NEW YORK — Chris Margallo travels a lot, both domestically and internationally, and although he’s been to Paris many times, his upcoming trip back home will be different from your typical European getaway.
Rather, it’s part of a business trip, part of a bucket list adventure.
Margallo, a Mitchell native who co-founded a physical therapy and sports rehabilitation clinic in New York City, has fulfilled a dream of nearly three decades when she was selected as one of two physical therapists to join the U.S. track and field team’s sports medicine staff for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
“It’s such an honor just to represent my country, and I’m just as proud to represent South Dakota as I am to represent the United States,” Margallo said. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s going to be a lot of work, but I know it’s going to be surreal to be a part of all of it. I remember the first time I attended an event with Team USA and heard the national anthem, it just touched my heart and I almost wanted to cry because it was such an honor to be there.”
But one place Margalo didn’t get to go was to Atlanta for the 1996 Summer Olympics.
While her parents traveled to Georgia to watch the Olympics in person, Margallo, then just weeks out from graduating from Mitchell High School, watched from afar as the U.S. won 44 gold medals on home soil. Margallo still remembers the heroics of sprinter Michael Johnson, who broke world records in the 200 and 400 meters, becoming the first (and still only) man to win both events at the same Olympic Games.
“I was always jealous that my parents were going,” Margaro said with a laugh.
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Margallo was an athlete in high school and has been a sports enthusiast for many years, but he says the 1996 Olympics were what sparked his ultimate goal: By the time the 2000 Summer Olympics approached, Margallo had his sights set on one day being a part of the U.S. team in some capacity.
“Around the time of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, I told my dad (Lucio Margallo, a longtime doctor at Mitchell Hospital), ‘One day I’m going to go to the Olympics,'” Margallo recalled. “At that point, I knew I wanted to go to the Olympics, I wanted to be a part of the Olympics, but I never thought it would actually happen.”
Some of his fondest Olympic memories involve track and field, and joining the U.S. Track and Field team holds special meaning for Margalo, considering the program is one of the most successful and high-profile divisions on the U.S. team.
“I’m not going to compete on any team, but on one of the best teams in the world with the best athletes in the world competing for a gold medal,” Margallo said. “For me, this is pretty crazy.”
There are two main ways to get involved with the “team behind the team” (a nickname for Team USA’s support staff): through the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, which manages the entire Olympic roster, or through one of the many national governing bodies, such as USA Track and Field or USA Basketball, which add sport-specific staff.
Margallo earned her Bachelor of Arts in Kinesiology from the University of Minnesota in 2001 and her Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Columbia University in 2008, and her first involvement with national winter sports teams was with the U.S. Snowboard Team and U.S. Ski Team in 2012. She first became involved with USA Track and Field in 2014, and in the 10 years since then, Margallo has worked with events all over the world.
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Margallo explained that potential support staff members typically apply for the following year’s events around November and are notified of the results of that year’s selection after the USATF national conference in January.
But one morning in early January 2023, Margaro received an unexpected assignment.
“I got an email that morning (from USATF), and there were actually two. The first one said I’d been selected to compete in the 2023 Pan American Games, and the other one said I’d been selected to compete in 2024, so I was a little confused,” Margallo recalled. “I thought, wait a minute, the only event I can compete in 2024 is the Olympics.
“The first person to tell me, besides my wife, who was with me in the apartment,” he continued, “was my dad. He texted me, ‘I’m going to the Olympics!’ It’s always been my dream to go with the U.S. national team, so when I got that text, it was a total surprise.”
The only downside was that USATF didn’t release its staff selections for the Paris Olympics until February 2024, so Margallo had to keep the news a secret for more than a year.
“Honestly, it was very hard,” Margaro said. “I told those close to me, but it was really hard not to tell others, especially my colleagues who knew I was going and were waiting to hear if I could go.”
It’s already been a busy year for Margalo and his wife, Ruxandra Bogač, who welcomed their first child four months ago, but the anticipation is starting to build quickly as Margalo prepares for the U.S. Olympic Trials in Oregon later this month and the trip to Paris a few weeks after that.
“I found out about it a year and a half ago, and it’s become more and more real as it gets closer,” Margaro said. “Meetings, flights booked, it’s becoming more and more real, and I can’t believe I’m a part of it.”
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Margallo served as the staff’s lead physiotherapist at the 2022 North American and Caribbean Athletics Association Senior Championships in the Bahamas, and was medical director for the entire staff at last year’s Pan American Games in Chile.
“There were probably 70 players and seven staff members, and I was the leader of all of them,” Margallo said. “That was a really memorable experience and a really cool experience because it’s unusual for a physical therapist to do that. Usually it’s an athletic trainer who does that, so it was an honor for me.”
But Margallo expects the 2024 Paris Olympics to be very different to anything experienced before.
He leaves for France on July 24 and won’t be back in the U.S. until mid-August. He’ll be busy with U.S. team duties, but Margalo’s parents will also be in Paris and he’s hoping to make some memories with them too.
“I’m really excited,” Margallo said. “It would be awesome to be there and hopefully celebrate with (my dad) because without him I wouldn’t have been able to go into sports medicine. This is one of the things I can do that he hasn’t done yet, so it would be really cool to experience it together.”
Looking to the future, the Summer Olympics will return to the United States in Los Angeles in 2028. As she thinks about the possibility of being part of a sports medicine staff again, this time in her home country, four years from now, Margalo can’t help but remember a time she attended the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
“I’m really looking forward to going to Paris, and the next Summer Olympics are in Los Angeles, so I’m excited to go,” Margallo said, “But I’m the type of person who, because I was given an opportunity, I want to give other people that opportunity too. I don’t mind competing in other Team USA events or directly in the USOPC, but with USA Track and Field, I’m okay with doing it just one time.”
