Jonathan Finnoff on being a doctor at the Olympic and Paralympic Games

How many people does an Olympic medical team look after?

For the US team we’re taking care of nearly 600 athletes. But it’s not just the athletes, even though they’re the primary focus—we also have to take care of all the support staff. And that puts us into the realm of 5000 people.

We need a fairly robust medical team to take care of all the different medical problems that can occur in this huge delegation. You might have somebody who has a heart attack or a stroke or a bleeding ulcer or covid-19. Or allergic reactions in kids who are part of the delegation—athletes have families that come with them.

It’s amazing, all the different things that we end up taking care of (Video 1). We had over 4000 medical encounters within the US medical team during the Paris Olympic Games.

How does medical care work during the games?

The Olympic Organizing Committee works in conjunction with the different international federations for each sport, and they often have specific requirements for what medical infrastructure needs to be in place for their event. They work with the IOC [International Olympic Committee] and IPC [International Paralympic Committee] respectively for their medical requirements—and then often within countries there …