Rich Trenholm says he reached “the pinnacle” of sports medicine after spending a month in Paris, France for the Summer Olympics.
“It took me about 15 years to get to this point where I could go to the Olympics,” he explains.
Trenholm co-owns Reactivate Muskoka, a rehabilitation clinic in Huntsville, and has served as the medical director for the annual Ironman 70.3 Muskoka race since 2010. He says his experience helping run the triathlon and knowing how to handle administrative tasks along with the other work he’s done, including at the 2019 Parapan American Games in Lima, Peru, got him the job.
“The whole Olympic medical coverage could be very stressful if you don’t have that experience,” says Trenholm about his administrative duties.
He explains his days started at 5:30 a.m. Central European Time, which is six hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone, and usually ended around midnight. “I lost track of what day it was,” he joked. Trenholm added he averaged 20,000 steps a day which, for most people, would be a difficult task to maintain for four weeks. However, he did that while lugging a 25 lbs. backpack full of medical supplies while battling the temperature, which he says hovered around 30 degrees for most of the Games.
Trenholm spent most of his time at La Concorde, which hosted the 3×3 basketball, breaking, BMX, and skateboarding events. He also supported athletes competing in the open water swimming and triathlon events.
“It was nothing short of remarkable and in some ways awe inspiring,” he says about his time in Paris.
One of the highlights for Trenholm was having a front row seat for Canadian Phil Wizard’s gold-medal winning performance in breaking. Another highlight was watching from the stands at Eiffel Tower Stadium watching the Canadian beach volleyball team of Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson play as the sun was setting.
But it’s what we didn’t see on our television or phone screens that Trenholm will always remember.
The Olympic Village was in Saint-Denis, L’Île-Saint-Denis and Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine, which is about seven kilometres outside of Paris. Trenholm says seeing the athletes put the positive or negative relationships their countries may have aside and just enjoy their time together was incredible. “All those barriers were taken away,” he says.
When it came time to compete, Trenholm says they were ready, but afterwards they were all smiles, high fiving each other, and basking in the glory that comes from representing your country on the grandest stage in sports. “It’s something I’ve never seen before,” he added.
Trenholm hopes what he has done can serve as an inspiration to people who think they’re limited because of where they’re from.
“I really want to demonstrate to anybody else – it doesn’t have to be in medicine or sports – but just because you come from Huntsville or a small community, doesn’t mean you’re limited in your opportunities,” he shares. “You have to go after it.”
