Changing the game
As part of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Medical Network, UF Health teams help athletes achieve peak performance
Whether on the track, in the pool, or on the mat, athletes at the peak of performance go farther, higher, and faster to push the limits of what’s possible. In the clinic, lab, or operating room, health care champions are built from that same DNA, inquiring, innovating, and advancing world-class care to show human progress has no finish line.
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Kevin Vincent, MD, PhD, and Heather Vincent, PhD, who met during graduate school, apply their passion for fitness to patient care and research in their roles at UF. Earlier this year, Heather Vincent presented to the International Olympic Committee on Prevention of Injury and Illness in Sport about techniques to limit stress on the body.
As the nation’s most elite athletes gear up to put their skills to the ultimate test on the global stage this summer in Paris and in winter 2026 in Italy, UF Health physicians in Gainesville and beyond are applying their gold-standard expertise to these contenders, tackling their toughest health care challenges, basic medical needs, and everything in between.
After joining the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Medical Network last fall, UF Health is part of a select group of health organizations — and the only one in the Southeast — providing care to Team USA athletes from across the country as they prepare for international competition.
For Kevin Vincent, MD ’03, PhD, who has worked with the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee for years alongside his wife, sports science expert and UF Health Sports Performance Center director Heather Vincent, PhD, this relationship is an opportunity to showcase the University of Florida’s far-reaching talent and innovations. That’s why, when the USOPC asked if UF Health would be interested in becoming a national medical center, he and his team immediately set the wheels in motion.
“They actually called us to join, and that shows you the incredibly strong reputation of UF,” says Vincent, the John H. and Mary Lou Dasburg Chair of the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation, director of the UF Health Running Medicine Clinic and medical director of the UF Health Sports Performance Center. “This partnership is for every department, every specialty, every location. We know we give exceptional care at the highest level in the country, and now everybody else is going to have an opportunity to know that, too.”
Meet a few Team USA athletes competing at their best, and the providers who help them stay in top form.
On the Right Track
Photo by Nate Guidry
Gator great Grant Holloway tackles life the same way he tackles the track: with a positive attitude and an insatiable drive to be at the top.
What began as a childhood passion for running on the playground turned into a record-breaking collegiate and professional career as a hurdler and sprinter — but these accolades didn’t come without a cost. As a member of the Florida Gators men’s track & field team, Holloway sustained a knee cartilage injury and underwent surgery with Kevin Farmer, MD, at UF Health, where the surgical team removed a piece of floating cartilage and administered plasma-rich platelet therapy to reduce inflammation, induce healing, and get Holloway back on his feet.
A professor in the department of orthopaedic surgery and sports medicine and a team physician for the UF Athletic Association, Farmer treats patients from all walks of life with injuries like torn ACLs, shoulder dislocations, and rotator cuff tears — including elite athletes like Holloway, whom he calls “one of the greatest athletes to come through UF.”
“Being an athlete very much requires a team approach: working with athletic trainers, physical therapists, and strength and conditioning coaches,” says Farmer, who completed a shoulder and elbow reconstruction fellowship at UF in 2010. “Bringing that team dynamic to the clinic allows patients to have the information they need to be an active participant in their care.”
Growing up with a physician father, Kevin Farmer, MD, saw the impact medicine can make. An athlete who played baseball as a student at Duke University, he found a career that paired medicine and sports.
After leaving UF, Holloway, now a member of Team USA, brought home a silver medal in the 110-meter hurdles in Tokyo in 2021, won gold in the 110-meter hurdles in the 2022 and 2023 World Championships, and broke his own fastest time in the men’s 60-meter hurdles during the USA Track & Field Indoor Championships. This summer, he’s setting his sights on winning gold in Paris.
“You’ve got to get to that dance healthy and happy,” says Holloway, sharing appreciation for UF Health’s role in his journey. “For the big stage, you have to have a big moment, and I think I’m ready.”
