‘I always liked trying to figure things out, and I still do now’

As the Olympics begin this week in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Columbus family practice physician William E. Roundtree will be there as part of the medical team.

This will be the third Olympics that Roundtree, 63, has worked. He will be in the high performance training center with athletes competing in track and field, volleyball, water polo and sailing.

Roundtree recently sat down with senior reporter Chuck Williams and photographer Robin Trimarchi to talk Olympics, medicine, the Army and Columbus.

Here are excerpts of that interview edited for length and clarity.

Q: How does being an Army physician prepare you for a career as a family practice doctor once you leave the Army?

A: Well, it’s changed a little bit, but back then we did a lot more in the military. I don’t know how much they do now, but back then we did a lot. I was well trained when I got out. Of course, I did my sports medicine fellowship when I was still in the military. In fact, I did two fellowships. I did one in sports medicine and one in research and family medicine at UNC.

Q: When you look now, a lot of the injuries that are suffered on an Army post are probably similar to what an athlete would suffer on an athletic field, right?

A: Yeah, absolutely.

Q: In what ways?

A: Well, after I did my sports medicine fellowship at Hughston, it kind of programmed me to look for certain injuries and so when I came back on active duty at Fort Benning they gave me my own clinic out at Sand Hill. ... Sometimes I’d have to read 30, 40 X-rays a day. I’d see a lot of the basic trainees, a lot of the injuries that the troop medical clinics did and wanted some input in.

Q: What made you stay in Columbus and set up your practice here?

A: Well, No. 1 was my wife.

Q: Always works that way, doesn’t it?

A: Yeah. I like Columbus. I think that was it, and plus my wife. When I finished at Fort Benning I went to Fort Bragg for about four or five years, then I came back to Fort Benning.

Q: Is your wife from here?

A: She’s from Columbus, yeah.

Q: Where were you raised?

A: I was in North Carolina.

Q: What part?

A: Little town called Winterville, N.C., about three miles from Greenville.

Q: Did you grow up on a farm?

A: Yeah, I grew up on a farm. My grandparents raised me because my parents separated when I was young. My grandparents raised me, my sister and my brother.

Q: What kind of farm?

A: Well, we had tobacco, we had cotton, corn.

Q: How big was it?

A: Well, we were more like sharecroppers. We worked for other people. My grandmother actually had some land. She would rent it out and we would work the crops and so forth. That’s kind of how we did it.

Q: So ’50s, ’60s and early ’70s — what about growing up on a sharecropper farm in North Carolina led you to want to be a doctor, to want to pursue that career path?

A: Well, one, I always liked medicine, I always liked science. I always liked trying to figure things out and I still do now. People come to you with certain injuries, you try to figure out what’s going on, what the bio-mechanics are. I always was interested in science.

Q: You were a good student from the start?

A: Yeah, pretty much. I tell other people this: actually, medical school was easier than college to me. I didn’t really study as hard as I did in medical school. I studied hard in medical school because I enjoyed what I did. It was nothing for me to stay up seven, eight hours studying.

Q: Where did you go to medical school?

A: Wake Forest.

Q: When did you decide, I’m going to be a doctor?

A: Pretty much, I think when I was in high school or even earlier because I had a couple cousins that were physicians that actually lived very close to me.

Q: In Columbus now, you’ve been practicing here since 1990, so your practice here is well established, right?

A: Right.

Q: How difficult is it to establish a medical practice when you’re not from that area? You’re establishing your own business. Is that difficult?

A: Yeah, I think that’s very difficult now. You find very few physicians that will just come out and go into private practice now. Insurance is much more difficult, you’ve got to get on panels. I still go to the hospital and do hospital medicine, but most physicians now don’t do that.

Q: You also do a lot of work with local athletes, right? You’re the team physician for Carver?

A: ... Well, when we did the fellowships at Hughston Clinic, Hughston usually would take care of the various schools, so they really first assigned me to Central and then I worked there for one year. When I finished my fellowship, Dr. Hunt, at that time, who was my mentor, he said, “Well, which school do you want to do, ’Tree?” I kind of thought about it a little bit. I’m close to Columbus High, but yeah, at that time I think Carver needed a physician so I decided to take care of Carver.

Q: You’ve been doing Carver for how long?

A: Since 1990.

Q: You’ve taken care of guys that have played in the NFL. What’s it like to see somebody like a Brentson Buckner — or somebody that you worked with when they were at Carver — what’s it like to see them all of a sudden playing in the NFL?

A: Well, it makes you watch the team that they’re playing with. If you hadn’t been watching it, you kind of follow them and keep up with them. If they get injured you kind of read through, read the briefs and see what kind of injury they have. You say, well, they may have had that injury before. You kind of know something about the athlete already.

Q: Let’s talk a little bit now about how you got involved with the U.S. Olympic Team.

