Photo By Spc. David Ervin | Robert Skinner, human performance advisor for Preservation of the Force and Family...... read more read more
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Robert Skinner and Mackenzie White, sports dietitians for Special Operations Command Europe (SOCEUR), were selected to join the Team USA Olympic Committee for this year’s 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games.
The dietitians were hand-picked for their positions with the Olympic Committee based on a few different factors. “You have to be chosen by a senior sports dietitian that works for acrobat and combat sports. It's really based on past experiences with that person as well as your education and experience in the field,” Skinner said.
Skinner also credits his prior experience with the Olympic Committee for his recent selection. “I was at the Olympic and Paralympic Committee for six and a half years before I came over to SOCEUR, so I value it, because I know all of those athletes and coaches. I've worked with them since they were younger in their careers,” said Skinner.
Skinner and White worked with the committee as sports diet consultants. Skinner served as a volunteer performance dietitian for USA Wrestling, Skateboarding, Taekwondo, and Artistic Swimming, while White worked with the USA Gymnastics Teams.
“The day-to-day responsibilities always change depending on who’s competing and who needs what. I would get to the village by 6 a.m. with a list of teams that were going out for competition or practice. I would have nutrition support ready for them, could be a bunch of snacks or a thermos of smoothies, or it could be sitting down with an athlete and talking about their weight-descent protocol before a weigh-in the next day,” Skinner said.
Skinner often had days where he walked as many as 11 miles for varying tasks awaiting him at the Olympic Village, depending on the needs of the committee and its athletes.
The highlight from Skinner’s time with the Olympic team was watching Sarah Hildebrandt, a 2021 Olympic bronze medalist and six-time Pan-American wrestling champion, fulfill her Olympic dream. Skinner has worked with Hildebrandt for the last eight years.
“This was going to be her last competition or at least her last Olympics and she finally won her Olympic gold medal: she became an Olympic champion,” said Skinner.
As White reflected on her own Olympic experience, she stated that connections exist between Olympic athletes and service members as they both need to meticulously prepare for their tasks and duties.
“You prepare, you go to the Olympics, you’re working non-stop crazy hours…and then it's over,” said White. “Similar to a military deployment for active duty servicemembers, where they prepare, and they go on the deployment… and they come back.”
Skinner and White work for Preservation of the Force and Family (POTFF), a program for all members of SOCEUR that ensures all service members maintain peak readiness in five different domains: physical performance, mental health, cognitive ability, family, and spiritual readiness. POTFF offers health programs ranging from in-depth body composition readings to mental performance coaching.
While there are similarities in preparation between Olympic athletes and service members at SOCEUR, Skinner expressed that they do have their differences. Preparing for an Olympic match and an active-duty deployment may require both mental and physical toughness, but the consequences for the inability to perform are vastly different.
“The way we approach the two would be different, especially in the physical performance domain. For example, as an athlete, you're typically going to know the date and time of a competition, so we can prepare for that,” said Skinner.
“However, with service members potentially going into harm's way, and at a moment's notice, we kind of have to think differently,” Skinner continued. “In any sport, whether it be the Olympics, college sports, or the NFL, there’s always a game day and there’s highs and lows that come with that, like winning and losing, but with service members, the result for failure on their game day can be catastrophic, and that's not what we want here at POTFF. We want everyone to be in the best shape they can be when they are called on to do their job for SOCEUR.”
| Date Taken: | 10.24.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 10.30.2024 05:55 |
| Story ID: | 484193 |
| Location: | STUTTGART , BADEN-WURTTEMBERG, DE |
| Web Views: | 46 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, SOCEUR Staffers Reflect on Their 2024 Summer Olympics Experience, by SPC David Ervin, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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