He's the doctor who advised Michelle Kwan to withdraw from the Winter Olympics.

And he got his start in medicine at MSU.

Dr. James Moeller is one of the medical doctors working with American athletes in Turin through the U.S. Olympic Committee's, or USOC, physician volunteer program.

The 40-year-old sports medicine specialist from Troy evaluated the decorated American athlete early on Feb. 12.

Later that day, Kwan announced she would not compete, leaving her with a silver and bronze medal from the previous two Winter Olympics — but no gold.

The road to Turin

The USOC volunteer program is selective and lengthy. Moeller applied almost a decade ago, and he's had a passion to work at the Olympics his entire career.

"I'm a sports doctor, and to me, the ultimate setting for athletic competition is the Olympic Games," he said in a telephone interview from Turin. "I truly believe the Olympics are that ideal event that would be fun to be a part of as a physician."

After graduating from Lyman Briggs School in 1987, Moeller remained a Spartan for medical school, graduating from the College of Human Medicine in 1991. He then participated in a three-year residency in South Bend, Ind., before returning to MSU for a sports specialty training fellowship in 1994-95.

After a two-year stint at the University of Pittsburgh, Moeller returned to Michigan in 1997 and settled in Troy, where he currently resides with his wife, Marlo, and three children — Lindsay, 10, Hannah, 8, and Kelsey, 5.

Following Pittsburgh, he began auditioning for a spot in this year's Winter Games. The entire process involved three "tryouts," Moeller said. Doctors first provide service at a training center, then at a competition within the country and finally, at a competition outside the country. The USOC evaluates the doctors after each stage and decides whether to invite them to the next stage.

Moeller's first tryout stop was at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., in 2002, when he was the only physician on staff for all American athletes. He was then invited to work the 2004 Titan Games in Atlanta. For his third and final stage, he worked the World University Games in Turkey this past summer. His duties at these competitions ranged from staffing the medical clinic to evaluating injuries to carrying water bottles to practice.

A few weeks after returning from Turkey, Moeller got his letter from the USOC saying he had been selected to be on the medical staff for the 2006 Winter Games.

"I was very excited, and I was very relieved at the same time because I put in a lot of effort to get the opportunity," he said about being selected. "So for it to culminate with me being (in Turin) made it all worthwhile."

Family matters

Moeller has been in Turin since Jan. 30 and will be there until the end of February — a month away from his private sports medicine practice in Auburn Hills. It also means a month away from his children and wife, who he met while playing volleyball at MSU.

When his wife Marlo blew out her knee during a game, Moeller was there to carry her off the court. At the time, the two didn't know each other very well, but they played on the same intramural volleyball team the following year, began dating, and eventually married in 1992.

So even though the volunteer program is separating the couple for a month, their bond in sports had Marlo encouraging her husband to apply for the program.

"We're so active in sports, and we both always loved the Olympics. So he's been working at this for nearly 10 years, and I supported him and encouraged him the entire way," she said, adding that as soon as he received his sports medicine certificate, she suggested he apply to be an Olympic doctor.

To alleviate the time apart, Marlo and the couple's three daughters rented an apartment in Turin for an eight-day trip that began Feb. 17.

The life in Turin

In Moeller's three weeks at the Olympics, he has experienced his share of thrills. He is assigned to work with American speedskaters, but he also helps staff a clinic that's open about 16 hours a day and makes himself available for wherever else he's needed.

So when Kwan complained of pain early in the morning of Feb. 12, Moeller was contacted and summoned to the Olympic Village training room shortly after 2 a.m.

Although Moeller cannot talk about the situation because of his contract, a USOC press release states Moeller diagnosed Kwan with an acute groin strain and recommended that the nine-time U.S. champion and five-time world champion withdraw from competition.

After being evaluated by Moeller, Kwan "had to make the decision to withdraw from the team," she said in the press release.

Although Moeller lends his services to all athletes, his work is focused on speedskaters. At the time of the interview, two American speedskaters had earned gold medals, giving Moeller the opportunity to experience the feeling of Olympic victory.

"The skaters that you helped who do get to the point where they win a medal, almost all of them come to you with the medal so you can see it, touch it, wear it and take pictures with it," he said.

When speedskater Chad Hedrick won gold in the 5,000 meter, Moeller was able to slip the medal over his head and snap pictures with it. And although he isn't participating in the Olympics as an athlete, it doesn't stop him from feeling the emotions — both high and low — of an athlete.

"If (the athletes) do well, then you feel like you may have played a role in that, and that's pretty satisfying," said Moeller, who also played two years of soccer at MSU. "If you try to help them, and they don't do so well, then you hurt for them.

"It's a lot of ups and downs because not everybody can come home with gold."

Trip of a lifetime

While in Turin, Moeller is volunteering his services, meaning he's not earning income for the month-long trip. But to him, the Olympics are more about living out a dream and enjoying athletics than forfeiting wages.

"It's something I think everybody should try to experience one time — to be in the atmosphere, to go to an Olympics, to celebrate the sports and to get a real feel for what it's like," he said. "It's pretty much everything I was hoping for and more."

Millions of Americans dream of being at the Olympics, but Moeller was able to achieve it because of his sports medicine background, which has its roots at MSU.

"It's kind of where my desire to be a sports medicine doctor started, so I owe a lot to MSU in that regard," he said. "It was a launching pad for what turned into the career that I have, so I'm very thankful that I was a Spartan.

"I still am a Spartan."

Steve Highfield can be reached at highfie4@msu.edu.