Dr. Jim Johnson Heading to Short Course World Championships
Nashville Aquatic Club is very fortunate to have someone with the depth of experience that Dr. Jim Johnson brings to the club. As our team physician, all of our injured athletes are watched over by Dr. Johnson’s careful hand. Dr. Johnson is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He completed his residency at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL and completed a sports medicine fellowship at Stanford University and San Jose Medical Center (California). Dr. Johnson also has two children of his own that are members of NAC.
He will be traveling to Istanbul, Turkey as the USA Swimming Team Physician for this year’s Short Course World Championships, taking place December 12-16, 2012 and we took a few minutes to find out a bit more about Dr. Johnson’s experience and background!
Find out more about this year’s Short Course World Championship team by clicking here.
Tell us about your involvement with the Nashville Aquatic Club – it has been on many levels!
I first walked on the Osceola Drive NAC facility in 1987 to ask John if I could join the NAC team when Vanderbilt dropped its men's team as one of the first title 9 casualties. I was very intimidated because I had grown up a summer league swimmer and swam for long time Western Kentucky University coach Bill Powell for 18 summers. NAC was a legendary club for those of us from Southern Kentucky and Middle Tennessee. So, instead, I started the Vanderbilt men's swim club and coached it as well. But in 1989, I had caught the training bug and wanted to see what it would be like to swim for this great club and up and coming coach John Morse. I swam for the NAC senior program from 1989 at Pearl Cohn pool and then onto the Sportsplex in 1990 through graduating from med school in 1993. I progressed through the training groups and over across the pool as many of your senior group swimmers strive to do now!!!
In 2003 I moved back to Nashville and was fortunate to coach alongside John until I stepped back from coaching to start my family in 2005. I am honored to serve as the team physician for NAC as this club has been a part of my life for 23 years!
Give us some information about your practice, your specialties, and why you enjoy working with swimmers.
I am a a non-surgical sports medicine physician with Elite Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center, PLLC with offices in Cool Springs in the D1 Medical Plaza and downtown in Baptist Medical Plaza I. I have 5 surgical partners all subspecializing in a different branch of orthopaedic surgery (sports medicine, knee and shoulder, hand and wrist, foot and ankle, and spine). We have 3 physical therapy clinics and provide imaging services including X-ray and whole body and extremity MRI on-site. I specialize in the non-surgical treatment of injuries focusing on overuse injuries in training athletes and weekend warriors!!! I also treat medical conditions in athletes as it relates to their ability to continue or return to training through or after an illness.
What other involvement have you had with USA Swimming, either as a coach or doctor – and what are some of your best memories?
In December of 1992, John decided to take us to Bolles for a training trip where we swam about 120,000 meters in 11 practices over seven days! For some strange reason, I enjoyed the sense of accomplishment that brought and decided to pursue my residency in Jacksonville and swim and coach with my friend and mentor Gregg Troy, who was the 2012 USA Olympic Head Coach. I started coaching the 7-8 year olds equivalent of the green group. Coach Troy also allowed me to assist on deck with him over the next 7 years while I completed my residency and commitment to the US Air Force as a Flight Surgeon.
During this time I was the Senior Coach for Middle Georgia Aquatics (now Swim Macon) from 1994-1996, assisted with Woodland and Vacaville swim clubs in Northern California from 1996-1997,coached the distance group at the Dayton Raiders (Coach Clarissa Wentworth was an age group swimmer there at the time) from 1997-1998, and returned to Bolles and Jacksonville from 1998-2000 where I assisted former Baylor and GPAC coach Joe Goeken with two Brazilians who were part of the Bronze Medal winning 400 Free Relay at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
I then spent 3 years as a team physician and Volunteer assistant swim coach under Richard Quick at Stanford University. I then moved back to Nashville and got to coach some great swimmers including your Head Age Group coach, Sarah Peterson, alongside my other mentor John Morse, from 2003-2005.
With Coach Troy’s encouragement, I pursued and was named a USA Swimming National Team Physician in 2001 and since have traveled with many national teams, including:
- Four National Junior Teams – Sydney (2003), Brisbane (2004), Guam (2009), Maui (2010)
- 2002 Pan Pacific Championships (Yokohama)
- 3 World Championships – Indianapolis (2004), Shanghai (2006), Istanbul (2012)
- Duel in the Pool - Irvine (2005)
- 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece and the training camp at Stanford
The highlights of these trips were getting to travel to some of these meets with my mentors - John Morse and Gregg Troy as the head coaches
Are you looking forward to traveling to Istanbul, Turkey for Short Course World Championships?
I am excited to travel to Istanbul next week for the FINA World Swimming Championships. I hear Istanbul is a beautiful city and it interestingly spans two continents - Europe and Asia! A large group from the incredibly successful 2012 USA Olympic Team are participating in this World Championships which should make for some incredibly fast swimming with lots of short course meter World Records.
With two children of your own in the program, how have your kids enjoyed their experience so far?
I am so fortunate that my wife Catherine and I get to watch our children James (7) and Sydney (5) grow up and learn to swim in this program. James just started with the green group after graduating from Swim America. James loves to race and is excited about starting to swim in meets in the spring. Sydney is a fish and can stay underwater for what seems like ages. She is swimming free and back now, but can't wait to swim butterfly which is her favorite. My wife, Catherine Stutzner, was the aquatics director and head swim coach at the Gordon Jewish Community Center from 1999-2005. So swimming is in our family's blood and we look forward to being a part of NAC for at least 20 more years--John will likely still be the coach :) !!
