Photo (L to R): Rosie Main, Karen Cogan, Amy Murry, Taylor Maggio and Shelby Hoppis.
SICILY, Italy – When you think about Team USA, you typically think about the athletes that are out there winning medals and representing the Red, White and Blue. What is sometimes forgotten is the team behind the team.
This week at the women’s freestyle acclimation camp in Sicily, there are several resources, including medical, physical health and mental health professionals, that were brought in to help the squad perform at its best for the 2019 World Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
Get to know them below!
Shelby Hoppis, athletic trainer
This training camp and World Championships marks Shelby’s third trip as an athletic trainer with USA Wrestling. She also worked the 2017 Women’s Freestyle World Cup in Russia and the 2018 Junior Pan American Championships in Brazil.
“For athletes at any level, injuries happen, and that’s why I still have a job. Athletes are dealing with things at different times. It’s important that have care for those things, whether it’s treatment, manual therapies or taping and maybe even some new issues that pop up. Being available to them and be on site to coordinate that care is really important.”
Amy Murry, massage therapist
While she works with multiple Team USA sports as well as the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, Amy started working with USA Wrestling in 2014. She also is involved with USA Swimming. USA Track and Field and USA Triathlon. She was also a USOPC-assigned massage therapist for the 2016 Olympics.
“It’s more than rubbing mineral oil for a suntan. These women are putting together the final touches before competition, and it’s the same on my end. We’re trying to get the muscles smooth, conditioned and ready to go. It’s a good time to get those recovery flushes in after they work out. We’re trying to get those bodies ready to perform next week. It’s a lot more involved than people might think, but it’s definitely necessary for the team performance.”
Rosie Main, chiropractor
Rosie has been a chiropractor for USA women’s freestyle Senior World Team for the past 10 years. She’s been working with athletes like Whitney Conder and Adeline Gray since their first World Championships.
“With chiropractic, most people think of it as used for injuries, but the truth is structure determines function, and function determines health. So this biggest intent for me is to remove interference to their nervous system so that their bodies can actually perform and function they way they are designed to. We want them to perform to their full potential and used the skills that they’ve worked so hard for to their maximum effort.”
Karen Cogan, sports psychologist
An employee for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, Karen has been working several 11 different teams over the last nine years. While this is her first trip with USA Wrestling, she has been working with USAW athletes for a few years. Karen 20+ years of experience as a psychologist.
“In terms of sports psychology, what we’re looking at is helping athletes develop a good mental game plan. How they handle the pressures of competition, how they deal with distractions, and we talk about a lot of tools to use like mindfulness meditation and imagery. On the psychology side of things, they’re not just athletes; they’re people. So if there are things going on in their lives that are stressors and can impact they’re training, we want to deal with those.”
Taylor Maggio, dietician
At only 25 years old, Taylor is working with some of the highest caliber athletes in the world as an employee at the USOPC. Like Karen, Taylor works and travels with multiple sports. This acclimation camp marks her first with wrestling. Earlier this summer, she was on the USOPC staff for the Pan American Games.
“Since we’re in a different area, the foods are unfamiliar, so I want to make sure that the athletes are taken care of. That means I have to work with the kitchen to make sure we have the proper foods that the athletes need. I also help with training to make sure they’re fueled properly and have recovery needs. It’s such a high-stress time for the athletes right now, but I want to make sure that they don’t have to focus on the food. They shouldn’t have to worry about what to eat or when to eat it.”