Caring for the Whole Athlete: Emily Sweeney, MD, Named Team Physician for Junior Women's Artistic Gymnastics

As a young athlete, pediatric sports medicine physician Emily Sweeney, MD, participated as a Level 10 gymnast. While she had to retire early at the age of 16 due to an immense number of injuries, she’s able to help other gymnasts follow their dreams both at Children’s Hospital Colorado and now, as the USA Gymnastics (USAG) Junior Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Team Physician.

At Children’s Colorado, Dr. Sweeney started one of the only multidisciplinary gymnastics medicine clinics in the country. This enables gymnasts to see an entire care team in one visit, including Dr. Sweeney, physical therapists, athletic trainers and dietitians, who specialize in performance advancement and injury prevention, diagnosis, treatment and recovery. Her personal experience training in gymnastics and extensive injuries from the sport allows her to serve this unique population of athletes in a way that was unavailable to her when she was young. Dr. Sweeney believes that focusing on the whole athlete through a holistic approach is what enables her gymnasts to truly thrive.

“I love helping athletes not retire early and stay healthy in their sport,” Dr. Sweeney says. “I want these athletes to continue gymnastics without pain for as long as they can do it.”

In this next phase as the team physician, Dr. Sweeney will travel with the team to both national and international competitions and join training camps to prevent and treat injuries, facilitate whole-athlete care and bring her holistic perspective to Team USA.

“I am hopeful that our national team gymnasts can benefit from my previous experiences,” Dr. Sweeney says. “I want to collaborate with the rest of the USAG medical team to keep our athletes healthy so that they can train and compete at their very best!”