Scott Swanson
Justin Meier once dreamed of competing in the track and field Olympic Trials and a few weeks ago that became a reality for him – at least to an extent.
Meier, who long jumped in college at Eastern Washington University, was selected, along with colleague and Sweet Home resident Mark Amendola, to work at this year’s Olympic Trials at Hayward Field in Eugene.
“It was a real treat to be there,” he said. “There is nothing like it. As much as I love track, it was great to see a whole community who loves track and it was neat to be part of it in different sense.”
Meier who grew up in Colville, Wash., has worked at Sweet Home Family Medicine since 2008 after finishing his doctorate in physical therapy.
He and Amendola have both spent extensive time treating Sweet Home High School athletes who have had injuries over the past several years under a program instituted by Samaritan Health. Amendola has since been appointed to oversee Samaritan’s local physical therapy programs, so he will no longer be based in Sweet Home.
Meier said it was his own experience at Hayward Field, where he competed in college, that convinced him to move to the area, because he liked the support for track and field that he saw in the community – particularly in Eugene.
Amendola, who had volunteered at two Olympics, convinced Meier to apply to be a volunteer trainer at the Trials.
“He kind of led me towards how to apply,” Meier said. They had to submit resumes and undergo a background check before getting an e-mail notifying them that they had been selected.
Meier said he actually started at the hammer throw, which was held at the Nike campus in Beaverton before the main Trials began.
“I was in the Tiger Woods building and they let us watch a live feed of the event on a projection screen they dropped down in the conference room we were in,” he said.
He said he got to work on two eventual national champions – shot putter Reese Hoffa and 400 hurdler Michael Tinsley.
He said he knew who Hoffa was when he came in, but he was “pleasantly surprised” at how nice he was.
“He was super humble, a super nice guy,” Meier said. “I didn’t expect that. I expected most of them not to be as humble. They were nice to us.”
He said Tinsley came in and told Meier that he was ranked third in the nation and he’d have to run under 47 seconds to make the team.
“It was neat to look up and see that he had won,” Meier said. “I worked on a bunch of other athletes, but none who placed that high.”
He actually ended up working more than he expected to because Amendola was called away to a family emergency and Meier filled in for him.
“I was there pretty much every day,” he said. “I dreamed about competing in the Trials, but once I realized that was not a possibility, I got to do it in a different way.”