Trainer off to Olympics

By Gail Wood | The Olympian • Published August 07, 2008

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Marte Scheuffele won't win a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.

But Scheuffele, a physical therapist from Rochester, might help a U.S. athlete win one. Scheuffele will fly to China today to work as a trainer with the U.S. gymnastics, swimming and track teams.

"It's fun working with all the different types of athletes," he said.

This is Scheuffele's fourth Summer Olympics. Schueuffele, 48, also worked at the games in Sydney, Atlanta and Athens.

In Athens in 2004, he helped treat 72 ankle sprains in two days, he said. Four were severe.

"Out of those 72 ankle sprains, we did not have one person not compete," Scheuffele said. "The newest thing in sports medicine is to get things moving quickly. Kill the swelling immediately."

Then get the athlete walking.

"Fifteen years ago, it was ice it, and he's done. No motion in the ankle at all," Scheuffele said.

Now, after tests to ensure there are no breaks or ligament tears, he said, treatment for ankle sprains is movement.

Leaving soon

Scheuffele will arrive in China on Friday and stay six days. It definitely is a business trip.

"In Greece, it was 20-hour days," he said. "I don't think in China, I'll be able to see much at all. In Greece, we got out a little bit. It's such tight security; I probably won't even get out of the Olympic Village."

At Scheuffele's clinics in Rochester and Chehalis, he has autographed pictures of athletes he has worked with; he even has an autographed swimming cap from Michael Phelps, one of the most accomplished U.S. athletes in Olympics history.

"The fun thing is, I get to take a lot of pictures," Scheuffele said.

Over the years, he also has worked the Pan Am Games, the European Commonwealth Games and the U.S. Olympic Trials. However, Scheuffele couldn't work the track-and-field trials in Eugene, Ore., this summer because of a head injury.

"A broken limb hit me while I was driving my bulldozer," Scheuffele said.

His involvement with the Olympics came about because of a research paper he wrote about rehabilitation that dealt with the basic protocol for recovery from injury.

"I was surprised to find out that almost all professional teams are using my protocol today," Scheuffele said. "All it is a basic core protocol that is now super-popular at gyms."

Patients

The list of patients he has treated over the years is a who's-who in sports. He said he has worked with baseball greats such as Nolan Ryan and Reggie Jackson; basketball legend Charles Barkley; tennis superstar Chris Everett; and two-sports pro Bo Jackson.

Scheuffele has discovered that athletes don't always make the best patients.

"When I first started out doing athletic stuff, I worked with the Tacoma Stars," he said, referring to the defunct Major Indoor Soccer League team that played in the Tacoma Dome. "I'll tell you what, that's the biggest group of wimps I've worked with."

Scheuffele had clinics in Lakewood and Tacoma from 1991 to 2003 before closing them and starting Advanced Rehabilitation Specialists four years ago in Rochester and Chehalis.

"I'm from a little town in Oregon," Scheuffele said.

"I grew up in Hillsboro. This suits me better."

The small-town boy still makes room to work the Olympics every four years.

"It's fun," Scheuffele said.

Sports reporter Gail Wood can be reached at 360-754-5443 or gwood@theolympian.com.