Word that Langley’s Tamara Lovelace has been named to the Team USA medical team for the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022 wasn’t all that surprising to her mother, Beverley Lindsay.
Growing up, Tamara was a “very focused” child, her mom recalled.
As a student at Brookswood Secondary, her daughter had a powerful drive to excel.
“Nothing was ever good enough. If they told her to write three pages, she would write 20,” Lindsay told the Langley Advance Times.
“When they had a skip-out day in Grade 12 (a Brookswood tradition at the time), she said, is it okay if I do this?” Lindsay said.
“She’s a great kid, and always has been.”
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The oldest of four, with two brothers and a sister, Lovelace initially applied her focus to ballet, with her online bio noting she trained and performed with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Ballet B.C., the National Ballet of Canada, and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.
But when a hip injury forced a change of direction, she committed to sports medicine with typical dedication.
In February, the now-Dr. Tamara Lovelace was finishing up with a client in at the New Hampshire Seacoast Spine and Sports Injuries Clinic, where she is clinic director and a chiropractic sports doctor, when her smart watch alerted her to an incoming phone from Colorado Springs.
That happens to be the location of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), where Lovelace had worked as a team doctor for the Team USA BMX Supercross team and bobsled teams.
She picked up the phone, to be told that she was being invited to be chiropractor at the Olympic village for the entire Team USA at the Beijing Winter Olympics next February,
“That’s a yes,” she recalled saying.
“A big yes.”
Lovelace describes the posting as “a whole other level” of involvement, which will see her responsibility expanded to include athletes in figure skating, speed skating, curling, ice dancing and hockey.
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The Alton, New Hampshire, “Baysider” newspaper put the story on the front page, noting that, “as a native Canadian, Lovelace is very excited to get the chance to work with hockey players.”
It will mean back-to-back Olympics for Lovelace, going first to the delayed summer games in 2021 with the USA cycling team, then returning for the 2022 winter games with Team USA.
“It’s an intense year coming up,” Lovelace commented.
Her mom couldn’t be prouder.
“I was excited for her,’ Lindsay said, although she admits to some motherly concern about her daughter travelling during “COVID and all that kind of stuff.”
Normally, Lovelace would have an opportunity to celebrate her appointment in person, during one of her regular trips home to Langley to visit family and friends, but with pandemic travel restrictions, she’s had to make do with virtual visits via videoconferencing.
Is there more to the story? Email: dan.ferguson@langleyadvancetimes.com
