GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Dr. Katie Edenfield with the University of Florida College and Medicine will be heading to her first Olympic games as one of the physicians for Team USA’s swim team. She says her love for sports medicine all started in the pool.
Being a competitive swimmer herself, Edenfield has competed against Olympic swimmers during her time on UF’s swim team. That’s when she discovered she wanted to be a doctor in sports medicine.
“The sport of swimming has given to me, like it has opened so many doors for me to get to this point,” Edenfield told First Coast News.
Being able to understand what swimmers go through in and out of the water allowed her to work with high-level swimmers going to international competitions and qualification rounds for the Summer Games.
Edenfield's full-time job is a sports medicine faculty member in community health and family medicine for the UF College of Medicine. But this summer, she's working with athletes from across the country as they compete in the 2024 Olympics.
Just like she does with swimmers at UF, Edenfield is using her background as a former division one swimmer to prevent injuries and illnesses on the team.
"It's very similar, especially because the level of athletics we have here at the University of Florida," Edenfield said. "I mean, a lot of those athletes are Olympians, right, and, or professional or, depending on the sport are kind of what it is."
Edenfield is working to set up Team USA's swimmers for success, helping them get their bodies ready to be at their peak at Paris.
“We go into an international camp before we get to Paris, on the same time zone," Edenfield said. "So, it gives people a chance to kind of adapt their sleep and, you know, prepare training on those things."
Edenfield's main priority is preventing her athletes from getting sick from now until the first day of the swimming events. She says getting the common cold or flu when traveling can set an athlete back during one of the most important meets of their life.
“Hundreds of seconds count and so we really try our best to prevent illness at this stage of the game. And especially with travel and things of that nature where you're around a lot of people,” she said.
Edenfield will be heading out to Prague, Czech Republic with Team USA in the next coming weeks to help the athletes adjust to the time zone before their first day of Olympic events in Paris on July 27.
