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August 27, 2007 — This summer, Kristen Schellhase, director of the Program in Athletic Training, was invited to be the athletic trainer for the Under-21 Women’s National Basketball Team during the 2007 FIBA World Championship games in Moscow. She first joined the team during practices in Colorado, then traveled with it to France and Monaco before heading to the games in Russia. She talks about her experience below.
Q: What is the Women’s National Basketball Team and how did you become its athletic trainer?
A: The team is the last level of USA Basketball that players can be on before trying out for the U.S. Olympic Team. This year’s team consisted of players from Rutgers, Duke, Maryland, Georgia, Stanford, Oklahoma and other universities. Most of the members were juniors and seniors.
I was invited to be the team’s athletic trainer through the U.S. Olympic Committee Volunteer Medical Program. I first joined the program in 2001 and went to the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., where I did a two-week stint as a volunteer athletic trainer. My trip this summer was the next step. After this, I could be invited to be an athletic trainer at the Goodwill Games, Pan American Games, Paralympic Games or even the Olympic Games.
Q: What is the FIBA World Championship?
A: The FIBA (Fédération Internationale de Basketball Amateur) is recognized as the worldwide authority in basketball by the International Olympic Committee. It holds a world championship every four years. In Russia, we played teams from Australia, Brazil, Hungry, Spain, Russia and Australia again. We went undefeated and won the Gold Medal!
Q: What's it like to be an athletic trainer for a team competing at this level?
A: I was surprised to see that the team’s members had very few injuries. At the collegiate level, the athletic trainer is normally dealing with many chronic and acute injuries. From mid-season on, it’s a constant battle to keep enough people on the court so the team can scrimmage at practice. With this team, there were almost no chronic injuries and only one serious acute injury.
Q: Were you aware of any differences in the role of athletic trainers from other countries?
A: There are few if any athletic trainers in other countries. Japan has a few in its baseball program, and they are sent to the U.S. for training. Other teams have either a doctor, a “physio” — someone trained in physical therapy — or no one. In France, physios go to physical therapy school and if they get a job in sports they learn the rest, like taping, on their own. They have no training in areas like eating disorders, drug testing or emergency care. While the U.S. team traveled with a team physician and an athletic trainer, some countries, like Mali, lacked the funding and resources to have anyone with the team at all.
Q: Would you recommend this experience to other athletic trainers?
A: Absolutely! It was hard to be away from my family for a month and juggle my summer teaching schedule, but it was worth it. I was able to work with world-class athletes, see several countries, do a lot of sightseeing and practice the job I love. Now that I'm a program director, I rarely get the opportunity to work with a team as an athletic trainer, and I really miss it. This was an opportunity of a lifetime and it was worth all of the preparation and planning involved with leaving the country for a month.
 
Left photo: The team takes the gold medal in Moscow on July 8, 2007.
Right photo: Schellhase (first row, first from right) with the team after its win. She said most of the members have a “real shot” at making the U.S. Olympic Basketball Team.
-- Karen Guin
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