Person
Don Butzner, LMT
Licensed massage therapist who worked with Olympians including decathlete Ashton Eaton, spent a summer as his personal therapist through the 2016 Rio Olympics, and learned early that making a world-class sprinter too relaxed before a race is a career-limiting mistake.
Don Butzner started his career doing outcall massage for a hotel (“I hated it”) and team massage therapy for Southern Oregon University. He got into elite track and field through the Nike Prefontaine Classic, made the USATF Sports Medicine team on his second application, and worked his way up to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio as the private therapist for Ashton Eaton and Brianne Theisen-Eaton.
Ashton Eaton won his second consecutive Olympic gold medal in the decathlon that summer.
Don’s key insight about working with elite sprinters: pre-event massage at that level is not relaxation massage. He learned the hard way that making a world-class sprinter feel “too relaxed” before they run the 100 meters is a problem. Pre-event work at the Olympic level is activating — lighter, faster, focused on blood flow and tissue prep — not the deep-work session you’d do on a recreational athlete.
At events with seven minutes on the clock, the communication is quick and the approach is targeted. Hesitation is not an option. He also noted that when the athlete knows and trusts you, “you have a lot more leeway.”
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First seen in Why Olympians Trust This Massage Therapist - Don Butzner, LMT.