Mayo Alumni Magazine 2002 Spring - MC4409-0402 - Mayo Clinic

Caring for athletes
Drs. Dahm and Smith were the first of the foursome at
the Games, arriving a week prior to the Feb. 8 opening
ceremonies. A husband and wife team, they spent opposite
shifts (7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 11 p.m.) at the clinic,
putting finishing touches on the clinic, watching the
athletes arrive, and getting acclimated to the surroundings
and competition venues. The Mayo medical team saw a
range of training habits from the athletes.
“Many athletes and coaches were apprehensive about
the drug testing,” says Dr. Smith. “They asked if certain
things were okay for the athletes to take, checking to see if
their paperwork was done correctly. Then we received a
request from a team for therapeutic carbon dioxide. We
couldn’t figure out what they wanted it for, and they
couldn’t explain it. It might have been a language
difference. In the end, we didn’t fill their request.”
The injuries the team saw weren’t uncommon, but the
way athletes were injured was sometimes unique, says
Dr. Laskowski, who worked during the first week of
the Olympics.
“You might see a stress fracture in an aerial skier,” says
Dr. Laskowski. “It’s like a stress fracture you’d see in a
runner, but the skier got it from repeatedly landing jumps
from 30 feet in the air.”
The physicians noted that they cared for many athletes
who had been injured in their final training prior to
competition.
“We had a couple members of the Russian women’s
hockey team who were hurt while practicing against the
men’s team,” says Dr. Dahm. “One had an ankle injury
that was going to keep her out for three weeks. Another
had a severe hematoma in a quad muscle that restricted
her range of motion.”
Dr. Stuart, who worked the final week of the Olympics,
recalled a freestyle skier who came in with an infection at
a fractured clavicle, which had been fixed with a plate and
screws just two weeks earlier. The earlier repair made it
possible for the skier to compete.
“Most people do not subject themselves to that pain
and risk,” says Dr. Stuart. “But that particular athlete had
dedicated himself to this event. You see the frustration that
comes when an athlete can’t compete to the fullest. A luge
racer with a foot injury was very tearful because his event
was the next day. You do your best, but you can’t treat an
injury like that in time for the competition.”
Dr. Dahm said the experience taught them quite a bit
about typical injuries in uncommon sports, such as luge,
skeleton and bobsled. But Dr. Dahm also noted that her
experience at Mayo Clinic was good preparation for
working with Olympic athletes from many nations.
12 Mayo Alumni Spring 2002