Brett Toresdahl has a few job titles these days. Besides being an associate professor in the Department of Orthopedics at the University of Utah, he is also a sports medicine physician and the medical director for U.S. Biathlon.
Toresdahl will be putting all those skills to good use when he arrives in Italy as part of the U.S. Olympic contingent for the Milano Cortina Games. It’s an experience he’s become accustomed to.
“I’ve been with U.S. Biathlon for what is now my 12th season, so this will be games number three with U.S. Biathlon, and then I also went to Rio as part of the Rio Organizing Committee’s medical team,” he said. “I started as a team physician back in 2014, and then I was paired up with another physician for the first five or six years. I ended up taking care of that team solo for a few years, and now I’m building out the team again.”
A native of Montana, Toresdahl joined U of U Health in 2023. He said the medical team works year-round to help athletes stay healthy, which can be challenging given the rigors of training and travel.
“For the athletes, it’s pretty generalized in terms of the type of injuries that we see, but I would say 90% of the health problems that athletes experience are illness-related,” he said. “It’s an endurance sport in the winter, and they’re traveling internationally. It is such a drain on their bodies and their systems, making them prone to catching colds, flus and every other bug that’s circulating during the winter.”
“When you’re stressing your body to the extreme, it’s tough to stay healthy,” he said. Fortunately, his team works diligently to keep the athletes ready for competition. Toresdahl said part of the reason he is at the university is because of its commitment to the Olympic movement.
“It was really exciting to see the type of investment the U is willing to make in supporting me in my role of continuing to support the team,” he said. “It is a really special and unique opportunity to know that eight years from now, when the Winter Games will be coming back to the U.”
Joining Toresdahl will be Annika Pasch, athletic trainer for the U.S. Biathlon team, who will be working at her first Olympic Games. Being from the upper Midwest, she learned to love winter sports and was a Nordic skier in college, which is how she chose a career in athletic training.
“I grew up right outside Minneapolis and went to college at a school in Minnesota (Gustavus Adolphus College) that had athletic training and cross country skiing, which not a lot of colleges offered,” she said. “My previous work experience includes sports medicine clinics and working with various sports in college.”
It was within that experience that she met someone with USA Hockey who planted the seed in her head that someday she could be able to work with athletes in the Olympics.
“I thought I’d be so grateful if I ever have a chance, but I didn’t think it was something that could happen this quickly,” she said.
“I’ve been a certified athletic trainer for 13 years now. I’m established and feel comfortable with the sport of biathlon,” she said. “I didn’t try biathlon growing up, but it’s cool that it’s such a niche sport and it’s now closest in my heart.”
Because the biathlon is not an official collegiate sport, Pasch has the distinction of being the lone athletic trainer for her sport in the nation.
“A job like mine doesn’t exist, so I can say I am one of one in the country,” said.
Now that the games are here, she is appreciative of the journey that helped her realize her professional dream.
“A lot of the right things had to happen at the right time for me to get here,” Pasch said. “And a lot of things that maybe weren’t supposed to happen didn’t, so I think it all worked out correctly. I don’t feel this was complete luck at least.”
“I want to be able to have those humble moments when I’m there,” she said. “This is something that is pretty much once in a lifetime. Not a lot of people get to do this, and I’m really grateful for the experience.”