A: Well, I started with the Olympic Committee in 1989 — really, this is my second generation with the Olympic Committee. Basically, when I finished my fellowship, during that time the USOC had preceptorships that physicians could come up and do. If they felt that you were a good physician, they would ask you back to do one of the games. I did what you call the Olympic Festival in ’89.

Q: Where was that?

A: That was in Oklahoma City and the University of Oklahoma.

Q: What do physicians do for the Olympic Committee?

A: Generally, depending on your responsibility, you serve as team physician, you monitor the medications. If one of the athletes gets injured, you make sure he gets the correct medicine, that it’s not a banned substance. Usually, we have access to their medical histories and a lot of times we review the medical histories and see if they’ve got certain injuries. We’ll sometimes review the medications and see if they are taking certain medicine. Most of them are aware of what they should and shouldn’t take, but occasionally the younger athlete we have to pay a little more attention to.

Q: What was the first Olympic Games you worked?

A: I did the ’92 Olympics in Albertville, France. I was team physician for bobsled and luge.

Q: How many Olympic Games have you done?

A: Well, this will be the third (Olympics). It’s the second team I’ve been on. There’s a little difference there, because I’d been a team physician for the United States Track and Field since 1996. That’s how I came back into the Olympics again. When I did my early years with the Olympics, typically if you did a Pan-American Games or Olympic Games, they usually would retire you and try to get other physicians. What happened was in ’96 when Atlanta Olympics came then I worked the Atlanta Olympics just for ACOG, which is different from the Olympic Games. The USA Track and Field asked me to work with them. I’ve been working with them ever since. I came back into the Olympic Games this time through USA track.

Q: What teams are you going to be working with this year?

A: Well, this year I’ll be the head medical director for the high performance training center. They have three at the Olympic Games.

Q: What’s a high performance training center?

A: Basically that’s where the different athletes will come and practice until their competition.

Q: It’s a warm-up venue.

A: Warm-up, practice, yeah.

Q: You will be head of medical there, for what sports?

A: We’ll have track and field, we have volleyball, we have water polo and we have sailing.

Q: You’ve got to watch those sailors, don’t you? You don’t want them to pull an oblique or something. How can you get hurt sailing?

A: Well, you know what? I’ve never taken care of the sailing team. They are assigned to my venue, but I think this time I’ll be concerned about cuts, abrasions and stuff.

Q: Because of the water quality?

A: Yeah. I’ve been reading up on that. That will be my biggest concern with them.

Q: There is poor water quality in some of the water venues there, right?

A: Yeah, that is what I’ve heard. What I know about it is pretty much what I read.

Q: Will you test the water?

A: It’s been tested.

Q: Give me an example of a typical track and field injury?

A: Usually, well, Achilles tendinitis is very common. Plantar fasciitis we see a lot of. That’s pretty much in your sprinters and runners. Hamstring pulls, as we saw in sprinters. In the throwers, they get rotator cuff tendinitis a lot, patella tendinitis. Those are the primary ones. Most of the athletes are well conditioned. When they get to that level they’re very well conditioned.

Q: When you’re taking care of these guys, do you have an appreciation for their fitness levels and their skill sets?

A: Absolutely. It’s remarkable. I actually learn from the athletes. The marathoners, one thing that you always ask them is what do you do, how do you train, what do you take? What do you do to rehab an injury? Most of them have done a lot of different things so you can actually learn from them. Of course, what you learn from one athlete sometimes you can pass on to another.

Q: When you start talking to these athletes, you get to see them in very intense and sometimes vulnerable times, right?

A: Absolutely. I think of their focus and determination. Most of them are well focused. They’re determined. Most of the time — depending, I’ve done junior athletes and of course the Olympic athletes, usually the Olympic level — he kind of knows what he needs when he comes to you and it’s up to me to try to help him the best way I can.

Q: How well do those athletes know their own body?

A: It’s kind of like your car. When you’re driving every day and something is not right, you know it.

Q: It may be a tough question, but who’s your most favorite athlete you’ve dealt with over the course of doing all this?

A: Well, probably Jackie Joyner, Gail Devers. They were both sprinters.

Gail Devers, very pleasant lady. Both of them were very nice. Mary Decker Slaney. This was probably back in ’97, she was a middle distance runner. Very nice, very pleasant.

Q: These were all champions.

A: Champions, yeah. Medals, yes.

Q: Can you look at somebody that you’re treating and you go, “That guy is going to be on the medal stand?”

A: I’m not sure if I can. When they get at that level, to me it doesn’t seem like it’s a whole lot of difference in each one of them. If their anxiety level is higher their performance may be just a little bit lower. I think on any given day one may surprise you.

Q: Does this job come with a lot of pressure?

A: Not really. I enjoy doing it. You always want to do your best, but it’s really no pressure.

Q: Will you pay your own way to Rio?

A: No, they pay your expenses.

Q: Do you stay in the village?

A: I normally have stayed in the village, but this time our practice venue is a little far away; so my staff is going to be in a hotel for a month.

