shut up already, and why don't you just speak to Putin when you get there? And the day I got there, because there's no Russian people in Krasnoyarsk that I could practice with, I was so excited to speak Russian that I was staying at a hotel, I met breakfast, I go up to this random woman, start speaking Russian. She was so excited that an American learned her language, she gave me her car and driver for the day. I was there in Moscow to meet the important people at the embassy so we could develop emergency action plans, et cetera. It was incredible. So learning the language came in handy a thousandfold when I was there. So we got there two weeks early. You gotta know the medical care that you have available because it varies greatly with every country you go to. For instance, in Sochi, in the mountains, the major hospital, that was the trauma center. That was it. And if you had more than one trauma, you gotta just stick them in the stretchers over there. There was like nothing. And this is the operating theater. I took this picture from a non-sterile hallway, and you have to walk through to get to the scrub sink. So it's just not what we're used to in the US. We get these huge pallets, huge trucks, numbers of pallets of equipment to build a sports medicine clinic for our athletes. And the recovery services that we bring are intense. We've got massage therapists, norma techs, deep tissue, electric stem, dry needling, acupuncture, dieticians, everything for Team USA so that they can have an excellent result and outcome. Security, you just gotta be patient. Security has become pretty annoying, but you just be patient. And remember I told you my staff said, why don't you just talk to Putin? Well, I did, there he is. And he visited the USA house. I happened to be there. And I thought, oh my gosh, I've gotta talk to him. Get it on video and show my staff so they'll shut up. Anyways, so I went in there and I introduced myself in Russian. And I said, how about world peace? And he hugged me. And I thought, oh my gosh, world peace. And then three weeks later, he invaded Crimea. So it was an epic fail, but I tried. So international challenges, jet lag, finding good nutrition. At the Olympic villages, you've got these incredible dining halls. Every international food you can want, all of them. And the athletes are lined out the door for McDonald's. I don't know, I don't get it. But there's language barriers, as I mentioned. And then sometimes an athlete will forget their med. You don't have it in your formulary. The village doesn't have it in the polyclinic formulary. And the athlete's flipping out. Don't worry, that's our job. Don't let them flip out. We're there to support the team. You go out in the town. If I hadn't learned how to read Russian, I wouldn't even know that aptika up there meant pharmacy. And then look at all the meds. They're not in English. And the pharmacist did not speak English. So you could get a medicine like this and say, oh, I hope that's ibuprofen. It's actually imodium. So it's really important that you know the language. And then you want to get the volunteers on your side. So you see those little balloon animals? That's my real job. Orthopedics is a hobby, but I'm a balloon animal artist. Anyways, you make the little balloons. I had the Russian guards with big guns, the military guys, with balloon hats at the airport, smiling. So it's really important, because these volunteers are going to help you get what you need for your athlete. The polyclinic pharmacy, it's really important to know your formulary. And in Olympic games, it's all about anti-doping. Don't let your athlete take a medicine that's on the anti-doping list or a supplement that's on the banned list. So they might say, oh, yeah, my friend from the Austrian team gave me this supplement. No, don't you dare, because you don't know what's in it. And if you get a positive doping violation, it doesn't only hurt the athlete. They could lose a medal. It's a black eye on the whole team. Imaging services vary. You could have state-of-the-art beautiful MRI, or you could have this little portable x-ray machine. So it really varies, so you want to know what to expect. If you're going to do winter games, get to know Ski Patrol, because that will give you access to the field of play. So I always make friends with Ski Patrol. Again, give them pins, hats, shirts, vodka, whatever. And then if you have an athlete that goes down, it's really nice if you, because you know your athlete, you're on the field of play. You can talk to them in your own language. You know their medical history. You know their injury history. And it's much better than some random guy who doesn't speak the language just sticking them in a sled and carrying them off. You can get anything, any type of injuries. Arterial lacerations. This is Jaroselski. He lacerated his femoral artery, speed skating. Came back four years later and won a silver medal. Concussions, rampant, especially in the extreme skiing. And then you guys know Sean White, some of you. He's a very famous snowboarder, very cool guy. And he was smart. You know, not all snowboarders are smart. I'm kidding. But he was very smart because he chose to pull out at the last minute for the slopestyle because the course was just too dangerous. And unfortunately, the next day, a 16-year-old Russian young lady became paralyzed on that course. Real quick. Okay, in 1980, you guys remember the Miracle on Ice, right? USA kicked Russia's, you know what? It's not even allowed to speak that game at the Moscow Olympic Museum. Can't even talk about it. So this