Gold medal touch

Mike Sciacca

Mark Dixon seems to have the golden touch.

Not once, not twice, but three times, the Huntington Beach

resident has been selected to work the Olympics.

Dixon, 58, is a sports massage therapist, and he leaves on Aug. 12

to work the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, Greece.

“It’s really a thrill to be going to the site where the first

modern day games were played,” said Dixon, who previously was

selected to work the Atlanta Summer Games in 1996, and the Salt Lake

City Winter Games in 2002. “In fact, they will be using some of the

original venues that were used in 1896. There’s a tremendous amount

of history here.”

Dixon, married, father of three and grandfather of nine, does this

purely on a voluntary basis, and calls it an “expensive, but

worthwhile, trip.”

He said that of the 500 sports massage therapists that applied to

work the Athens Summer Games, only 100 were selected from 12

different countries.

“What makes this so special is that few people get selected to

work one Olympic games,” he said. “To be selected to work three

different Olympic games really is an honor.”

Dixon is a member of the Athens Sports Massage Team 2004, a team

assigned to the Athens Committee for the Olympic Games.

Sports massage therapy falls under the canopy of the Summer Games’

medical services. Ironically, the only athletes that the sports

massage therapists will not work on during the Games, Dixon said, are

U.S. athletes.

“The United States Olympic Committee does not regard sports

massage therapy as a bona fide part of health care,” he said. “So,

our U.S. athletes will be treated by those not specifically trained

in sports massage therapy.”

During his career, Dixon has worked on world champions and Olympic

gold medal winners, although confidentiality prevents him from giving

names of the Olympic athletes.

But Tom Jones, a professional champion prizefighter and runner

from Huntington Beach, has benefited from Dixon’s expertise.

“I would have quit sports a few years ago by my own hand, thrown

the towel over the top of the rope, had I not discovered Mark and his

services,” said the 41-year-old Jones, who plans on doing 120

marathons in 120 consecutive days, beginning in April of 2005.

He accomplished that same feat in 2000.

“I was always injured and considering quitting a few years ago,”

he said. “Mark helped me tremendously, not only with my injuries but

by preventing further injuries through regular massage therapy. I’m

really excited for the Olympic athletes. I know the benefits they are

going to reap from Mark.”

Dixon said that training and experience play a huge role in

developing his craft.

He began by logging in 1,000 hours of training in 1988, which gave him a “strong foundation,” he said.

He’s been a member of the American Massage Therapy Assn. Since

1988, its National Sports Massage Team since 1990 and has been

nationally certified in therapeutic massage and bodywork since 1992.

In 1997, he was invited to be part of the sports massage team for

the National Track & Field Championships in Indianapolis and was the

sports massage therapist for team USA at the International Water Polo

Tournament in Newport Beach, where Dixon’s practice is based.

That training and experience enabled him to be selected for the

Olympic Sports Massage teams for Atlanta 1996 and Salt Lake City

2002.

In Athens, he’ll be assigned to the training department, which is

adjacent to the Olympic Village.

At the Salt Lake City Games in 2002, he was assigned to work in

the Olympic Village and in Atlanta in 1996, he was assigned the

aquatics venue and worked on swimmers, divers, water polo players and

synchronized swimmers.

Dixon says he doesn’t intend for the Athens Summer Games to be his

last Olympics experience.

“I want to be part of the sports massage team that goes to

Beijing, China, for the 2008 Summer Olympic games,” said Dixon, who

trained for two weeks in 1995 at the Chinese Olympic Training Center

in Beijing, in preparation for service as the sports massage

therapist at the 1995 Water Polo World Cup in Atlanta, a qualifying

event for the Centennial Olympics in 1996. “It would be a thrill to

return to a place where I received extensive and valuable training.”

* MIKE SCIACCA covers sports and features. He can be reached at

(714) 965-7171 or by e-mail at [email protected].