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Boulder Center For Sports Medicine

Gymnast Jason Gatson is hopping onto wooden boxes in the rehabilitation room at the U.S. Olympic Center's sports medicine clinic.

Gatson effortlessly hops atop each of four boxes, varying in height from 6 to 40 inches. A small smile spreads across his face.

This is familiar territory. Six years ago, Gatson was considered a gymnastics phenom, at 17 the youngest to make the U.S. world championship team. A shoo-in for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Gatson blew out his knee and never made the team. After a year of rehabilitation, he blew out the same knee. So he started again.

All of that rehabilitative hopping helped Gatson make the silver- medal winning U.S. team at the world championships this year. He hopes to make the U.S. Olympic team in 2004. U.S. men's gymnastics program coordinator Ron Brant called Gatson's return to worldclass form "probably the biggest comeback in the history of our sport."

Just about all of it was done here - the sports medicine clinic at the Olympic Training Center. Gatson spent so much time here he calls it "my home away from home."

The sports medicine center was recently named in honor of former director Bob Beeten, who spent 26 years at the training center.

The facility has a rehabilitation room, a therapy and massage area, hydrotherapy room, including therapy and exercise pools, physician examination rooms, vision clinic, dental laboratory and an X-ray room.

All of that is, in many instances, just a short walk from the athlete's dorm room or practice venue. With the 2004 Olympics in Athens eight months away, healing has a new urgency.

Depending on time of day, athletes can be found reclined on padded tables in the center's main room, applying heat or ice to various body areas, receiving ultrasound therapy on muscles, getting taped or stretched before training, getting a massage or doing rehabilitation exercises.

The medical care is paid for by the U.S. Olympic Committee, so it's free to the athletes.

"It's a lot better having someone hurt me for free than having to pay for it," said Greco-Roman wrestler Jim Gruenwald, who was recently rehabilitating a shoulder injury.

Athletes get hurt no matter what sport they do. Shooters suffer back and forearm pain from overuse. Even synchronized swimmers aren't safe.

"We land on each other," said Stephanie Nesbitt, 18, a 2004 U.S. Olympic team member.

Coaches and trainers expect injured athletes to spend as much time each day rehabilitating as they would training. That could mean spending five or six hours a day in the sports medicine clinic. The process of getting better can be bad.

"You get pain and boredom all wrapped into one," Gruenwald said. "So you talk with somebody, listen to music."

Staffers try to make the environment inviting. The clinic's main room is airy and encouraging, with signed photos and posters of events and healed athletes on its walls. This is no antiseptic hospital ward. The floor is carpeted and music from a local radio station plays in the background. The TV is tuned to CNN.

Sometimes, sports medicine has little to do with sports. When athletes are sick, they come here for everything from stomach aches to prescription medicine. Private-practice doctors make house calls once a week.

If athletes need to see a specialist for illness or injury outside the OTC, they don't have to wait as long for an appointment as the general public.

"Usually, it's a day or two instead of six weeks," said Ed Ryan, USOC sports medicine director.

The center's doors open at 6:45 a.m. and lock at 6 p.m., but a doctor and athletic trainer are always on call.

The center's $2 million annual budget allows for athletic trainers to attend practices at the OTC.

In the clinic, an ice machine can produce 500 pounds of crushed ice per day. Crushed is better than cubes, because it's easier to apply.

The convenience of everything, from ice to whirlpools, "helps you concentrate on your sport," said gymnast San Juan Jones, in with an injured elbow. "It's great."

Off the clinic's main area, weightlifter Zach Krych is chin-deep in a tub in the "wet room."

He's soaking in one of two stainlesssteel tubs that resemble huge mixing bowls. But this is no day at the spa. Krych is immersed in 58 degree water.

He is watching a clock, urging it to hurry to the magic three- minute mark, when he can switch to the 110 degree tub.

The voluntary water torture, Krych explains, helps his muscles recover quicker from that day's training.

