Sustaining a sporting life

For elite athletes, sports is more than
an activity, it’s a lifestyle. But what
happens when overtaxed bodies break
down and threaten to stop working?

Story by Bob Albrecht

John Givot / Contributing Photographer

Dominika Dieskova, shown here practicing at the University of Oregon, doesn’t compete when injured, an approach she hopes will extend her career as a tennis player.

From 2001 through 2005, Daria Panova was the University of Oregon’s top singles player and finished her tennis career with a 91-47 record and the most wins in UO history.

Despite Panova’s winning record, she was plagued by injuries in her last two years of college and retired from competitive tennis at the end of her amateur career — at 23.

Panova’s former doubles partner, Dominika Dieskova, recently ended her UO career second to Panova in wins. She holds the school record for most matches played.

Dieskova turns 23 this summer. With her collegiate career behind her, she will now take her game to the professional level.

All athletes strive for the sort of longevity that Dieskova has managed to maintain, but many struggle to actually attain it. Throughout her career Dieskova has avoided injuries by understanding her body’s limits, and this has made her professional career possible. Dieskova grew up as part of a sports culture that pumps time, money and energy into athletes while they are young, and this often results in early burnout — be it mentally or physically.

The following athletes’ stories show that eating, training and resting effectively are keys to maintaining the body.

Dominika Dieskova

While Dieskova would like to enjoy the success of professional tennis players like Martina Hingis and Jennifer Capriati, she is determined to avoid sharing something else with the former stars – early retirement.

Because of the grueling schedule of year-round competition, tennis players often find themselves hanging up the racket by the time they turn 25. At 22, Dieskova has just wrapped up her collegiate career as a member of the Oregon Ducks and is preparing to test her skills on the professional circuit.

She said that as a result of her decision to play in college, she is in better shape at her age than someone who has already been on the professional circuit for five years. The college tennis season runs from January to May instead of all year like the professional season, enabling Dieskova to rest her body and train more effectively so she can improve her tennis skills.

“I’m not the youngest anymore,” Dieskova said. “A lot depends on how your body is and I’m pretty healthy.”

A native of Bratislav, Slovakia, Dieskova has played competitive tennis for the last 15 years. Prior to attending UO, she spent time playing on the junior levels of the professional circuit where she learned the importance of taking care of her body.

Feeling even the slightest aches and pains, she would withdraw from tournaments rather than push her body too far and risk the possibility of causing long-term damage.

Dieskova remembers taking days off to rest minor injuries, like a sore hamstring, just to make sure they didn’t develop into something she would have to pay for down the road.

“I never played when I was injured,” she said. “That’s why I’m still healthy and didn’t have any serious injuries.”

Managing her training schedule around practices and tournaments has always been one of Dieskova’s highest priorities. During the season she spends the majority of her practice time refining her skills instead of lifting weights or increasing her cardiovascular fitness.

“Training smart means knowing how far you can go,” Dieskova said. “You don’t want to over train. When you have long-term goals and want to play tennis for a while there is no sense in pushing it.”

“It’s better to go to a tournament at 100 percent than 60 or 70 percent and risk hurting yourself further.”

Dieskova says she has learned a lesson from watching her former partner, Panova, fight knee injuries throughout her tennis career.

“I saw her struggle with injuries and it just reminded me that I need to take care of my body,” Dieskova said.

UO trainer Tom Embree has spent 11 years as a trainer for the women’s basketball and tennis teams and has helped both Dieskova and Panova.

Embree said he believes the differing styles of play might be one reason why Panova has struggled with injuries and Dieskova has not.

Panova’s style requires her to constantly change direction, putting pressure on her knees.

“Dominika has a big serve and wins a lot of points that way,” Embree said. “Daria wasn’t so much a power serve player; she just stayed back on the baseline and hit the ball. Her style probably contributed to her injuries.”

Dieskova regularly practices yoga and gets massages to help with flexibility and soreness so that she can avoid stretching her muscles and ligaments.

“Some players can play until they're 30, while (Kim) Clijsters retired at the age 23,” Dieskova said, adding no matter what shape the body is in, “it just depends on how much you love it and how much you’re enjoying it.”

Ben Mangin / Contributing Photographer

Despite being diagnosed with anemia, Jordan McNamara continues to run for the Lane Community College cross country team and plans to run for the University of Oregon team next year.

Jordan McNamara

Jordan McNamara’s freshman cross-country season at the University of Washington couldn’t have started any better.

On a team full of talented upperclassmen, McNamara finished in the top three in Washington’s lineup in each of his first three races. Everything seemed to be going his way.

Then, he hit a wall in his training.

McNamara, who ran 85 to 90 miles per week during the summer as part of his training, started experiencing shortness of breath and fatigue in his practice sessions. He said he had a difficult time going on light jogs and completing pre-practice warm-ups.

Running — his longtime passion — became a chore.

“I started noticing in the times I ran that my mile splits were about 30 seconds slower than normal and it would feel like I was running 30 seconds faster,” McNamara said. “I’d be running downhill and it would feel like I was going up Everest. I had become a completely different runner.”

McNamara said he didn’t know how to respond, so he pushed harder. When he got tired, he sped up.

He blocked out the pain and tried to break through what he thought was nothing more than a tough stretch in training.

“I trained harder and that did more harm than good,” he said. “It was really frustrating and I started to dislike running. I just couldn’t get in shape again.”

