Just keep swimming
Alumna and faculty member Katie Edenfield, M.D. ’07, goes from pool to clinic to world stage
Katie Edenfield, M.D., '07, a team physician with USA Swimming, traveled to Paris this summer to treat athletes competing on the world stage.
Photo courtesy of Katie Edenfield, M.D. '07
Sept. 17, 2024 — Katie Edenfield’s path to medicine started in the swimming pool. As a student athlete at the University of Florida, she aimed for a career in sports, considering fields including physical therapy, nutrition, and athletic training. But her interest in becoming a physician was piqued when a swimming and diving teammate shared his plans to pursue medicine.
Now a clinical associate professor in the Department of Community Health and Family Medicine, the associate program director for the sports medicine fellowship and a team physician with the University Athletic Association and USA Swimming, Edenfield, M.D. ’07, blends her passions for sports and health care on a daily basis. Most recently, her work was seen on the global stage when she traveled to Paris with USA Swimming this summer.
“In both swimming and medicine, there’s a lot of hard work, goal setting, and grind to get to your desired outcome,” says Edenfield, a College of Medicine graduate who joined the faculty in 2011. “You need to be adaptable and flexible and expect the unexpected. Nothing’s ever going to go completely the way you think — like your goggles could fall off when you dive into the pool — and you need to be able to overcome challenges. There’s also the component of relying on your teammates and colleagues and their support and encouragement.”
Growing up playing basketball in Winter Springs, Edenfield found her stride in swimming during middle school thanks to prompting from her older brother. She credits the moment when her high school coach encouraged her to pursue the sport at the collegiate level, along with her experience swimming for the Florida Gators, as turning points in her life.
Edenfield walked on to the Florida Gators swim team while pursuing her undergraduate studies at UF.
Photo courtesy of Katie Edenfield, M.D. '07
After she set her sights on a career in medicine during her senior year as an undergraduate student, she landed a job as a medical assistant at a local dermatology office and thought she had settled on a specialty. But in her third year of medical school at UF, another turning point came when she rotated in family medicine and met a sports medicine resident. It was then she realized she could marry her love of athletics with her interest in performing procedures and being involved in mental health and women’s health.
She left UF to pursue a family medicine residency at the University of South Florida – Morton Plant Mease in Clearwater but returned to Gainesville for her fellowship training in sports medicine and has since made it her home.
As a faculty member and team physician at UF, her days are split between teaching fellows, seeing student athletes in the athletic training room, treating acute care injuries such as broken bones or lacerations at the UF Student Health Care Center, holding a sports medicine clinic to evaluate musculoskeletal issues, and fielding calls from athletic trainers with athletes who need treatment. On nights and weekends she can be found on the sidelines covering events, and she also carves out time for clinical research, collaborating with colleagues at UF and other institutions to study sports cardiology.
Edenfield and her husband met while she was in medical school and he was in law school at UF. Here, the couple celebrates Edenfield's graduation from the UF College of Medicine in 2007.
Photo courtesy of Katie Edenfield, M.D. '07
While in her early days on the faculty at the College of Medicine, Edenfield completed a sports medicine rotation at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center, where she intersected with sports such as wrestling, para -swimming, wheelchair basketball, and figure skating. She learned the ins and outs of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee and worked with multiple disciplines, including physical therapists, chiropractors, and athletic trainers, an experience that came in handy over the past three years, when she served as a team physician with USA Swimming.
In this role, she traveled alongside some of the most elite athletes to Hungary, Japan, and more as they followed their journeys to the world stage. Her time with the team culminated in a trip to Paris this summer to treat her patients as they competed for the most coveted medals in sports.
“At UF, I swam with quite a few Olympians, and my head coach at the time had been a coach on some Olympic teams, so I was surrounded by the history and tradition of the Olympic Games,” Edenfield says. “When I came back to UF to practice sports medicine, I was working as a team physician with a lot of Olympic-level athletes. It is a dream to represent Team USA as part of the ‘team behind the team’ supporting these athletes.”
While in Paris this summer, Edenfield helped athletes acclimate to new surroundings, time zones, and dietary offerings, navigate infectious diseases, such as flu and COVID-19, and more.
Photo courtesy of Katie Edenfield, M.D. '07
In addition to acclimating to new surroundings, time zones, and dietary offerings, Edenfield says the most common health care concerns athletes have include infectious diseases, such as flu and COVID-19, and gastrointestinal issues. Though she says these concerns are typical in international travel and competition, it’s important to be prepared for anything and to adapt to the resources available.
When she’s not helping athletes compete at their best, the former Ironman competitor spends time with her husband, dog, and two children and stays as active as possible. She still loves the water and enjoys going to the beach and paddle boarding.
“I mostly swim on the weekends, as it’s hard to fit that activity in during the workday,” she says. “But it does still make me happy.”
