NEW YORK — Chris Margallo is well-traveled, both domestically and abroad. He’s been to Paris on multiple occasions, but his upcoming return isn’t part of any typical European vacation.
Instead, it’s part business trip, part bucket-list adventure.
Margallo, a Mitchell native who co-founded a physical therapy and sports rehabilitation clinic in New York City, was selected as one of two physical therapists to join the USA Track and Field team’s sports medicine staff at the 2024 Summer Olympics, fulfilling a dream nearly three decades in the making.
“It’s an absolute honor just to represent the country, and I’m so proud to be representing South Dakota as much as I’m representing the USA,” Margallo said. “It’s going to be a lot of work, don’t don’t get me wrong, but I just know that it’s going to be surreal to be part of it all. I remember the first time being with Team USA at an event and hearing the national anthem. It’s so heartfelt, you almost want to cry just because it’s such an honor to be there.”
One of the places Margallo didn’t get to travel, however, was Atlanta for the 1996 Summer Olympics.
While his parents made the trip to Georgia to take in the Olympics firsthand, Margallo, then just weeks removed from his Mitchell High School graduation, watched from afar as the United States piled up 44 gold medals on home soil. Margallo still recalls the heroics of sprinter Michael Johnson, who broke world records in the men’s 200 and 400 meters, becoming the first (and still only) man to win both events at the same Olympics.
“I’ve always been jealous that my parents went,” Margallo said with a laugh.
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Though Margallo was an athlete in high school and has long been a sports enthusiast, he points to the 1996 Olympics as a spark for what became his ultimate goal. By the time the 2000 Summer Olympics rolled around, Margallo had his sights set on one day being part of Team USA in some capacity.
“I told my dad (Lucio Margallo, the longtime Mitchell physician) sometime around the 2000 Sydney Olympics, ‘Someday, I’m going to go to the Olympics,’” Margallo recalled. “That’s when I knew I wanted to be there and wanted to be a part of that. But I never thought it would actually happen.”
Going with USA Track and Field is also of special significance to Margallo, given that several of his fondest memories of the Olympics revolve around the sport and the program is one of the most successful and visible branches of Team USA.
“I’m not just going with any team, I’m going with one of the best teams in the world with some of the best athletes in the world who hold gold medal aspirations,” Margallo said. “That, to me, is pretty crazy.”
There are two main pathways to join “the team behind the team,” a nickname for Team USA’s support staff: Through the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, which deals with the entire Olympic roster, or through one of many national governing bodies that add staff specifically for their sports, such as USA Track and Field or USA Basketball.
Margallo, who graduated from the University of Minnesota with his bachelor’s degree in kinesiology in 2001 and from Columbia University with his doctor of physical therapy in 2008, first got involved with a national team in winter sports, with U.S. Snowboarding and U.S. Ski Team in 2012. In 2014, he got involved with USATF for the first time, and in the 10 years since, Margallo has worked at events all across the globe.
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As Margallo explains, hopeful support staffers usually apply around November for events taking place the following calendar year, and after the USATF national meeting in January, they receive notice of their selections for the year.
But one morning in early January 2023, Margallo received an unexpected assignment.
“I got the email that morning (from USATF) and there were actually two emails. The first one said that I got selected to go to the 2023 Pan American Games, but then I was kind of confused because the other one said I was selected for 2024,” Margallo recalled. “I had to pause, and I was like, wait, there’s only one event in 2024 that we were able to select and it was the Olympics.
“Outside of my wife, who was in the apartment with me, the first person I told was my dad,” he continued. “I texted him, ‘I’m going to the Olympics!’ This has been my dream to be able to go with Team USA, so to get that email, I was floored.”
The only downside was that Margallo had to keep the news a secret for more than a year, as USATF didn’t publicly announce its staff selections for the Paris Olympics until February 2024.
“Honestly, it was so hard,” Margallo said. “I did tell my closest people, but it was so hard not to tell others, especially my colleagues who were waiting to hear whether they got to go or not because I knew I was going.”
It’s already been a busy year for Margallo and his wife, Ruxandra Bogaciu, who welcomed their first child four months ago. But as Margallo prepares for the U.S. Olympic Trials in Oregon later this month and, a few short weeks after that, the journey to Paris, anticipation has started to grow rapidly.
“Even though I found out a year and a half ago, it’s just starting to become more real as we get closer,” Margallo said. “We have all these meetings and having my flight booked and all that; it’s just becoming more and more real, and I can’t believe I’m a part of it.”
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At the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association Senior Championships in the Bahamas in 2022, Margallo was the head physical therapist on staff. Then last year at the Pan American Games in Chile, he was the medical lead for the entire staff.
“I think we had 70 athletes and seven staff members, and I was the lead for everyone,” Margallo said. “That was super memorable and super cool, too, because it’s rare that they have a physical therapist do it. It’s usually an athletic trainer, so for me to do it was such an honor.”
But Margallo expects the 2024 Paris Olympics to be unlike anything else he’s experienced.
He departs for France on July 24 and doesn’t expect to return stateside until mid-August. Though he’ll be busy with Team USA responsibilities, Margallo’s parents are also making the trip to Paris, and he hopes to make a few memories with them, as well.
“I’m really excited,” Margallo said. “To be there and hopefully be able to celebrate it with (my dad), would be super cool because there is no way I would have gone into the sports medicine field without him. This is one thing I get to do that he hasn’t done, so if we get to experience it together, that’d be pretty amazing.”
In looking ahead, the Summer Olympics return to the United States in 2028, with Los Angeles as the host. Margallo can’t help but think about watching those 1996 Olympics in Atlanta when considering that he could be part of the sports medicine staff again in four years, this time on home soil.
“I’m so excited to go (to Paris), and the next summer games are in L.A., so I’d be excited to go, too,” Margallo said. “But I’m also the type of person who is like, I got my chance to go, and I want other people to have that opportunity as well. I wouldn’t mind going with another Team USA sport or with USOPC directly, but with USA Track and Field, I’m OK to go one-and-done.”