McNamara’s parents urged him to go to the doctor. Blood test results came back a few days later and revealed McNamara had a blood disorder called anemia.

The disorder, caused by an iron deficiency, makes it difficult for red blood cells to transfer oxygen throughout the body.

Symptoms include a loss of energy and chronic fatigue.

While McNamara dealt with his health problems, he stopped competing and it wasn’t long before Washington coaches brushed him aside.

Just as he started to fight the anemia, he suffered a stress fracture in his right leg that kept him out of the spring track season for six weeks.

At the end of the year he decided to leave Washington.

“I wasn’t happy,” he said. “When I was injured, I just fell by the wayside.”

McNamara decided he wanted to get a fresh start to revitalize his once promising career. He contacted Lane Community College assistant coach Ross Krempley to discuss the possibility of becoming a Titan. He knew competing for LCC would give him a chance to develop ties at Oregon and he was determined to make it back to the Division 1 level. After talking to Krempley, a former Oregon runner who has maintained strong ties with the Ducks, McNamara decided to attend LCC.

If he had transferred directly to another Division 1 school, McNamara would have been forced to sit out a year because of transfer rules.

“I really liked Eugene, so Lane was a really a no-brainer as far as a school I could still run for,” McNamara said.

McNamara’s anemia required him to alter his approach to training, and he spent the first few months of his time at LCC trying to figure out how to train around the fatigue the disorder induced.

Instead of always practicing with his foot pressed on the gas pedal, McNamara had to learn how to ease off.

Previously, his workouts had included sprinting the track in 200-to 2,000-meter intervals, a couple of long runs of about 15 miles and very little rest.

Now, he has cut his track workouts down to just two per week. On the days when he needs to go for a long run, he breaks the run into four miles in the morning and then another six or seven miles in the evening.

Every 10 days he makes it a point to take a day off.

“Last year I would never take a day off,” McNamara said. He learned the hard way that “recovery is just as important as getting out there and training hard in workouts,” he said. To offset his disorder, McNamara takes nine 400-milligram iron pills every day. He has cut caffeine and soda out of his diet because he said they lower his calcium levels and add to his fatigue.

With a better understanding of his disorder, McNamara got back on the track and quickly caught the attention of Vin Lananna, the UO director of track and field.

McNamara was offered a scholarship for next year, allowing him to return to the Division 1 level as a member of the Oregon cross-country team.

“I definitely couldn’t be happier,” McNamara said.

Courtesy University of Oregon Athletic Media Services

Bev Smith coaches the Oregon women's basketball team, which she used to play for in the 1970s.

Bev Smith

Bev Smith has accomplished what Dieskova, McNamara and other athletes are working toward — she has turned athletics into a lengthy career and a lifelong activity.

In 1978, Smith enrolled at UO as a member of the women’s basketball team. Now, nearly 30 years later, after playing on the Canadian National team and as a professional in Europe, she is still involved with basketball as the head coach of the Oregon women’s basketball team.

Over the course of her career, Smith has suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury to her right knee and five arthroscopy surgeries to her left, but has managed to maintain her health and athletic career.

Coming off of her most recent surgery, Smith has pushed to rehabilitate her knee and still finds time to run with her dog and play basketball with her nephew.

After back-to-back seasons at UO in which she was honored as an All-American, Smith left the United States to play professionally Italy.

Smith said critics questioned her decision to play basketball abroad instead of settling into a more typical career.

“They would ask when I was going to get a real job,” Smith said. “Are you asking Larry Bird that?”

At the end of her first year in Italy, Smith’s team made it to the championship game.

Smith grabbed a rebound and planted to make an outlet pass, but her knee stuck and something popped.

“It was so loud I thought I had been shot,” she said.

After some time on the bench, Smith returned to the court in the second half but quickly realized her knee wasn’t working right.

She had torn her ACL, an injury that has forced many athletes into early retirement. Smith received treatment for her knee it Italy, which she said, was “nerve wracking because I was in Italy and didn’t speak the language.”

Shortly after her injury, Smith came back to Eugene and her doctor performed the surgery.

She spent four months in a cast, two more in rehab and found herself back on the court in Italy by December of 1983.

“For me it was a little disappointing and it was hard because I’d never been injured before,” Smith said. “But I just saw it as another little challenge of working out that I had to face.”

The hardest part for Smith was being away from the competition and her teammates. “That was tough,” she said. “I’m just so competitive that I hated being out. I needed to get back on the floor with my teammates.”

Smith spent 13 more seasons in Italy, as well as some time with the Canadian National team, without suffering another major injury. She said that each of the arthroscopic surgeries she has needed were caused by natural wear and tear.

Smith took to the floor for the Canadian National team during the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. The team finished fourth, barely missing out on the medals. From 1992-96 she served as team captain.

While playing for the Vivo Vicenza club, she won the Italian National Championship and the European Cup during the 1992-93 season.

At age 36, she retired from playing professionally and internationally after the ‘96 Olympics in Atlanta.

“I retired because I couldn’t get up in the morning to go to the gym and get better,” Smith said. “It made me exhausted to think about it. The game was over for me because it’s about getting better.”

Following her playing career, Smith moved onto the sidelines as a coach.

She led the Canadian National team for a few years before returning to UO in 2001.

She attributes her lasting career to a healthy diet, weightlifting and luck.

“I try to eat really well and pay attention to my diet,” Smith said. “I think that’s played a major role in my ability to stay active.”