Medco Sports Medicine recently had the chance to speak with Michele Latimer MA, ATC, LAT, CES. She traveled to Tokyo Summer Olympics as the athletic trainer for the USA Softball Women’s National Team which brought home the Olympic silver medal.
She discussed her experience, shared how she became involved with an Olympics team, and gave advice for students and recent grads.
Watch the video interview now or read it below!
- Introducing Michele Latimer
- Michele’s Olympic Experience
- Michele’s Advice and Must-Haves for ATs
- Medco’s Top Products for Athletic Trainers
- Follow Us
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Introducing Michele Latimer
Can you give a short introduction?
I’m Michele Latimer. I work full-time at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa. I started here as a graduate assistant.
I did my undergraduate degree at East Carolina University in Athletic Training. Then I came down to Florida and got my master's degree in Exercise Science.
I started at USF working with the women’s soccer team for about 8 years. Then I went over to women’s basketball for about 4 years. Now I work with the softball team full-time as well as our women’s golf program. I’ve been here at USF for 14 years. I always joke with my boss that “once I was here, you were stuck with me”. I was pretty lucky, right time, right place, where things worked out for me that way.
When did you decide that you wanted to become an athletic trainer?
I think I have the same story as most athletic trainers, the age old, oh I have an injury and went through the process. I was one of the females that suffered from the epidemic of ACL tears. Going through the rehab process I had the privilege to work with an athletic trainer, not just a physical therapist. Both professions are very valuable, but I saw the unique opportunity that athletic training brought to the world and learned more about that during my recovery journey.
So, when I got down to East Carolina, it was just perfect. They had one of the best programs in the country and Katie Walsh Flanagan, a phenomenal program director. It was a really lucky fit. I feel like everything for me has been just kismet. I’ve lucked into a lot of great opportunities. That sparked it for me, and that program has been instrumental in developing me as a clinician, as has USF, but that’s where I got my start and my passion for the profession.
Michele’s Olympic Experience
How did you start getting involved with the Olympics?
It was maybe not the typical route that you hear most providers for the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) talking about.
When I was working with the women’s soccer team at USF, our volunteer assistant coach was the technical director for the Guyana Women's National Soccer Team. He said “I’d love to bring you with us. I love what you do. Would you be interested?” So, I had the opportunity very early to do international travel with the national team. We went to Trinidad and Tobago, we went to Cuba, and we went to Guyana for the World Cup qualifiers in 2010.
Then, that next year Coach Eriksen, who is our head softball coach at USF, had taken the reigns of the USA program, so he brought the team here for a training camp at the USF campus over the Christmas break. And kind of the same thing, he said “Hey I’m bringing the team in. Would you mind providing coverage for that week? So, we don’t have to bring somebody else in. You know the facilities...” I said “Of course. Absolutely! I’m all over it. This is awesome”. So, I did that.
Then that January, he brought me into his office and said “The program really liked what you had to offer. The young women appreciated what you did. How would you feel about travelling with us?” I answered “Of course, yes. I would love that. What an awesome opportunity!” I was very lucky that moving forward each summer, which is predominantly when their seasons were prior to the Olympics, they continued to ask me back, which was awesome.
My boss here at USF, Steve Walz, has been instrumental in my personal and professional development and allowed me to have those opportunities to go and grow.
It was that right place, right time again, where a lot of other providers go through the USOPC training centers and those rotations I was able to link up directly with an NGBC (National Governing Bodies Council).
What was a typical day like when you were overseas for the Olympics?
It varied based on where we were at in our training. We were up early every day, COVID testing – everybody's favorite – getting a good breakfast in, getting to the field, going through practices or scrimmages, going then back to the hotel after that.
Or once we moved into the village, it was kind of the same process, waking up, COVID testing, going to the cafeteria for a meal, heading out on their transport to the local venues to practice, and then back to the village after that.
There were great opportunities for rest and recovery. They had workout facilities there in the village. It offered a great opportunity for the athletes to try and stay busy and enjoy the experience overall.
Did you get to experience the cardboard beds? And if so, what were they like?
