The Journey Begins... US Olympic Training Center... and Powerade making

As I began the grueling task of finding an internship that would not only meet the requirements of 600 hours, but one that would be able to hold my interest long enough was daunting. I began my search with looking at anything from camps to therapy centers. With nothing coming along, I took a drastic turn and put all my energy into getting to the Olympics. My dream internship would be to work with Paralympics athletes or for the Olympic movement in some form. To my amazement and luck, my dreams came true and I’m currently an intern for the United States Olympic training center in Colorado Springs, CO working for the sports medical clinic. So far the experience has been absolutely amazing. The people are incredibly nice and every intern contributes to not only the dynamic of the group but to our tasks on the job.

My first few weeks here in Colorado at the Olympic training center have been a dream. The Olympic spirit is in full blast and you can feel the excitement around the complex. As an intern, I live here on complex in dorms with the other 20 interns, resident athletes and coaches. I also gain access to eat as much as I want from the amazing dining facility and use any of the countless gyms. My jobs duties include working at the Sports Medicine clinic, where I work as the receptionist. Although the job has lots of administrative duties, I am mainly there to observe and learn therapy and rehab from staff since I begin therapy school in the fall at UAB. Daily duties of the job include normal activities like filing, copying, answering the phones and laundry; however, one of the most important daily duties is that of making all the Powerade for all the practices on complex throughout the day. Therefore, I am basically responsible for hydrating USA’s Olympic athletes. The task seems easy enough but the perfect Powerade recipe to the likings of world class athletes is an art form that takes weeks of practice. (I should know.) I learned this particular art form after making horribly disgusting batches of Powerade on my first day of work. The day was already doomed when I lost the directions on how to make Powerade and then decided how hard could it be, so I decided to not ask for help. Wrong decision, I ended up making weak and quite nasty yellow Powerade and delivering it to the U.S Men’s Wrestling team. Needless to say they were extremely upset at me. To finish the disaster of a morning, I made the U.S Men’s gymnastics team Powerade and it quote “tasted like pixie-stixs”. After that mishap, I got a crash course in Powerade making and have yet to mess up a batch!