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Below is an excerpt from “Aiding the American Dream” written by Keith Loria. The article is from the July 2020 issue of APTA Magazine and features Kent Timm, DPT, PHD, OCS, SCS, ATC, FACSM of Renue Physical Therapy – Saginaw Bay Rd. Click here to view the entire issue, and the article in it’s entirety appears on page 47.

Up to the Task

Kent E. Timm, PT, managing director of Renue Physical Therapy in Saginaw, Michigan, started working with Olympic athletes as a result of a two-week experience with USA Team Handball at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs in 1988.

In the 32 years since, he has worked with USA Baseball, USA Gymnastics, US Rowing, and USA Table Tennis, reaching the 1996 Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta with USA Shooting Sports and USA Track & Field, and the 2000 Olympic Summer Games in Sydney, Australia, with US Soccer.

“While, in general, nonathletes seek services from a PT to improve function from a disability or to restore normal ability after an injury or surgery, world-class athletes frequently look for methods to ‘fine-tune’ themselves to prevent injuries and improve their performance abilities in pursuit of national team berths and Olympic medals,” Timm says. “This challenges the PT to be well-versed in the current professional literature not only for the rehabilitation sciences, but also for human performance.”

But being at the Games also means being ready to help prepare an athlete to compete after injury strikes. For example, at the 1996 Summer Olympics, Timm helped a track and field athlete correct a functional leg-length difference from a sacroiliac joint sprain just before the event’s final race. The competitor won the gold medal and set a world record.

Laurey Lou, PT, DPT, a PT at HSS Westchester in White Plains, New York, has had a few Olympic athletes come through sport clinics where she’s worked, but the bulk of her experience working with them came when she worked at the Olympic Training Center in Beijing. She is a board-certified clinical specialist in sports physical therapy.

“This opportunity came about when I was living in California and connected with a company there that helps the Chinese government bring in Western-trained sports medicine staff for Olympic athletes,” she explains. “Once in China, I worked mainly with the wrestling and judo teams, although I also covered other sports, including gymnastics. My daily responsibilities included team programming, specific athlete treatments, and education for the Chinese staff.”

One of her favorite athletes to work with was a female wrestler.

“She tore her meniscus soon after I arrived in China, so we spent a lot of time together. Although her rehab was steady, she had a lot of pressure on her,” Lou says. “We worked through many things together, including typical knee rehab and nutrition. Being in a weight-class sport, she was anxious about the weight she was gaining during her early stages of rehab and had tried to stop eating. We worked on mental readiness that incorporated imagery and videos, and on her remaining part of the team despite not being able to fully participate.”

The wrestler went on to medal at the Rio Olympic Games. Along the way, she taught Lou a lot of Chinese vocabulary, as well as a few takedowns that Lou tries to integrate into her own jujitsu performance.

“Olympic athletes represent pure passion,” Lou says. “These athletes have an incredible work ethic, beautiful competitive drive, and a deep love for their sport. The vast majority of Olympic athletes have no financial incentive to compete — many forgoing a salary to pursue their dreams. Maybe it’s idealistic and fairytale-esque, but I love to help them work toward making their dreams a reality.”

Currently, Lou works with athletes at all levels, from weekend warrior to professional, providing them with physical therapy services that include return to play and performance testing using motion capture, force plates, and isometric training devices.

“In school, we learned about timelines for healing, muscle strengthening, and return-to-play progressions. When I started treating high-level athletes, I had to adjust the way I created timelines, including planning for peaks, ensuring appropriate loading, and making sure to prioritize performance for the most importance competitions,” she says. “This is an important concept for all athletes, whatever their level of competition.”

Even with her weekend warriors, she’ll ask, “What is your priority?”

“I want to help them understand that if the upcoming event is the priority, we can assume a higher risk for preparing for it,” she explains. “However, if it’s not the priority, and what they really want is to be healthy for the following event, maybe we can skip this one.”

Challenges of the Job

Since the Olympic Games cover only at most a 16-day span, PTs must be effective in a very short period of time if they are to be successful in helping Olympic athletes compete at their peak level of performance.

There also are certain rules PTs must abide by when working with Olympic athletes.

Weiss notes that during the games, the hardest part often involves dealing with non-athlete issues that pop up due to the event’s large physical and vast cultural scope.

“The challenges may be the language, or sometimes a venue can be in a remote location. To coordinate with emergency services can be quite difficult unless practiced beforehand,” he says.

When working with world-class athletes, Lou says it’s important to understand that they are both the same and different from recreational athletes. For instance, they need the same foundational movement and strength as others do. They need to get to a different physical level, however, and what they are willing to do to achieve that also is different.

“Sometimes we try to make the exercises unique and high-level for these athletes when they’re lacking the requisite core stability,” she says. “The level of strength, power, speed, and overall play is at a higher level than for those just getting back to recreational sport. They need more than to return to play. They need to return to performance at the same or a higher level than before.”

When it comes to risk, that’s much greater, as well. For world-class athletes, the stakes are high — including competition and endorsements.

“Depending on the situation, the level of risk we’re willing to assume may be higher than for a weekend warrior who loves to play basketball but whose number-one priority is childcare,” Lou says. “And for an Olympic athlete, the level of risk we’re willing to assume just before the games is even higher, since the next opportunity may be four years away or maybe never again.”

The athletes often know exactly what they want because they’ve been on a strict schedule for a long time, Lou explains. A PT, therefore, must factor in their dedication and not look to make drastic changes.

“I still analyze everyone through the same professional lens,” Butler says, “but I also keep in mind that they have their coaches and have been doing things a certain way for a long time. That makes it difficult to reinvent the wheel. You have to be respectful of how you can retrain their muscles a little differently while still showing respect for their technique.”

One of the biggest challenges, he adds, is that these athletes have hard deadlines for their competitions — specifically, world championships, trials, and the Olympic Games. The challenge is being respectful of the healing time required for the injury while enabling athletes to continue to train and compete at the highest level.

“You need to consider when and how much they need to rest from their sport, or modify how much they are doing, and how to get them back as quickly as possible so they can still gear up for a peak performance,” he says.

For PTs who want to work with world-class athletes, Weiss recommends volunteering at one of the training centers.

“This entails filling out an application, with a possible interview and many references,” he says. “From that point, you will have the ability to connect with many sports governing bodies and athletes, and improve your possibility of working with them directly.” The Finish Line Much of what PTs do in working with Olympic athletes can be applied to recreational athletes, as well. Many techniques and services that PTs provide the Olympians and Olympic hopefuls are as helpful to the Sunday softball player, novice runner, or backyard swimmer.

“Working with Olympic athletes challenges PTs to be at their highest level of ability as a practitioner, which carries over into the quality of services they provide to all of their clients and patients,” Timm says.

He also believes all PTs should be able to learn something new from their professional peers, whether they work with Olympic athletes, recreational athletes, or non-athletes. “I have been incredibly fortunate to have had a variety of experiences with Olympic athletes and at Olympic Games, and I’d be happy to share such information with any PT who aspires to practice in those areas,” he says.

Some of the allure of working with the Olympic athletes, Weiss says, comes from a desire to be involved with the best.

“In my opinion, working next to anybody trying to be best in the world at something is simply a treat,” he says. “Whether you’re going to be the best electrician or the best athlete, the foundation and the common denominator are the same: unrelenting discipline and a will to succeed.”