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Florida medical experts prepare to head to the Paris Olympic Games

Jason Zaremski
University of Florida
Jason Zaremski

With only a couple of weeks left until the 2024 Olympic Games, several Central Florida medical experts are prepping themselves to assist Team USA athletes in any way they can to bring home gold.

People Team USA’s athletes preparing to go for gold, are a wealth of medical experts preparing to help the team however they can, including several from the Sunshine State.

This year, there are over 850 athletes representing Team USA and 28 healthcare workers accompanying them. The team’s expertise is made up of Sports Medicine doctors, mental health experts, physical therapists, and athletic trainers.

“It is probably the ultimate professional honor of my career, to be part of this in some small way to try to assist our athletes, and everyone involved to make Team USA a success,” said Jason Zaremski, the chief of the Sports Medicine Division in the Department of Physical Medicine Rehabilitation at the University of Florida.

Zaremski is one of three Central Florida healthcare experts listed on the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s website representing Team USA medical staff. The other two Central Florida representatives are a sports medicine doctor and an athletic trainer, both listed from Orlando.

Along with Zaremski, UF stated that two other sports medicine physicians are heading to Paris, including Katie Edenfield who is the head team doctor for Team USA Swimming. She flew out with the team last week. UF's Kevin Vincent will also head to Paris as a volunteer physician at the 2024 Paralympics held later in August.

The Most Common Olympic Injuries

Of the 11,000 athletes who competed in the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics, 1,035 were injured and another 438 reported being sick, according to a study by the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

The game with the largest injury was boxing, which accounted for 27% of all injuries during the games. Behind that were BMX freestyle, skateboarding, karate, and handball.

The games that received the fewest injuries were diving, road cycling, rowing, marathon swimming, and shooting.

As for illnesses, COVID-19 made up 4% of all reported illnesses. The largest reported illness at 18% was exertional heat-related sickness, which is a concern ahead of 2024.

Earlier this year, the United Nations reported 2023 as the hottest year on record. Europe faced sweltering heat waves. France wasn’t spared and during a heat wave in August experienced its hottest day in 76 years on record for the month. Average July and August temperatures observed increases between 2.4°C and 2.7°C, according to the British Association for Sustainable Sport, (BASIS) a nonprofit research group.

The BASIS report stated that the Paris Olympics temperatures could surpass the heat observed during the Tokyo Olympics.

How the doctors can help

The med team will be setting up will be setting up their own Team USA clinic, and will be working in 12-hour shifts. Although they are expected to be on call 24/7, Zaremski said.

He and the medical team have been familiarizing themselves with historical medical data and preparing for common issues that have affected athletes in previous games including respiratory, sleep, and GI tract issues as well as common bone breaks.

British Journal of Sports Medicine.

“There's usually more lower extremity injuries than upper extremity so like feet, ankles, knees, as opposed to elbows and shoulders. But again, you have to be prepared for anything someone falls trip sticks out their arm, they can hurt their elbow.”

On top of that, doctors will also need to be familiar with which hospitals are near each event, how to get in touch with first responders and translators, as well as which drugs athletes can take.

“You have to make sure medicines you're using are approved by what's called you USADA and WADA the World Anti-Doping Agency, and then the United States Anti-Doping Agency. So before you get into the medicine, go to that website and double-check if is it approved or not approved,” Zaremski said.

The idea of traveling to Paris for the games hasn’t quite hit him yet, but he suspects once he’s on the plane, his excitement will kick in. For now, he’s focused on the job.

“We're all working together to help the athlete achieve their goal, which in this case is getting a medal and ultimately, hopefully, a gold medal,” Zaremski said.

Zaremski flies out to join the team on July 17. The opening ceremony is scheduled for July 26.

Corrected: July 17, 2024 at 12:12 PM EDT
1. A previous version of this improperly misspelled a name. It should have read "Zaremski."
2. A previous version of this improperly misspelled a name. It should have read "Edenfield."
Originally from South Florida, Joe Mario came to Orlando to attend the University of Central Florida where he graduated with degrees in Radio & Television Production, Film, and Psychology. He worked several beats and covered multimedia at The Villages Daily Sun but returned to the City Beautiful as a reporter for the Orlando Sentinel where he covered crime, hurricanes, and viral news. Joe Mario has too many interests and not enough time but tries to focus on his love for strange stories in comic books and horror movies. When he's not writing he loves to run in his spare time.
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