UF Health to continue caring for Team USA athletes through 2028 under extended agreement

Serves as a national medical center as part of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Medical Network

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado — University of Florida Health will continue providing expert medical care to Team USA athletes through the Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Italy and the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games under an extended agreement with the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee.

The renewal builds on UF Health’s first two years as part of the USOPC Medical Network, during which UF Health specialists treated more than 70 Olympic and Paralympic athletes preparing for global competition.

UF Health is one of just four national medical centers selected by the USOPC to deliver specialized sports medicine and performance care to Team USA athletes. The extended relationship ensures they will continue to benefit from the system’s advanced diagnostics, highly specialized treatments and rehabilitation services as they train and compete at the highest level.

Since UF Health became a national medical center in 2023, physician experts from more than 17 medical departments and areas from Gainesville and Jacksonville have cared for athletes from 18 sports.

UF Health also will continue to collaborate with the USOPC and other Team USA providers on various professional programs, such as a recent traumatic brain injury workshop hosted by the UF Health Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases.

“As a health care leader in the United States and home to many Team USA athletes over the years, we’re thrilled that UF Health will continue to be one of the premier medical providers who care for the unique needs of Team USA athletes,” said Jonathan Finnoff, D.O., FACSM, USOPC chief medical officer.

In 2023, UF Health became the third national medical center member of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Medical Network and the first in the southeastern U.S., where many top-caliber athletes live and train. The initial pact built on the academic health system’s long history of caring for athletes from the University of Florida, which has historically produced large numbers of world-class athletes.

“When I think of a Team USA athlete competing on the world stage, the concept of greatness and excellence comes to mind immediately. And that’s so inspiring because those exact words — greatness, excellence — resonate with the care that is delivered through UF Health each and every day,” said Steven J. Motew, M.D., M.H.A., FACS, UF Health president and system CEO. “Being a trusted medical center for Team USA sends a very clear message across not only the state of Florida, but throughout the world, that world-class care sits right here within UF Health, and is demonstrated every single day in what we do — delivering this same elite level of care to each and every one of the communities we serve.”

UF Health clinicians have provided athletes with a broad range of care, from routine health services to complex specialty surgeries.

“I thank all the people from UF Health who invested in me on my journey through hip surgery. The care was top-notch,” said bobsledder Elliot Markuson. “Now competing as a member of Team USA post-hip surgery, I have recommended them to a lot of other athletes.”

Elite athletes overcome many challenges to reach the pinnacle of their sport, some of them health- or injury-related. While their success is often predicated on perseverance, dedication and commitment — qualities at the core of UF Health, the University of Florida’s academic health center — access to world-class health care is also critically important.

“UF Health provides expert comprehensive, world-class, health care to all our patients, including our Team USA athletes, whether they are from down the street in Gainesville or from around the world,” said Jason L. Zaremski, M.D., CAQSM, FACSM, a professor and chief of the University of Florida College of Medicine’s Division of Sports Medicine, part of the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. “We’re the experts next door. It’s also an indescribable feeling when you see a patient going for the gold who was treated at UF Health.”

About USOPC

Founded in 1894 and headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee serves as both the National Olympic Committee and National Paralympic Committee for the United States. The USOPC is focused on protecting, supporting and empowering America’s athletes, and is responsible for fielding U.S. teams for the Olympic, Paralympic, Youth Olympic, Pan American and Parapan American Games, and serving as the steward of the Olympic and Paralympic movements in the U.S. For more information, visit TeamUSA.com. For more information about the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Medical Network, please visit usopc.org/medical-network.

About UF Health

UF Health is a proud U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee National Medical Center and the globally recognized academic health system of the University of Florida, one of the nation’s leading land grant research universities. UF Health combines leading-edge research at campuses around Florida with exceptional, compassionate clinical care at a network of hospitals throughout the state. The flagship is UF Health Shands Hospital, which is perennially ranked among the nation’s top hospitals by U.S. News & World Report. 

With main campuses in Gainesville and Jacksonville as well as satellite sites in Central Florida, St. Johns County, and several other locations, UF Health provides quality health care to patients across the nation’s third-most populous state. UF Health consists of six health colleges, 10 research centers and institutes, and 12 hospitals — including two teaching hospitals and five specialty hospitals — as well as a host of physician medical practices and outpatient services. Visit UFHealth.org for more information.