was like a big rematch. The whole country shut down like our Super Bowl, right? The whole crowd was Russian, except for my two kids. And in overtime, T.J. Oshii scores the winning goal. The whole stadium is silent, except my kids are screaming. Do you remember, Sky? It was incredible, super fun. And then I got to meet President Obama, which was cool. I got to go with the team to the White House. We spent the whole day. And I told him, I said, you know, Putin gave me a hug. And I thought for sure he'd hug me, but he didn't. I think he was gonna have me arrested. Next, in 2016, I had the amazing opportunity to work with the Paralympians. Amazing. Does anybody watch the Paralympics? You should. It is so inspiring. These athletes are so incredible. So I did that in Rio. And I actually became the team doc for the USA, or for the wheelchair basketball team for Team USA, because I just fell in love with these guys so much. But it's a different level of sports medicine. There's so many challenges. You gotta know about autonomic dysrexia, stump issues, transportation issues, recovery issues. For instance, bottom left there, that is a Paralympic snowboarder that won a gold medal in Pyeongchang. And a few months ago, I went to Beijing with these guys. And three days before we were flying out, he calls and says, hey doc, my femur's sticking out on my thigh. I'm like, what? He sends me this picture. It almost fell out of my chair. His femur is sticking out of his stump. And he's about to leave for China, where he could get osteomyelitis and become septic. And we don't have charter flights to get him home because China was basically closed because of COVID. But he says, I'm going. Just do something. I have to go. So we came up with an antibiotic regimen, talking to my ID friends, some dressing regimens, talking to my wound care specialists. We got him through. We didn't let him train. We just let him compete, because more pressure on that, the more scary. He did awesome. It was just incredible. In 2017, due to all of the focus on protecting athletes from bullying and sexual abuse, SafeSport, U.S. Center for SafeSport was created. And that's now mandatory training for people who want to travel with the athletes as well, which I think is really smart. PyeongChang Winter Games, it was great. The hockey team won, beat Canada again. And then in Tokyo, the Summer Games, which is actually in 2021, it was delayed because of COVID. That was a big impact on a lot of athletes' mental health. And mental health issues became central to the game's priorities, which is wonderful. It's about time. But no family and friends could go. We had to do daily spit tests, which was no big deal. And we had to wear masks. Notice, she's not wearing her mask properly, but she was the mask patrol. And then in Beijing a few months ago, it was even worse. The hazmat suits were everywhere. We had to do PCR news with pharyngeal testing every day, which was not too fun. And we didn't get to go anywhere. You go from the village to the venue, back to the village. You couldn't travel anywhere. We were constantly being monitored. We couldn't bring our own computers or phones. It was very challenging, very challenging games, but it was awesome and the patients did amazing. So in summary, life at the games, it's a marathon. It's not a sprint. And you have to be willing to do everything. And I think the reason I keep getting asked to go back again and again is because I'm a team player. I do everything and anything just to support the athlete. It's all about the athlete. It's not about me. It's not about the other dogs. It's about the athlete. And it's about Team USA and supporting them. And you have to do everything, event coverage, patient care, manual therapy. I'm an orthopedist. I learned how to do manual therapy in K-taping and Graston techniques and all these other things just so I can support the athletes. Also learned how to be a really good ultrasonographer. Unbelievable. I started that in 2011 and that has come in so handy for me. One time I was on the top of a ski race in Slovenia and there was a weather delay, so I'm stuck at the top. And this trainer comes over. His Austrian athlete just injured his thumb. And I've got this little portable ultrasound machine connects to my phone, diagnosed him with a grade three UCL right there at the start gate. It's very cool. It's all about supporting Team USA athletes. A lot of changes since I started. There's training now. I didn't have to, you don't have to reinvent the wheel anymore. There's safe sport training, USADA training. There's great collaboration with the NGBs. There's pre-game training. We use EMR, which is good and bad. Again, musculoskeletal ultrasound. And then mental health really has been great to bring mental health officers on these trips now. So I don't have to be the mental health officer anymore. It's easier. And in your packets, I don't see anyone with packets. Where are the packets? Isn't there some? Anyways, if you guys are interested in becoming a volunteer physician for the USOPC, there's information on how to do that. And last thing, remember I told you about the balloon animals? That's a ninja turtle on a sled with bilateral amputations, the turtle. And I told the hockey team, this is a team captain. He says, I want that turtle. I said, if you guys win a gold medal, it's yours. And they did. And they're posing with the ninja turtle. So thank you for your attention.

Olympic team physician

sports medicine

athlete inspiration

traveling sports medicine doctor

mental health professional

anti-doping regulations