02/04/2022

Wentworth-Douglass Sports Medicine Physician Headed to Winter Olympics

Dr. Christopher Couture, sports medicine physician at Seacoast Orthopedics & Sports Medicine and Head Team Physician for the University of New Hampshire Wildcats, is preparing for the opportunity of a lifetime: heading to the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. Couture was selected from a pool of physicians to be the Team Physician for USA Nordic Combined – which includes ski jumping and cross-country skiing. 

“When you’re in sports medicine, a goal in your career is to be the physician for a professional sports team, a Division I school, or for an Olympic team and to say I have achieved the latter two of those, feels like the pinnacle of my career,” Dr. Couture said. 

Couture will be leaving for New York on Monday to get his first of many COVID-19 tests required for the international trip. On Wednesday, his flight will leave for China for a 30-hour trip to Beijing. Each day he’s there, he will be required to undergo COVID testing. 

“It certainly adds a layer of the unknown to the trip, but these are the protocols we have to undergo through this organizing body,” Couture said. 

Couture’s role as the Team Physician for USA Nordic has brought him to locations across the globe including Switzerland, Norway, and just last year to the World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany.

“If one of the athletes falls or gets injured on the course, I will be right there with them, or if a member of our team gets the sniffles at the Olympic Village, I will be the one to respond. Taking care of these world-class athletes is a dream after working 20 years in the Sports Medicine field, and I couldn’t be more proud or humbled to be a part of it,” Couture said.