The Morning Swim Show, July 10, 2012: Kathy Flippin Set to Work With USA Swim Team as Massage Therapist

PHOENIX, Arizona, July 9. MANY people work behind the scenes at the Olympics to make what you see in the pool happen, and we meet one of those people on today's edition of The Morning Swim Show.

Kathy Flippin details the 13 years it took to be named to her first Olympic medical team staff as a massage therapist, including a chance meeting with Olympian Chad Carvin and Mission Viejo Nadadores coach Bill Rose in 1999. She also talks about working with swimmers and what her role is at the Olympic Games. Be sure to visit SwimmingWorld.TV for more video interviews.

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Morning Swim Show Transcripts
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Jeff Commings: This is the Morning Swim Show for Tuesday, July 10th, 2012. I am your host Jeff Commings. Coaches and managers are not the only people on the Olympic staff helping athletes achieve their ultimate dreams and today in the FINIS Monitor we will talk to one of those unsung people. Kathy Flippin was recently named to the Olympic Medical Staff and she will be in London as a massage therapist for the U.S Olympic team. Kathy joins us right now from here home in California. Hi. Kathy, welcome to the Morning Swim Show. How are you?

Kathy Flippin: I am well Jeff. Thank you so much for having me.

Jeff Commings: Thank you for joining us and congratulations on being named to the Olympic Team Staff.

Kathy Flippin: Thank you it is a huge honor and I am just so blessed.

Jeff Commings: And we should note that this is just not– this is your first time being named to the U.S Olympic team staff, but not your first time working at the Olympics, correct?

Kathy Flippin: Correct. In 2000, I had the honor of meeting a couple of athletes from other countries. Mexico and Philippines Juan Veloz and Carlo Piccio were training here in Mission Viejo and so for the 2000 Olympics I got myself to Sydney and told them that I was available to do massages so they got me in as a guest to do massage for them and that was very exciting because then I got to do massage for some of the other athletes on our team– race walkers. It was really, really wonderful time.

Jeff Commings: So it was really good to kind of be right in the thick of all that excitement.

Kathy Flippin: Oh my goodness yes it just blew my socks off. It is incredible.

Jeff Commings: So what is the process to get named to the Olympic medical team staff?

Kathy Flippin: Well it has taken me 13 years actually to go through the process. I first met a swimmer. One of the American swimmers Chad Carvin that lives in Mission Viejo and was training for the 2000 Olympics and that is how I met also Carlo and Juan because they were training partners. And so Chad needed massages weekly getting ready for the 2000 Olympics and I asked him, “Well, who is your coach?”And so he gave me Coach Rose's phone number and not even knowing he was such an icon in the swim community, I just innocently called him and said, “Hey coach, you know I would love to help you take care of your swimmers and I went and volunteered and did some massages for his swimmers at the pool and then I told him when Olympic trials came that was just breaking my heart to take care of the team all year and then let them go not knowing if they were going to have good massage while they were there because I know staff passes are limited that is not that they wouldn't have good massage therapist available but that they weren't able to get them in. So anyway, I told Coach Rose that I would love to go to Olympic trials and so he took me to Olympic trials and there I met Brian Campbell who is a chiropractor and massage therapist. He was working for another swim team and he informed me of the process to apply for U.S.A Swimming to be on the international trips so I did that and they season you, they bring you in for small local trips and they bring you on a bigger national trips that are still within the United States and then they take you on the more international, the larger international scale trips. And each step they are watching to see how you behave and how you handle the pressure, how you handle the athletes and hereabout to see the job kind of person or if you are going to add sort of like a Prima donna and say, “Well, it is not my job to take out the trash so I am not going to help with that.” You know they like to have people that will just pitch in and do anything and everything that needs to be done so they won't watch how you react through all of those experiences and then hopefully if you are a good match with the other personalities on the team, the other athletes, the skills then they will invite you to the big show.

Jeff Commings: And here you are getting ready to go to the big show.

Kathy Flippin: And here I am.

Jeff Commings: So you will be joining the Olympic swimmers in Knoxville where they are currently at their training camp. You will be joining them on Thursday. What will your role be with them for these next 3 weeks?

Kathy Flippin: My role will be to support. They need massages first and foremost. I am not the only person that is on that team. Brian Campbell bless his heart has been on at least 3 and possibly a 4th Olympic journey so he will be there. We also have Jennifer Harmon from Arizona. She is another massage therapist and Keenan Robinson– he is Michael Phelps' right hand guy. He is an athletic trainer. The four of us will be the team supporting and Scott Rodeo is our head doctor. So our job is to support the athletes in their health needs if they are nursing any injuries and just trying to hold together or if they just need to have flesh massages because after you have had hard workouts, right and you got very sore from them and if you get a massage quickly after the workout then it removes out that soreness and you never experience it. So they call that recovery, that is the technical word and not only that but we also have to make sure that they have food and water when they need it. Gatorade if that is what they are drinking you know so that they are hydrated so they have the calories when they need them and just make sure that they are supported so their bodies can do what they need to do.