Laughs. I did, yes. I walked in and I was like “Oh, okay, this is going to be interesting”. But I’ll tell you what, the Japanese know what they are doing. It was really creative.
It was interesting because you have a cardboard frame and then this recycled plastic material that made up the three panels of your mattress. They had this set up where you could go, and they would scan your body and give you an idea of how to flip the mattress panels to give you the best support for what your body needed.
Some teams and programs probably supplemented as we did, bringing in some mattress pads to put on top. But you know, I’ve definitely slept on worse. It was a unique experience. It’s one of those cool experiences where you think “okay”, but you don’t think too much about it in the grand scheme of where you’re at and what you're getting to do. It was definitely different.
What was your favorite part about being with your team at the Olympics?
Having been with the team for about ten years, I’ve gotten to watch a lot of those women matriculate through the program coming from their college years and staying on and becoming these professionals and these elite level athletes.
What was really special for me was to watch them finally get to realize their dream that they had been working 10+ years come to fruition. It was watching their eyes light up when we were going through processing like “oh it’s really happening”, especially with COVID throwing a wrench into everything.
So, I think just being there, finally being there and seeing the grandeur of it all and watching them compete and just realize “I’m here, I’ve done it”. There’s no feeling like it.
Were there any common or emergent treatments that you were using or that you saw other clinicians using at the Olympics?
That’s the great thing about the USOPC and what they do and how they run these events because there’s a collective area where every practitioner, every athlete goes to utilize recovery equipment and the treatment space.
We tended to be very manual therapy based, a lot of using our hands. Plus, the routine stuff, cupping, Graston... I utilized some dry needling.
The exciting part was working with and collaborating with other professionals. Having the chiropractors there, the DCs that were helping with all the care and doing their manual therapies, evaluations, and adjustments and the massage therapists. It was a really nice blend of collaboration from different walks of professionals.
What was the most interesting thing you saw at the Olympics?
That’s a tough one. Only because with the restrictions still going on in Japan we didn’t necessarily get to go out. We didn’t leave the village.
I think one of the neat and interesting things was these self-driving cars that they were showcasing. They were almost like little taxi cabs to get you around the village. They were funny because they have sensors around them so if someone was walking close enough proximity to the car it would stop. It left a lot of room for our team to joke with one another. If they saw someone in the vehicle, they could walk just close enough to slow that vehicle down and play some pranks on one another.
Also, overall, just being there and seeing all the different countries represented and interacting with all the different cultures. Especially when you go to the cafeteria and everyone’s there together and when you see the different buildings and the flags. Just the extreme amount of pride people had for being there and representing their nation! Everything was very cool.
Michele’s Advice and Must-Haves for ATs
Do you have any advice you’d give to athletic training students or recent graduates?
I think it’s “network”. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and don’t be afraid to work hard to get what you want. I think that’s the biggest key. I’ve been lucky, but I had to put myself out there and work really hard for the opportunities that were given to me. It was developing those relationships with coaches, team directors, and operations people because you never know where that reference is going to come from, where that next referral is going to come from. Grind, don’t be afraid to really push yourself out of your box and comfort level. Whatever you want, go after it!
Are there any must-haves in your athletic training room that you’d recommend all athletic trainers have?
I tend to gravitate towards manual therapy, prevention, and recovery. I think a foam roller goes a long way, a stretch band, those kinds of things.
Certainly, the recovery tools, your compression boots, your Normatec, your recovery pump, the recovery guns, but there’s a lot to be said for just the two hands that you bring as a clinician with your evaluation skills.
And on the preventative and rehabilitative side, a couple ankle weights you can get super creative with and things like that. But I think the best thing is just being a well-rounded clinician because you can do a lot with just a little.
Medco’s Top Products for Athletic Trainers
Michele mentioned some of her must-have products in her interview above. Medco Sports Medicine offers a wide variety of products for athletic trainers and their athletes.
Follow us!
You can follow Michele Latimer on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mlats19
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References
- Team USA. Women's National Team History. Team USA. Retrieved from https://go.teamusa.org/3L5sww6
- USF. Michele Latimer. Go USF Bulls. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/3L3SPT0
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