"The first time is the worst," he said, his skin slowly turning pink from the abuse. "After you go back and forth, it's a weird sensation. Tingling in your muscles. After a few times, you get numb."

Ryan said sports medicine's priorities have shifted. Now the mission is to not only to help athletes heal quickly, but to prevent future injury. When athletes leave rehabilitation, "we want them to be better than pre-injury," he said.

Gatson's rehabilitation and return to a world-class level took an unprescribed turn when he tested positive for marijuana and served a three-month suspension early in 2002. He now calls the mistake embarrassing.

"It was a real eye-opener for me," he said. "It made me think, 'How bad do you really want to do this?' It's scary, you know. I don't want to jeopardize gymnastics or my career like that. It's not worth it."

If there is a silver lining to Gatson's injuries, it's that he further developed his upper body, adding 10 pounds of muscle. His shoulders and arms are so ripped they turn heads at the OTC.

The change is more than cosmetic. At the world championships, Gatson reached the finals in the rings, previously his weakest event.

Gatson's knees are stronger than ever. The box jumps helped Gatson's twice-repaired knee and helped his legs build balance and strength.

If Gatson can make the 2004 Olympic team, he will be one of the Games' best stories. Gatson said it would "mean the world to me," to climb atop the medals podium in Athens. Any height will do.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0259 or merijo@gazette.com

BY THE NUMBERS

30,363 Annual treatments administered to Olympic Training Center athletes by sports medicine clinic staff in 2002.

60 Percentage of 2002 U.S. Olympic team members who took daily supplements.

3 Weekly sports psychology sessions for U.S. Synchronized Swimming team during OTC camp (they attended sessions as a team).

5 Full-time staffers at sports medicine clinic.

500 Pounds of ice used daily in summer.

750 Pounds of ice that the ice machine holds at capacity.

769 Times OTC athletes were taped in May 2002.

9 Total tapings for December 2002, when fewer athletes were at the training center.

39 X-rays given in June, more than any other month in 2002.

INSIDE THE U.S. OLYMPIC TRAINING CENTER PART FOUR OF A FIVE- PART SERIES

The U.S. Olympic Training Center is a Colorado Springs landmark. The complex occupies 35 acres on the site of the former Ent Air Force Base, at the corner of Boulder Street and Union Boulevard.

With 24 buildings, this is the workplace for more than 400 people, the home to about 200 resident-athletes and an occasional high- altitude training venue for many more.

Olympic medals are the goal.

But what exactly do people do in those buildings? In a five-part series, The Gazette will take readers through some of the facilities.

Sunday: Dormitories and keeping them safe.

Monday: Sports science.

Tuesday: Gyms, gyms and more gyms.

Today: Sports medicine.

Thursday: What's for dinner?

BLACK & WHITE MAP: THE GAZETTE

U.S. Olympic Complex

1. Visitor center and gift shop

2. Sports Center 1

2a. International Center for Aquatic Research and Flume

2b. Richard M. Scrushy/Health South Sports Medicine and Sport Science Center

2c. U.S. Swimming offices

3. Shooting Center

4m. National Sports Building main

4e. National Sports Building east, central shipping and receiving

4w. West Wing conference center

5. Olympic House-USOC headquarters

6. Aquatics Complex

7. Irwin Belle Olympic Sports Complex

8. F. Don Miller Residence Hall-suites

9. Athlete center, Dining Hall, OTC Administration

10. William E. Simon Residence Hall-suites

11. Development and Bid Administration

12. National Information Resource Center

13. Center for Olympic Programs

14. Security, Engineering, Volunteer Services, Drug Control

15. Human Resources

16. Helsinki Building

17. Pan Am Conference Center

18. Vehicle services

19. Recreation pool

20. Old dorms

21. Old dorms

22. Old dorms

23. Olympic Path

24. Entrance

Copyright 2003
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