Jeff Commings: Tell me about some of these trips that you have been on with the swimmers? I know Pan-American Games was one of them you have been on, what is it like for you when you know it is finals and you have got all these swimmers who are you know getting ready for probably what is at the moment the biggest race of their lives and they have just come out of the pool. They warm down and they have got another big race tomorrow kind of what– are you kind of the person who has pick on their feet of what is this specific person need or are you able to pretty much just kind of go with the flow in terms of what they need?

Kathy Flippin: You know I try to go with the flow. I know quite a few of the athletes now because I worked with them both at events and even some of them here where they were training in California, but most of them are fairly seasoned and the know what they need some of them don't want to have a massage just before a race because they feel like it can relax them a little too much and they might lose their edge. Others you know really need a brisk hard shake before they get in the pool, but as for warm down massages they know what they need and when they need it pretty much. With the younger athletes we'll definitely encourage and coach them a little bit, but it really comes down to them and they know their own pecking order so to speak. We have enough on staff, but it doesn't happen that we are swarmed all at once with everybody saying, “Well, I need a massage now” when there is not enough tables and hands for everyone, but if it does come to that point then who has got a little more at stake with the upcoming swim than those that are, have a little less at stake well kind of kind of take a back seat and wait a little longer for their massages.

Jeff Commings: What is it about swimmers that sets them apart from other athletes in terms of what they need for a massage before or after their big competition?

Kathy Flippin: You know I don't think there is anything really that sets apart. I think the swimming community has been exceptional in recognizing that massages extraordinarily helpful and the fact that it is a multiple event and multiple day competition because this one just really doesn't set in until the next day or sometimes two days later so track and field has their own set of massage therapist that they bring cycling also because they have time for trial road competition and different multiple events and multiple days. So all athletes I think need massage and I work with in my own practice I work with swimmers. I work with tri-athletes. I work with winner cyclists and you know what with the champion ping pong player and well so all that brings me that they are not unique.

Jeff Commings: Yeah, the human body is just the human body.

Kathy Flippin: It is, it is and the level and intensity of course with this level of competition is really what is going to make you sore you know because some of them say that they are just willing to hurt a little more than the next guy in order to get to the wall so at level of lack of acid build up you know in the body is what makes your story. If you are going long and slow like if you take a walk you know rather than us sprint run your are not going to get sore with the walk even though it takes you longer to get there.

Jeff Commings: Okay, I imagine that for all of this, you are going to be pretty sore. D o all the massage therapists I guess end up working on each other when this is all over?

Kathy Flippin: We do try to look out for each other especially when it comes to meal breaks and rests and stuff and yeah if someone has got a little niggle in their back or something, we will try that squeeze in some time for each other. We do actually have, we are kind of on duty from 7 in the morning to 11 at night, but doesn't mean we are doing massages consistently throughout that entire time. The athletes don't demand that much so we do have a little bit of spare time where we are just kind of chitchatting and waiting for the athletes to do their thing and we are kind of standing ready by our tables and want to be available so that anybody who needs us, any time has what they need.

Jeff Commings: That is good, that is good. So tell us about this practice that you have going out there in California?

Kathy Flippin: Well Dynamic Touch Massage is my company and I have been in business for 13 years and so it is really fun at this point to be able to share this experience with my clients that have known me. I have got some clients who have known me since I first started so it is really fun for them to be cheering from the sidelines too. I work full time. I am on duty 5 days a week doing 5 to 6 massages per day and loving every minute of it.

Jeff Commings: I can tell Kathy. Congratulations again on being named the Olympic Medical Staff. I am sure you are going to have a lot of fun in London.

Kathy Flippin: Thank you.

Jeff Commings: It will be a lot of work, but I am sure you will look back on this and be having as big a smile you have now.

Kathy Flippin: Thank you, yeah and I have a couple of colleagues also in my office and one of them her name is Katcha Minot. She will also be going to the Paralympics with the cycling team so and she got fast tracked. It didn't take her 13 years. She just got scooped right up within the first few months of meeting the staff at Paracyling. They saw the gem that she is and she will be having a parallel experience at the Paralympics so congratulations to her too.

Jeff Commings: Oh that is great. Dynamic Touch is going to be well represented in London.

Kathy Flippin: Thank you.

Jeff Commings: Thank you very much Kathy and enjoy your time in Knoxville and over in Europe and we will probably catch up with you down the road.

Kathy Flippin: I hope you will. Thanks so much.

Jeff Commings: All right that is Kathy Flippin joining us before she heads off to meet with the Olympic swim team and that is going to do it for today's Morning Swim Show. We invite you to join in our conversation either join us on Facebook or by joining us on Twitter. Our Twitter handle is @swimmingworld. I'm Jeff Commings. Thanks for watching.

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