Article reposted from TeamUSA.org
Author: Ben Allen
Many athletes dream about participating in the Summer Olympics.
The U.S. Women’s National Team, which trains in Lancaster County, spent months preparing for their journey in Rio.
But the national squad is more than just the players on the field.
However, the athletic trainer may know some of the players better than Coach Craig Parnham.
Minutes after I arrived, it was only a couple minutes into prep for practice before a player had stopped by Lori Uretsky’s office.
“Yeah, check that,” she reminded her.
“And then drink as well.”
Okay.
“Did you have too much of your burrito, baby?”
“Maybe…” was the cautious reply.
Olympic athletes – they really are just like us.
More than an athletic trainer
Lori Uretsky is the athletic trainer for the U.S. Women’s National Team, but jokes she’s also a psychologist, doctor, cardiologist, nurse and mom.
Just ask Michelle Kasold, forward on the team.
“You know, not field hockey problems all the time, rashes and burns, I’ve had all sorts of random things. Lori gets to deal with a little bit of everything,” she says.
“We all kinda hang out in here, we get a lot of treatment, so she hears probably all of our problems, whether they’re on or off field.”
Uretsky has been at this a long time – she’s gone from Philadelphia University to the University of Nevada Reno to Rutgers in New Jersey in nearly 20 years.
About two years ago, she started cleaning up scrapes, loosening tight muscles, and taping wrists for the team, which trains in Manheim, Lancaster County.
When you think athletic trainer on a team at the Olympic Games, you might think lots of high-level sports science.
You can almost hear the Olympic theme playing in your head.
But wait a second.
Not as glamorous
“Whether it’s the insurance claims, whether it’s writing up the injury reports, scheduling doctor’s appointments, that kind of stuff. It’s crazy how much time insurance takes up or just little things, the injury reports,” says Uretsky.
Oh, insurance claims.
And she’s also become an expert at construction.
“Cover for, a shoe for one of the girls on the team, so I have to cut it and mold it,” she narrates, as she cuts through some cardboard-like material.
So there’s a lot.
Heavy workload
Uretsky works long hours – sometimes 16 or 18 hour days during tournaments.
But she says she does it because of the players, the staff and the coach.
“Craig, our head coach, he made a comment one day after a game and said, so for us for field hockey, you’re only allowed four people on the sideline, the manager, the athletic trainer, the team doctor and the head coach. And he said out of the four people, I’m the most important.”
“I’ve never had a coach say that to me.”
A sampling of what Lori Uretsky is bringing to Rio for use by the U.S. Field Hockey team.
For the trip to the Games in Rio, she’s brought tape, gauze, band aids, medical gloves, energy bars and chews, wound care, sun screen, bug spray, a lot of padding, splint material, some braces, splints, even a spare hose in case, screwdrivers, and much, much more.
“I literally have anything,” she proclaims.
She fills up seven or eight bags, just with training equipment.
There’s a lot of stuff.
And the threat of the Zika virus has added even more cargo.
“We’re pretreating clothes and bags with spray that lasts for a month. For the sidelines of the games, I have a lot of hygiene stuff to do for their mouth guards, for their shin guards, for their corner gear,” says Uretsky.
The Games
Since this is the Olympics, there are logistics to think about.
Every day, she treats players before practices or games – massages, taping, icing – and that will continue during the two-week tournament.
PHOTO BY BEN ALLEN/WITF
And then Lori Uretsky, athletic trainer for the U.S. Women’s National Team, will take her spot on the sideline and hope she isn’t needed.
Because if she’s busy, that means someone on the team is hurt, and that’s not just a player – that’s one of Lori’s girls.