Q: Let’s talk about the climate we’re in today. In 1996, you had a bombing in Olympic Park in Atlanta. Flash forward 20 years, and what’s going on in our world, are you concerned about security going into Rio?

A: Well, yeah. I think that’s a concern pretty much now any time I travel overseas. I’m not as concerned in Brazil as I would be going maybe to Europe or somewhere. I do know that the Olympic Committee is concerned about it. We had a conference call today and we spoke probably 20 minutes just on security.

Q: What’s the thing you’re most worried about in Rio?

A: Well, we kind of looked at the concerns. No. 1 would be petty crime. No. 2 would be Zika (virus) and No. 3 would be probably terrorism. That’s kind of how we prioritized it about six to eight weeks ago.

Q: Is what’s happened in recent weeks with terror moved that up the list?

A: I think so. From my standpoint it has not, but I think from the State Department and our security personnel, I think it’s moved up some from what I can pick up from our conversations.

Q: How long will you be over there?

A: About four weeks.

Q: Are you taking family with you?

A: No, my family is not going. Generally, when we do these games they really want you around. My venue opens at 6 in the morning and closes at 9 at night. Usually, if I’m not there all the time, I’m not too far away.

Q: What’s your favorite sport?

A: Well, it’s got to be track and field now because, yeah, I’ve been doing it for 20 years.

Q: What have you done to get ready for the water polo guys?

A: Well, really not much. I took care of water polo in 1991 at the World University Games in England and I remember then there was not very much if any injuries.

Q: What are some of your takeaways from the games personally?

A: Well, for me it’s probably sometimes you see unusual injuries. Sports psychology is one example. I remember, and you’ll know the athlete — I won’t call the name, because she was in the news here recently — but she injured her ankle. During that time we had a sports psychologist that worked with us. He used to be an Olympic hurdler and he worked out of UCLA. She came to my room and she said, “Doc, my ankle’s been hurting.” She was crying. It was an indoor championship.

I happened to be talking to the sports psychologist and he said, “Tree, let me talk to her.” I said, “OK, OK.” I think part of it, she was just concerned because she was injured and she practiced so hard and she was concerned about performance. He talked with her and the last comment he said, he said, “I want you to come see me before your competition tomorrow.” Sure enough, about 30 minutes before her competition she came to see him. He talked with her for a little bit.

He said, “Now, you will not have any pain until you finish your competition.” Do you know that she ran and she had a personal best? As soon as she crossed the finish line she fell over, but she had a personal best time. She didn’t complain of pain until she finished. I said, “I’ve never really been that keen on hypnosis.” He said, “Well, Tree, athletes are some of the easiest people to hypnotize because they’re already focused and they want to do well.” You’ve got to have the right person. He said athletes, they really want to do well so they’ll latch onto what you say. We have a sports psychologist with us every competition.

Q: You see these people in a totally different way than we see them on TV. How fragile are these world class athletes both mentally and physically?

A: Some of them are very fragile. Usually, when we go to the training room, I’ll kind of sit around and kind of watch them and see how they interact. Some of them may be shy. Some are very anxious. I did the Pan-Am Games last year. One of the athletes, I took her to be very anxious and maybe what we would consider Type-A personality.

She came up to me. She just wanted to know that I would be around. She came up and said, “Dr. Roundtree, I need to let you know” — she was a marathon runner — “when I get to the finish line a lot of times I’ll pass out and I’ll have bloody diarrhea.” I said, “OK, yeah, I’ll be around.” She just wanted to know that I would be there. I remember that just before last lap you could see her looking over to see if you were around, you know? That just makes them feel comfortable.

Q: You’re a pretty laidback guy, right?

A: Pretty much.

Q: Does that fit well in this environment?

A: Yes, it does.

Q: Because not a lot excites you, right?

A: Well, yeah, I get excited. I don’t really show it. Sometimes you show it around patients and they get excited too.

Q: Obviously you shut your business down for a month.

A: Actually, I hired a locum tenens. He’ll work for one month.

Q: How much longer are you going to do this?

A: I don’t know. I’m going to keep on working. I have no plans to stop right now. I enjoy what I’m doing so I’ll keep going.

Q: You have no plans to retire anytime soon?

A: Not anytime soon. Nope.

Q: Do you have any hobbies? What do you do?

A: Love golf. Can’t wait to see the Olympic golf course.

Q: Are you going to play it?

A: If I have time available I would like to play it, but I’m not sure if I can.

Q: What about golf relaxes you?

A: After a hard day at work you can come hit the ball. You can’t play golf unless you focus and you’re relaxed. If you’re not relaxed and focused you’re not going to play well.

Q: You say relaxed and focused. They seem to contradict each other.

A: Yeah. I think they go together. A lot of times if you focus you’re relaxed.

This story was originally published July 29, 2016 at 8:30 PM with the headline "‘I always liked trying to figure things out, and I still do now’."