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Dr. Tim Greene had the privilege of working with the U.S. Ski Team and is on a list of doctors who head overseas when the competitors need an American physician on foreign slopes. Not bad for a guy who himself never took to a slope until college.
While studying in Atlanta, Greene made his first trip through the crisp breeze down snow-speckled trails. When he did his fellowship training at the renowned Steadman Hawkins Clinic for sports medicine in Vail, CO, his interest in skiing went from a minor flurry to a raging squall. "I started slow, but when you are somewhere you can do something you enjoy every day, you get pretty good at it," Greene said in one of the examination rooms at Orthopaedic & Neurosurgery Specialists (ONS) in Greenwich.
In Vail he had a chance to work with the U.S. Ski Team. Greene noted that professional competitors aren't magically impervious to injury. "Most of them are lifelong athletes, [and] undergo whatever treatment or training is necessary to get back on the mountain," he said.
On Dec. 7 at 6:30 p.m., the ONS Foundation will offer its annual free Ski Conditioning and Injury Prevention Seminar. Greene will be one of the presenters. The public is invited to register or request more information by calling (203) 869-3131 or emailing contact@ons-foundation.org.
Greene said he'll discuss not just the importance of equipment maintenance, but the need for skiers to pay vigilant attention to their own level of fatigue and, even more important, weather conditions. "When I was at Vail, we could tell from the weather what kind of injuries we would see that day. If the snow was soft and powdery, you would typically see more ligament injuries from skis getting stuck in a bank. If the snow conditions were harder, you would have more fractures," said Greene.
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