Opinion | Life as an Olympic Doctor

In this exclusive video interview, Jeremy Faust, MD, editor-in-chief of MedPage Today, sits down with Gloria Beim, MD, an orthopedic surgeon and head of the medical team for Team USA at the Paris Olympics. Beim discusses her wide range of duties, hectic schedule, and how other healthcare professionals can get involved.

The following is a transcript of their remarks:

Beim: I’m an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist, and this is my fourth Olympic games.

Faust: What’s a common injury that you prepare for?

Beim: Oh my gosh. Well, you can see just about anything at the Games depending on which sport you’re covering. As an orthopedist, [I’m] prepared for lots of shoulder and knee injuries, which is my specialty to begin with. But we treat everything, from little finger sprains to coughs and colds, you name it.

The wonderful thing is the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee sends us with the most amazing team of specialists. We have internal medicine, family practice, orthopedics, chiropractors, massage therapists, physical therapists, you name it. And our athletes are so well cared for.

We are fortunate to have the ability to set up this amazing sports medicine clinic right in the athletes’ village, which is where I’m staying. Basically, part of my job is to help run that clinic, and athletes can come in with their NGB (National Governing Body) doctors if they have one. If they get injured at a competition or at a training, usually they have an athletic trainer and/or doc who will immediately care for them. And then if there’s an issue, they bring them to our clinic and we’re stocked with all kinds of equipment to help diagnose and treat most everything.

However, if we need an x-ray or an MRI or advanced imaging, there’s a polyclinic set up in the village by the local organizing committee. They have that at every Games, which is fabulous.

Faust: Along the lines of you bring someone in, you do some testing, you might be concerned. How do you determine if someone can compete as opposed to needing to take it easy or avoid certain things? How is the decision to compete made?

Beim: Well, it’s not an isolated decision. If it’s pretty obvious, like a little ankle sprain, our trainers and therapists and chiropractors are just so good, they’ll treat them and they return to play. If it’s something more, if it’s obvious, like a fracture or something, it’s not really a question in most cases.

Although in past Games, there have been times where an athlete had a small fracture, it was not a risk to their life or limb — and it’s the Olympics, they’ve trained for their whole lives…

Faust: They want to go.

Beim: They want to do it, they want to go. Ultimately, unless it’s going to cause undue horrible harm, it’s really the athlete’s decision.

But if it’s in the gray zone, we have a lot of people involved. We have, obviously, the athlete. If it’s a minor, we have the parents, we have the coaches, we have the trainers, we have the medical director, we have the chief medical officer, and we all get in a room and ultimately decide what is best for the athlete. Because it’s all about the athlete.

Faust: Now, I think a lot of attention has been paid over the years, increasingly so, about the stress and mental strain of just competing. We heard about Simone Biles being pretty brave and deciding to put her mental health first in Tokyo. And then, of course, coming back here, having such a fabulous run here.

What kind of mental health resources are available to our athletes?

Beim: Remarkable mental health. My first Games was in 2004 in Athens, and we had not as much help with that area. And now, it’s night and day.

We have the most amazing team of mental health officers. It’s not a stigma anymore. Up here [points to head] is as, or more, important than everywhere else. So it’s just amazing what kind of services they have available to them, and they’re utilizing them. It’s phenomenal. It makes me so happy that we have those services, and the athletes are very happy too.

And not only for the athletes, but sometimes for the staff too.

Faust: Oh, they have access to that? So it’s really developed over the 20 years.

Beim: Oh yeah, night and day.

Faust: That’s great to hear.

Beim: It makes me so happy. And not only in the Olympic arena, but just everywhere. Even in my practice, in the past, I’d have a college athlete tear her ACL and her season’s over and then she’s still a student. She has to get through school. That’s hard.

And now that it’s so out in the open and all these legends are promoting it — I go to my own athlete in my clinic and say, “Listen, this is what we’re going to do, we’re going to fix your ACL. We’re going to do lots of therapy. You’re going to get back. You’re going to be able to return to your sport. But for the next 6 to 8 months, how are you going to handle getting your classwork done and feeling good and not getting depressed?”

And now I can so much more easily say, “I have this wonderful sports psychologist that you can talk to, or a counselor. I highly recommend it. And by the way, all the Olympic and Paralympic athletes that need help sometimes, they have access to it, they utilize it, they love it, so why shouldn’t you?” And it makes such a huge difference for them.

Faust: And I think that people like Simone Biles or people like Michael Phelps who acknowledged before that this is not just a body game, it’s a mind-body game, have really blazed that trail.

Let’s talk about other ways that sports medicine has evolved since you got in the game. What are some ways that sports medicine or event athlete medicine has changed in your time?

Beim: When I first got into international travel with teams, I was USA Cycling’s team doc for like 15 years. That’s kind of how I got into this. And way back when, I remember some of my first world championships, I would go around the world with the team and all they had was me. So I had to deal with everything, the coughs, the colds, the sports psych, the injuries, the everything.

Faust: One-doc shop.

Beim: Yeah! And it was sometimes a bit of a challenge, but boy did I learn. Every time I went to an event, I learned something new. Like, “Oh, next time I better bring this.” Or, “I should learn the language.”

