Your odds are 1 in 562,400.
Or, as Bill Mallon, the past president and cofounder of the International Society of Olympic Historians, has said, aspiring athletes have a 0.00000178% chance of making the Games.
Now imagine the odds of making the Olympics and then going on to become a physician. And maybe it's not surprising that those who have done it credit the training they received as Olympic athletes as key to their success in medicine.
"Dealing with poor outcomes and having to get back up and try again," said Olympian-turned-physician Ogonna Nnamani Silva, MD, "that reiterative process of trying to obtain perfection in your craft — that's athletics 101."
This connection isn't just anecdotal. It has been discussed in medical journals and examined in surveys. The consensus is that, yes, there are specific characteristics elite athletes develop that physicians — regardless of their athletic background — can learn to apply to their work in medicine.
Maybe it's something else, too: Certain mindsets don't worry about long odds. They seek out crucibles again and again without concern for the heat involved. Because the outcome is worth it.
Here are four athletes who became high-performing physicians and how they did it.
The Gymnast/The Pediatric Surgeon
"Gymnastics helped me build a skill set for my career," said Canadian Olympic gymnast-turned-pediatric orthopedic surgeon Lise Leveille, MD. "It led me to be successful as a medical student and ultimately obtain the job that I want in the area that I want working with the people that I want."
The skills Leveille prizes include time management, teamwork, goal setting, and a strong work ethic, all of which propel an athlete to the crucial moment of "performance."
"I miss performing," said Leveille. "It defines who I was at that time. I miss being able to work toward something and then deliver when it counted" — like when she qualified for the 1998 Commonwealth games in Kuala Lumpur at 16.
The Canadian national team came third at that event, and Leveille built on that success at the Pan American Games, taking gold on the balance beam and as a team, and then qualifying for the Olympics at the 1999 World Championships. She competed in the team and five individual events at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
Though Leveille started gymnastics at age 3, her parents, both teachers, instilled in her the importance of education. Gymnastics opened academic doors for her, like being recruited to Stanford where she completed her undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering and human biology in 2004 before entering medical school at The University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Now 41, Leveille accepts that she'll never nail another gymnastics routine, but she channels that love of sticking the landing into the operating room at British Columbia Children's Hospital.
"Some of the unknown variables within the operating room and how you deal with those unknown variables is exactly like showing up for a competition," Leveille said. "When I have one of those cases where I have to perform under pressure and everything comes together, that's exactly like nailing your routine when it counts most."
The Pole Vaulter/The Emergency Medicine Physician
Tunisian American pole vaulter Leila Ben-Youssef had what could be considered a disappointing showing at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. She collapsed from severe abdominal pain during the opening ceremony and had to be carried out. On the day of competition, she was still suffering. "I could barely run down the runway," she recalled. "I cleared one bar. I was just happy to have been able to do that."
When Ben-Youssef, who grew up in Montana, returned home, she underwent emergency surgery to remove the source of the pain: A large, benign tumor.
While some might be devastated by such bad luck, Ben-Youssef focuses on the success of her journey — the fact that she qualified and competed at the Olympics in the first place. The ability to accept setbacks is something Ben-Youssef said comes with the territory.
"As an athlete, you're always facing injury, and someone told me early in my career that the best athletes are the ones that know how to manage their expectations because it's bound to happen," she said. "So, there is disappointment. But recognizing that I did qualify for the Olympics despite being uncomfortable and having issues, I was still able to meet my goal."
Prior to the games, Ben-Youssef had been accepted into medical school at the University of Washington School of Medicine at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. Thankfully, the school was supportive of Ben-Youssef's Olympic dreams and allowed her to begin her studies a month behind her class. Upon her return from Beijing, she spent the rest of her medical school training with her head down, grinding.
"Medicine is hard," said Ben-Youssef. "It's grueling both physically and emotionally, and I think that's similar to any elite sport. You're going to deal with challenges and disappointment. I think having gone through that as an athlete really prepares you for the medical education system, for residency, and even for day-to-day work."
Now a physician working in emergency medicine in Hawaii, Ben-Youssef feels the setbacks she experienced as an athlete help her connect with her patients as they deal with health challenges.