Clear every hurdle
Breaking the Ice
Photo courtesy of Elliot Markuson
Elliot Markuson spent years on the gridiron in the sweltering Southern heat as a linebacker for the University of Mississippi. After hanging up his cleats to teach English and coach football in China, a conversation with a friend upon his return to the U.S. illuminated a new path in competitive sports. Soon, he packed his life into his Jeep Wrangler and drove 17 hours to his new training ground: the cool climate of Lake Placid, New York.
Now a Team USA athlete, Markuson has swapped grass-stained uniforms for hands smudged with WD-40 as an elite bobsledder. A brakeman on the four-person team, he pushes the sled and jumps in next to last as the vehicle slides 90 mph down the ice, a feat he likens to “human dominoes.”
When years of running down the ice led to hip pain that kept him awake at night, Markuson headed back to SEC country to be treated at UF Health. In December, he underwent a hip arthroscopy to repair a torn labrum, specialized tissue that lines the hip socket, with Ryan Roach, MD.
For first-generation college graduate Ryan Roach, MD, his passion for soccer sparked his pursuit of higher education. After taking a biology course while playing for Purchase College, he decided to pursue health care to combine his love for science and athletics.
A clinical assistant professor in the department of orthopaedic surgery and sports medicine, Roach treats conditions common to active populations, including elbow, shoulder, knee, and hip issues. He has a particular interest in core muscle injury surgery and hip arthroscopy like what he performed on Markuson, who he says handled recovery “like a champ.”
“What’s great about my job is that I care for a spectrum of athletes, from an active pickleballer or local high school athlete to our Florida Gators and Team USA members,” Roach says. “And I approach them all with the same level of commitment.”
Three months after surgery, Markuson slid past rehabilitation milestones and jumped back in the sled. Next, he’s preparing to compete for the upcoming 2024-25 bobsled season.
“There were times in my life where I was like, ‘I have no idea what I’m doing,’ but you get down the road and you realize everything is a culmination,” he says. “What makes a great athlete, leader, and person is having the ability to embrace adversity as if it were a friend, because without it you wouldn’t be where you are today.”
A Running Start
Photo courtesy of USOPC; Photo by Nate Guidry
For Grace Norman, sports are in her genes. The daughter of a swimmer and a runner, she grew up in Ohio playing peewee soccer, tee-ball, and basketball and going on family bike rides and runs with her parents and sisters. When her dad took up triathlons in 2010, her interest in combining swimming, biking, and running was piqued.
Norman, who uses a prosthetic and was born without her left foot and right big toe due to experiencing constriction band syndrome in utero, went to watch the Track and Field Paralympic Trials in Indiana in 2012 and was thrilled to see athletes just like her competing at the highest levels. She made up her mind to start training for the world stage, and her future was forged.
Four years later, Norman took home a gold medal in the paratriathlon and a bronze medal in the 400-meter race in track & field in Rio as a member of Team USA. Four years after that, she snatched a silver medal in the paratriathlon in Tokyo.
When Norman began experiencing low iron levels and fatigue that kept her from training to her full potential, she came to UF Health in February. Anita Rajasekhar, MD ’04, helped her get back in the race.
A professor in the department of medicine, Rajasekhar treats disorders of the blood, including bleeding and clotting disorders; low or high red blood cell, white blood cell or platelet counts; sickle cell disease and more.
Growing up seeing her mother care for veterans, Anita Rajasekhar, MD, followed in her footsteps to pursue a career in medicine. An avid tennis player, she enjoys sharing her perspective on the satisfaction of working toward a fitness goal and the mental health benefits of exercise with her patients.
“Treating patients like Grace is an honor,” says Rajasekhar, a College of Medicine graduate who also completed an internal medicine residency and hematology and oncology fellowship at UF. “I’m so inspired by elite athletes who display such dedication to excellence. I look forward to meeting some of the strongest athletes of our time and hearing about their journey to the top, as well as their failures and how they have overcome obstacles so I can translate that into everyday patient care.”
This summer, Norman is turning her attention to competing in Paris.
“I love being able to push my body and develop into a stronger version of myself,” she says. “Each time I compete, it is an opportunity to push my limits and see how fast I can go. Winning gold is just the icing on the cake.”
