
Deirdre McLoughlin ‘09 leveraged a walk-on rowing team opportunity in college to physical therapy Olympic expertise
Standing in the parking lot of a boathouse in Princeton, NJ, where the men and women’s national rowing teams were conducting pre-Olympic workouts, Deirdre McLoughlin couldn’t help but pinch herself. Life’s path had taken the New Jersey native to undergraduate and graduate school in Boston, a professional career in California, and now the 2009 MGH Institute graduate was just a few weeks away from working the Olympic Games in Paris, her third as a physical therapist for the U.S. Men’s and Women’s rowing teams.
“It is surreal, I have to admit, when I look at where I have ended up,” said McLoughlin. “Working at the Olympics is something I never envisioned when I entered the MGH Institute’s doctoral program but look at how things turned out.
“Being at the Games is such an honor and privilege but it’s a lot of pressure too. There is a little part of me that says, ‘I just can't wait for it to be over in the sense that everybody made it. They're all done. They all raced. Those are successful Games. My job is to make sure everyone is at full strength, full capacity, and can get to the starting line.”
The starting line at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, where the Olympic rowing competition begins on Saturday, is a long way from being a walk-on rower at Boston University, where McLoughlin competed for four years.
“My rowing career was not as great as my PT career,” said McLoughlin with a chuckle. “We won the Head of the Charles one year – that was a big moment for us. We were in the Open 8 with all the national teams and everything. Two national teams beat us but we were the first collegiate team. That was my senior year and that was my biggest excitement because the Head of the Charles is just the best race ever, second to the Olympics.”
When her eligibility ran out, McLoughlin volunteered to help coach the BU rowing team as she pursued her master’s degree in physical therapy. After working at the Deaconess Hospital (now Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) in Boston and then broadening her skills in a variety of settings including acute care, in-patient rehab care, pediatrics, home care and orthopedics, McLoughlin launched her own physical therapy business, Resolute Rehab, in 2006. Not long after that, she began the doctorate in Physical Therapy program at the MGH Institute.
“It was like taking that next step of putting a little more pressure on yourself to say, ‘Can you do this? Do you feel like you can really have that title that says DPT? Do you feel like you can own that?’ explained McLoughlin on why she pursued a doctorate. “It's the opposite of imposter syndrome. It's like trying to put yourself on the national team and taking that risk.”
As the former rower obtained more education, she also took bold steps, such as pursuing a job with the U.S. National Rowing team. Step one was to approach the team doctor at the 2006 NCAA rowing championships.
“How did I have the courage to do that?” McLoughlin asks rhetorically. “I wasn't working in the field for a long time, but I had that courage, and that's at the same time that I applied to do my doctorate and step up into that role. I would say having the MGH Institute program available made me consider pursuing the U.S. Rowing Team.”
McLoughlin continued working the NCAA championships with the University of California Berkeley women’s rowing team (a position she has held since 2004), which she credits for keeping her race day skills sharp.
“One year we had an athlete with a rib fracture the day before the final and you say to yourself, ‘What am I going to do? How am I going to get this kid going?’” said McLoughlin. “It’s helpful to do those because all of that practice make you better. At that race I figured out that if I created this little foam block and taped it to her rib, it would hold her rib and make her feel better. So, we called it the Fake Rib, and they won NCAAs and I have a little piece of Fake Rib foam in my office. I feel like, now I'm really prepared because I have some more tricks under my sleeve.”
Tricks that come because, as a former rower, she has firsthand experience with rowing and its impact on the body.
“If you want to work in a sport, knowing the sport gives you a huge advantage,” reasoned McLoughlin. “I'm not the best physical therapist in the world, but I know the sport, and there's just not that many PTs who rowed. And I coached rowing for a long time too. And so, when someone comes to the table with some shoulder pain, I can immediately say, ‘Let me look at some video. Let me see what's happening.”
After earning her doctorate from the IHP in 2009, McLoughlin’s big break came in 2012 when she auditioned for the physical therapy staff of the U.S. Olympic rowing team.
“Basically, you volunteer for two weeks, and they kind of throw you the wolves, and they judge you, and if you pass, then you get to be in the pool of physical therapists,” recalls McLoughlin. “My first trip was 2012 - the Men's 8 selection group came out to Oakland to train for the final Olympic qualifying regatta. I volunteered and asked if they wanted some help.
“The athletes liked me, and then after that, I was invited to go to the World Championships in 2013 which I suppose would be my next try out. Since then, I've gone to Worlds every year. The athletes fill out a survey at the end of a race or after a big event. I never see the results of the survey, but I guess I've received good grades from them.”
McLoughlin’s successful run with the U.S. Rowing team led to her serving as a physical therapist during the Pan Am Games in 2015. Then the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the 2020 Games in Tokyo (which actually took place is 2021 due to COVID), and now the 2024 Games in Paris. Travelling the world for weeks at a time is a thrill for sure, but it’s not all triumph and joy for the athletes, especially at the Olympic trials.
“There’s a lot more heartbreak than there is joy,” said McLoughlin. “I know all of the athletes who are racing and trying to make the Olympic team. I've worked with all of them, and they've all sat on my PT table, and I’ve tried to help them. I’ve seen all of their progressions and their dreams, and not everyone will make the Olympics. For those that don’t, you give them a big hug, and an ‘I'm so sorry’ because their Olympic dream just dissolved. And for those that make the team, you give a big high 5, but not crazy, because you want to be respectful of the other athletes who are devastated.
“The TV Olympics are full of joy, medals, and excitement. But in the behind-the-scenes Olympics, not everybody is going to get a medal.”
As she helps her athletes stay fined tuned, loose, and ready for what comes starting Saturday, McLoughlin shakes her head in amazement at where she is, while being grateful for everyone who helped along the way. It took a village, an Olympic one at that.
“I just feel a real sense of gratitude towards everyone that's helped me get here whether it’s my initial physical therapy school, Boston University, or the MGH Institute where I got my doctorate,” said McLoughlin, fondly. “It’s my parents, my wife and two grown kids who put up with my traveling. It’s everyone who supported me to do this part of my job to help these athletes. I'm just grateful to be here, happy to be here, and hoping that we get some medals.”
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