And as a volunteer pole vaulting coach for a local high school, Ben-Youssef has been able to surround herself with the positive, joyful energy of athletes. "Emergency medicine is often a sad place," she said. "But in a sports environment, if people don't succeed or are injured, there is still that energy there that strives for something, and it's so fun to be around."
The Rower/The Sports Medicine Specialist
Three-time US Olympic rower Genevra "Gevvie" Stone wanted to be a doctor even before she gave a thought to rowing. She was in eighth grade when she dislocated her knee for the third time. Her parents took her to a pediatric orthopedist, and Stone, according to her mom, declared, "That's what I want to do when I grow up."
"I'm a very stubborn person, and when I make a decision like that, I usually don't veer from it," Stone said.
That laser focus combined with a deep love of both sports and medicine has served Stone well. "Becoming a doctor and becoming an Olympian require you to dedicate not just your time and your energy but also your passion to that focus," she said. "In both, you aren't going to be successful if you don't love what you're doing. Finding the reward in it is what makes it achievable."
Stone actually resisted rowing until she was 16 because both of her parents were Olympians in the sport and met on the US team. "It was their thing, and I didn't want it to be my thing," she recalled.
Nonetheless, Stone easily fell into the sport in her late teens and was recruited by Princeton University. "I had grown up around Olympians and kind of took it for granted that if you worked hard enough and were decent at rowing, then you could be one of the best in the world, without really realizing how difficult it would be to achieve that," she said.
Stone's team won the NCAA Championship in 2006 and was invited to try out for the 2008 Olympic team at the US training center after she graduated from college. But she didn't make it.
Instead, Stone entered medical school at Tufts University School of Medicine, thinking her competitive rowing career had come to end. But her love for the sport was still strong, and she realized she wasn't finished.
After 2 years of medical school, Stone requested 2 years off so she might have another shot at making the Olympic team. The timing was right. She went to the London Olympics in 2012, graduated from medical school in 2014, and then took 2 more years off to train full time for the 2016 Olympics in Rio where she won silver.
At the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Stone took fifth place in the double sculls. While she continues to race the master's circuit, she's primarily dedicated to completing her sports medicine fellowship at University of Utah Health.
Fortunately, Stone's parents, coaches, and teachers always supported her goals. "No one turned to me and told me I was crazy, just choose medicine or rowing," she said. "Everyone said that if this is what you want to do, we're here to support you, and I wouldn't have been able to do it without that support."
The Volleyball Player/The Plastic Surgeon
American volleyball player Ogonna Nnamani Silva's journey to the Olympics was also paved with an extensive list of supporters, beginning with her parents. And she has taken that sense of collaboration, coordination, and teamwork into her medical career.
The daughter of Nigerian immigrants who came to the United States to escape the Civil War, Nnamani Silva said her parents embraced the American dream. "To see what they were able to do with hard work, dedication, and sacrifice, I had no choice but to work hard because I saw their example. And that love for and belief in America was so strong in my house growing up," she said.
Dreams of practicing medicine came first. A severe asthmatic growing up, Nnamani Silva recalled having wonderful doctors. "I had so many emergency room visits and hospitalizations," she said. "But the doctors always gave me hope, and they literally transformed my life. I thought if I could pass that on to my future patients, that would be the greatest honor of my life."
Volleyball gave Nnamani Silva the opportunity to attend Stanford, and she took time off during her junior year to train and compete in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. She also played for the United States at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing where the team took silver. Afterward, she continued to play overseas for several years.
At 33, and with a newborn daughter, Nnamani Silva returned to her original goal of becoming a doctor. She attended the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine and is currently a resident in the Harvard Plastic Surgery Program. She includes her husband, parents, and in-laws in this achievement, whom she said "saved" her. "There is no chance I would have finished medical school and survived residency without them."
As a volleyball player, Nnamani Silva said she "believes in teams wholeheartedly," valuing the exchange of energy and skill that she feels brings out the best in people. As a medical student, she initially didn't realize how her previous life would apply to teamwork in the operating room. But it soon became clear.
"In surgery, when you harness the talents of everyone around you and you create that synergy, it's an amazing feeling," she said. And the stakes are often high. "It requires a lot of focus, discipline, determination, and resilience because you're going to be humbled all the time." Something athletes know a little bit about.