So that’s one thing I’ve done, is whenever I go to a Games, I try very hard to learn the language. It’s a great way to make friends with the local people and get stuff done.

Faust: Yeah. How’s your French?

Beim: Oh, it’s getting better. Je suis médecin-chef de l’équipe américaine.

Faust: There you go. She’s the head of the American medical team for Team USA. My French is getting better too.

Beim: I’m working on it. But I’m gonna give you an example. When I was asked to go to Sochi, Russia, I was asked to be the chief medical officer, which is big. I couldn’t believe it. I found out a year in advance. So I spent a year learning Russian — how to read and speak. And it was amazing, because when I got to Russia, most Russians did not speak English. It’s not like here in France where you can find people who speak some English. Nobody really in Russia spoke English. And they were very serious. When I got there, I would just — by the way, I make balloon animals. I don’t know if you knew that.

Faust: I did not know that.

Beim: Yes, I make balloon animals

Faust: Not an Olympic sport, yet.

Beim: Nope. But if it is, I’m going to be there.

Faust: 2028. It could sneak in and you’re going to be the first.

Beim: It’s just such a great way to break ice with anyone around the world. So yeah, I go in and I speak Russian to the people and immediately jaws drop that an American is speaking Russian. And then I whip out the balloon animals and I make them hats and dogs and whatever. And the smiles!

Faust: And they’re like, “Are you the doctor also?”

Beim: Yeah. And then throughout the Games they know me and they like me.

So, for instance, there was a hockey player that had a hand injury and I ran him real quick to the polyclinic to get an x-ray. It was like a 2- or 3-hour wait. But I walk in, they all know me. “Oh, Gloria!” you know, and they bring me in, I get the x-ray. [We’re] out in 10 minutes. Done. Just preparation like that makes a difference when you’re trying to do what you need to do.

Faust: That’s so great.

How do you prepare for potential medical emergencies that maybe are just a little bit bigger than something on the field?

Beim: Well, we have an amazing team of providers at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee that work there full-time. I have a practice, I’m a volunteer, so I come and do this when they want me to. But they spend months and months and months of preparation, including developing all of these emergency action plans, that encompass just about anything you can imagine. And then they communicate with all of us, the medical team, what these emergency action plans are. So if something were to happen, we’re ready.

Faust: How busy are you in terms of work versus getting to check out a competition?

Beim: It’s super busy. Our clinic usually opens at 8:00 a.m. and we’re supposed to close at 10:00 p.m., but in the middle of the Games, teams come in late and they need treatments, etc. So, we’ll stay open as late as we need. And then it’s always available 24/7 to the providers if they need to take care of an athlete. So, on a typical day, you might get started at 7 or 8 in the morning, and then you just work as long as you need to.

Faust: It’s a lot of coffee.

Beim: Yeah, sometimes. But you don’t really need so much coffee. There’s so much adrenaline, so much excitement, to take care of the best athletes in the world. I love it. I can work 18, 20, 24 hours, whatever I need to do, and I’m fine.

Faust: Do you get a chance to see any of the sports, then?

Beim: Yeah, I do. Fortunately, I’m very lucky that I do get to get out here and there and see some. Or if they need extra coverage from a doc, I’ve got access to all the different venues so I can assist.

Faust: So what have you seen so far?

Beim: Well, my favorite athletes, just between us, are the horses. I’m a big horse woman, I got to go out and see the cross-country in the Palace of Versailles. That was on my bucket list.

Faust: Quite a scene.

Beim: It was. And I got to watch our girls in gymnastics the other night. That was historic.

Faust: And as an orthopedist, you’re always on edge, right?

Beim: To some degree, yes. But no, these women are so amazing and it was just an honor to be there and be part of it. Very exciting.

Faust: For the people who are watching this and they’re thinking, “You know, I would like to practice medicine at an Olympic Games.” How do they do that?

Beim: Oh, excellent question. So if you go to the USOPC website, there’s an area where you can sign up and let them know that you’d be very interested in being a volunteer at one of the training centers.

There’s three training centers. There’s Lake Placid, Colorado Springs, and Chula Vista. If you can get in on that, if you’re a sports medicine specialist of some sort, if you can get in as a volunteer, for 2 weeks is what they prefer, so that they can have an idea of, how do you work with the athletes? Are you a team player?

Faust: So there’s Olympic trials to be an Olympic doc is what you’re telling me.

Beim: Oh, yeah. And then if you do really well, you might go to a PanAm Games or a Para-PanAm Games. And then if they identify you as a really good team player and an excellent doctor or healthcare practitioner of any type, [they might choose you].

I just feel so lucky. My first Games was back in 2002, a World University Games after I did my volunteer. And then when I got to go to Athens, I was team doc for cycling and Taekwondo. I couldn’t believe I went. And back then the motto was, “Do one and you’re done.” But I didn’t want to be done. So I just kept, fortunately, getting invited. I just have been very fortunate.

I advise anyone who’s really interested to try, because it’s so exciting. I don’t think there’s anything better that I’ve ever done.

Faust: Yeah, I can tell you really love it. Thank you so much for joining us here on MedPage Today.

Beim: Thank you. It’s been super fun.

Faust: And go Team USA!

Beim: Yes! Go Team USA.

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