Senior Communications Specialist, UChicago Medicine
In December, Simone Biles posted a photo with Marcia Faustin, MD’13, FAAFP, to her millions of Instagram followers, offering thanks for “keeping me sane” amid the excitement and pressure of the 2024 Paris Olympics. (Biles won three gold medals.)
Biles’ teammate Sunisa “Suni” Lee called Faustin a “saving angel” for recognizing that the sudden inflammation in her body in February 2023 wasn’t allergies, but a serious kidney issue. With Faustin’s guidance, Lee navigated her health condition and went on to nab a gold medal in Paris.
These are just a few of the many praises the elite gymnasts have given Faustin — aka “Dr. Marcy”— since she became co-head physician for the USA Gymnastics women’s national team in 2019.
Since then, Faustin has developed close bonds with the athletes at practice, camps, competitions and at the past two Summer Olympics, in Tokyo and Paris.
Spectators might assume her role mostly involves treating sprains and pain, but the job is also that of a confidant who helps some of the most-watched competitors on Earth maintain their mental health.
“To watch those ladies win gold medals, and to work hard and overcome their challenges, it makes my soul smile,” Faustin said. “I get teary-eyed because I know how much each of them overcame on their journey to success.”
Career springboard started at Pritzker
Faustin, a gymnast and volleyball player during her high school years in Orland Park, expanded her athletic resume as a track and field star at Loyola University Chicago, where she initially intended to major in nursing.
But when the nursing program’s clinical rotations calendar didn’t align with her athletic commitments, she set her sights on medical school.
After earning a premed degree, Faustin came to the Pritzker School of Medicine on scholarship and focused on family and sports medicine.
“I was surrounded by awesome classmates and received an amazing education,” Faustin said.
Her 88-student class was tight-knit; in their free time, they played flag football and broomball and ran races across campus. Many of her classmates remain close friends, and one is now her husband, Toussaint Mears-Clarke, MD’13, MBA, FAAFP, a family medicine physician and obstetrician.
Faustin’s medical school mentor, psychiatrist Elizabeth Kieff, MD’03, Pritzker’s former director of wellness, spoke at their wedding.
Physical and emotional care for athletes
Through a University of Chicago Medicine connection, Faustin eagerly took an opportunity to volunteer at USA Gymnastics competitions. That effort led to her current role with the organization, a job she shares with New York-based Ellen Casey, MD, FACSM, FAAPMR.
The work is collaborative. Sometimes Faustin needs to bring in specialists like orthopaedic surgeons or physical therapists, but her main function is to take what she calls a “bio-psycho-social” approach to the athletes’ care.
That means treating their muscular and skeletal issues, as well as understanding their mental health and how social surroundings can impact it.
“There are a lot of external influences they face,” said Faustin, who encouraged the Olympic gymnasts to minimize or avoid social media while in Paris and Tokyo, establishing “no-phone zones” where they could play cards and socialize. “We just stay focused.”
Faustin praises USA gymnasts for being grateful, hardworking, phenomenal competitors — but she has equal respect for the collegiate athletes and everyday people she treats.
“I find as much joy in helping a patient who now can go dance at their granddaughter’s bat mitzvah,” she said.
Supporting a higher standard
Faustin’s arrival to the team came after a turbulent and transformative time. In 2016, an investigation by The Indianapolis Star revealed that top executives at USA Gymnastics failed to alert authorities to many allegations of sexual abuse by coaches.
Hundreds of gymnasts came forward to say they were sexually assaulted or abused by members of the USA Gymnastics staff and medical team. Among the offenders: team doctor Larry Nassar, who pleaded guilty to federal and state charges and was sentenced to 100 years in prison.
Since then, USA Gymnastics has made many changes and efforts to rebuild trust, including new safety policies and procedures, along with the addition of a chief of athlete health and wellness position.
The most important aspect of caring for patients of all ages, levels and backgrounds is building trust. “It goes both ways; patients need to trust the physicians and vice versa,” she said. “It’s critical to have trust so we can help them make collaborative decisions when the world is watching and do what’s best for them, in the present and for their future.”
Faustin understands the influence — and visibility — of her role is more critical than ever.
“It’s a blessing to be their physician and to have them trust me with vulnerable information that they might not even share with their significant other or family members,” she said. “I really hold that trust to a high standard.”
A doctor for all sports, seasons
Outside of her commitments traveling with USA Gymnastics, which total about 40 days annually, the Sacramento-based Faustin is an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, Davis, where she is co-head physician for the school’s 25 sports teams.
Never content to rest on the sidelines, she’s also the team doctor for the Sacramento Republic FC soccer team.
“It’s a busy life,” Faustin said. “But I love the people and the relationships I get to develop.”
As one of only a handful of Black female sports medicine doctors nationwide, Faustin knows her representation is important. Less than 3% of all U.S. physicians are Black women, and even fewer are in sports medicine, she said.
While her schedule doesn’t leave time for much else, Faustin did speak as part of Pritzker’s Bowman Society Lecture Series in January. The topic: addressing mental health in athletes.
“I’m grateful to have gone to Pritzker, and it’s given me a great foundation to practice medicine,” she said. “So, I want to give back.”
