Doctors on ice: Gliding through skating contest

Larry Scibilia, MD, stood on the winner's podium, beaming with the pride of an Olympic champion.

Proudly displayed around his neck was a gold medal dangling from a red, white and blue ribbon. Friends and admirers snapped photos as the Illinois neurologist gathered with other skating medalists in a second floor corner of an ice arena.

This wasn't Lillehammer, Norway, or Turin, Italy, previous sites of the international Winter Olympics.

This was Bensenville, Ill.

"I'm shocked," Dr. Scibilia said about receiving a medal. "I don't know where I'm going to put it."

The doctor and his partner had just won their category in pairs skating at the 13th annual U.S. Adult Figure Skating Championships, a competition sanctioned by U.S. Figure Skating. The contest featured about 550 skaters ages 21 to 81.

Athletes came from around the nation to participate in the four-day event last month, facing off in freestyle, ice dancing, pairs and other skating events.

The competitors included at least 16 physicians who put on their skates to try to bring home the gold -- or at least to have a little fun.

"It's the one time I get to forget about work," said Brenda Wittman, MD, a pediatric hematologist/oncologist in Tucson, Ariz.

That was a common sentiment among competing doctors who took a couple days off, thanks to help from covering colleagues, to travel to the Chicago suburb.

"On the ice, you can just blot out the world," said Angela Smith, MD, a Philadelphia orthopedic surgeon.

Some of the doctors have had a long love affair with the sport. Dr. Wittman has skated since she was a teen in Memphis, Tenn., where the local mall had a rink. For the last several years, she has taken part in the national competition. In the interpretive competition, she wears a Frosty the Snowman outfit and performs to Frosty's song.

Like her peers, Dr. Wittman puts in many hours on the ice, usually practicing from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. before she goes to work.

"Most of the time, I don't get beeped. But the beeper is on the boards just in case," she said.

Making new friends

Family physician Erica Hartl, MD, is another early riser, spending about an hour most mornings practicing. She was inspired to compete after watching Katarina Witt in the Olympics.

"I like the artistry of skating and I enjoy the costumes," said Dr. Hartl, who practices in Arlington Heights, Ill. "My toughest jump is my axel," a difficult jump with 1½ revolutions.

When they're not spinning and gliding across the ice, many of the skaters in the nationals support each other with cheers from the stands and socialize after skating.

"When we get together, we're pretty close," Dr. Hartl said.

Late to the game

Fort Lauderdale, Fla., anesthesiologist Antonio Conte, MD, has skated in the competition the past 10 years but didn't start skating until he was 30.

"When I was growing up in Florida, there was no ice," he said with a smile.

The sport caught his interest after a patient mentioned she was a figure skating coach. Now, he skates at 5:30 a.m. four or five days a week and squeezes in extra time on weekends.

"You just have to really love it," Dr. Conte said. "It's about the artistry and the emotion of it."

Dr. Scibilia, the neurologist, began skating more than a decade ago when he got group skating lessons as a birthday gift.

"I caught the bug after that," he said.

Dr. Scibilia likes choreographing his pairs routine and enjoys the athleticism. He has made friends at the nationals and said skating partner Lauren Yahiro is one of his best friends -- even when he drops her, he added.

"I love skating," said Dr. Scibilia, who practices in Andersonville, Ill. "For me, it complements both sides of my brain."

Competitions usually have staff doctors on hand, so skating physicians don't have to worry about treating their peers, although they will offer basic triage when needed.

Mostly, they just have to focus on their own routines and having fun on the ice.