Family Medicine Training Set Foundation for Olympic Team Doc

When the Winter Olympics return to the United States in 2034, Jaworski won’t have to travel nearly as far to do what she loves.

“I look out my window from home, and I can see the Soldier Hollow venue where the Nordic skiing goes on,” said Jaworski, medical director for the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, the non-profit organization responsible for maintaining Utah’s Olympic facilities. “I do a lot of coverage there now. I hope they will include me in that, but I’m happy to help anywhere they need me.”

Since 2022, Jaworski has been the associate director of sports performance in Park City for Intermountain Health, which has 34 hospitals and roughly 400 clinics in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Wyoming and Utah.

She was just a few years removed from completing her family medicine residency and sports medicine fellowship when she volunteered for the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. Then the head team physician at NCAA Division III North Park University in Chicago, Jaworski found herself serving on the Salt Lake Organizing Committee.

“I was fortunate because one of my residency colleagues had done her fellowship in Salt Lake, and she told me about the opportunity to sign up as a volunteer,” Jaworski said. “That’s a great thing for other physicians to know with the Summer Games coming to Los Angeles in 2028 and the Winter Games returning to Salt Lake: A really nice way to get involved with the Olympic movement is to volunteer when it's in our country.”

At the 2002 Games, Jaworski covered long track speed skating alongside orthopedic surgeon Eric Heiden, M.D., the former five-time speed skating gold medalist.

“That was a surreal moment that’s come full circle,” she said. “Now I practice in Park City, and we stand on the high school football sidelines together. It’s fun to see how connections continue to grow and progress through the years. I have been extremely fortunate in my career to be in the right place at the right time. Family medicine training really lends itself to being a good team physician. I’ve told all my trainees — residents and fellows — that it’s so important to be a good primary care physician first. That makes you an even better team physician, which is about being able to take care of an athlete in all aspects of their health. Who better than a family doctor to do that?”

Jaworski played basketball and tennis in high school and was a rower for a club crew team in college. She said she has always “been intrigued by the human body and what it can do.”

“The most important thing to me is the promotion of exercise is medicine,” said Jaworski, the president-elect of the American College of Sports Medicine. “That’s been woven through all of my sports medicine encounters and adventures, and you don’t have to be an Olympian to get the benefits of exercise.”

Jaworski said she benefited from growing up with a mother who was a teacher.

“Education has always been a big component of what I’ve grown up around.” she said. “That’s been pivotal in my own success because I’ve been able to explain things to patients and athletes in a way that they understand.”

Jaworski has deep roots in Illinois and attended medical school at Loyola before training at the MacNeal Family Medicine Residency. After five years at North Park, she served as the head team physician and director of intercollegiate sports medicine for Northwestern University in Evanston for four years. She moved on to NorthShore University HealthSystem in Glenview, where she was the director of the Division of Sports Medicine in the Department of Family Medicine as well as director of the sports medicine fellowship program for more than a decade.

During her time in Chicago, Jaworski worked numerous high-profile events, including serving as the medical director of the musical Hamilton, team physician for U.S. Soccer, medical director for U.S. Figure Skating and lead physician for the Chicago Marathon.

However, the opportunity in Park City offered the chance to care for Olympians and Paralympians and conduct research with world-class athletes on a more regular basis.

“It is challenging my brain in a new way,” she said. “It’s hard to give up a practice of 20-plus years where you know everyone and every referral network in the whole city. It’s been a process, but I’m learning and meeting great new people here. Being a good family physician and having passion for what I do is what got me to where I am today. Family medicine doctors rise to the top because we’re traditionally nice people, and if you’re a good person, you’re competent and you’re compassionate, I think that will take you far.”