By Gillian Graham

Staff Writer

While spectators crowd into Olympic arenas and huddle around televisions to watch the world’s best athletes compete for gold, Kurt Jepson will be watching from a different vantage point.

Jepson, a physical therapist for the U.S. Nordic ski team, will spend the next few weeks working with athletes in the Olympic Village in Vancouver and on the race course as the team competes to bring home top honors.

The 52-year-old Scarborough resident and partner at Saco Bay Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy left this week for his third Olympic winter games. He will stay in the Whistler Olympic Village with athletes and other team staff until the end of the month.

Jepson’s Olympic connections span more than a decade, but he has been skiing his entire life. He is a native of New Sweden in Aroostook County, where he raced throughout high school and one year in college.

Jepson said his grandfather made skis for a living during the Depression and skiing was a way of life for his family.

“There’s a strong skiing heritage in that part of the state, as there is in Rumford and certainly parts of New Hampshire and Vermont,” he said. “It’s what we did, it’s what we like to do and still do as a family. My Super Bowl is the winter Olympic games. Obviously I was never at the level where I could be there as an athlete, but this is, in my mind, the next best thing – to be able to lend a hand to these athletes.”

Jepson was teaching for a physicians group about 12 years ago when he began talking about skiing with a physician from Minnesota who worked with the ski team. The team was looking for a sports therapist with an interest in skiing, and Jepson couldn’t pass up an opportunity to work with the country’s top skiers.

Jepson works with skiers at the World Cup and provides therapy to team members from the Northeast when they are not at training centers. His first Olympic experience was in 1996 when he attended the Paralympic Games in Atlanta.

While in Atlanta, Jepson was assigned to seated volleyball, which he said lends itself to single and double amputees. Teams of six play with a 4-foot net and must keep one hip in touch with the floor at all times.

“I wasn’t really expecting much, but it was an amazing experience,” he said. “It was amazing how hard these kids were striking the ball, spiking, the set plays, the diving for defensive plays. That was an incredible experience, not only to watch the level of play but to deal with the prosthetics.”

Jepson worked with the ski teams at the 2002 Salt Lake City winter games and 2006 Torino winter games. Most of his time at the Olympics is spent in clinics and at competition venues, leaving little free time to explore the Olympic villages and watch other events. During the 23 days he spent in Torino, Jepson said he had one night off.

Jepson said his days at the Olympics are long. He spends the morning in a clinic in the Olympic village, before traveling with the team to the competition venue. There, he must be ready to ski out to injured athletes or provide them with sports drinks and spare poles. He returns to the clinic later in the day to work with more athletes.

In Torino, Jepson took part in his first closing ceremony, an experience he said was “a mix of a rock show and Cirque de Soleil.” Dressed in full team uniform, he mingled with athletes and trainers from across the world. Also by his side was Mike Hersey, a Saco Bay therapist who works with snowboarders.

“It was great just to walk into the stadium with Team USA,” he said. “I think any ex-athlete misses the concept of team. That was special, it was a great show and a great experience.”

Jepson said he was relatively sure his Olympic experiences were over after Torino – he even promised his wife he was done – but he couldn’t say no when skiers requested he join them in Canada.

“That makes this one a little more special, to know the athletes themselves that have been around for a dozen years petitioned the program manager to have me come,” he said.

Working with the ski team is like a homecoming because he has worked with the same medical staff and athletes for years, Jepson said.

“Everyone knows you’re part of Team USA and you’re there to help if you can,” he said. “Some of our best performers are now in their late 20s, early 30s and I first met then when they were 18- or 19-year-old kids.”

Jepson said watching athletes grow as competitors and sharing in their experiences is rewarding.

“You’ve been around these people, you’ve seen them work hard, you’ve seen them climb the ladder and get better and better and better,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to be there and share whatever happens in their events.”

As much as Jepson loves working with Olympic athletes, he said he enjoys skiing with his sons even more. He coaches Anders, 13, and Camden, 12, on their middle school ski team and said they will compete in a state championship meet while their father is away.

Jepson said the Vancouver games will be his last, largely so he doesn’t miss out on his sons’ future competitions.

“At this point in their lives, [Anders and Camden] realize it’s a pretty big honor to be in the company of the athletes and be in the venues I’ve been blessed to go to,” he said. “I certainly hope at some point in their lives they’ll be able to experience the same thing.”

Staff Writer Gillian Graham can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 213.