Ice in her veins

For Alicia Heelan, the preparation and honing of these skills began well before she went to medical school. Heelan, MD, University of Cincinnati assistant professor and a UC Health breast cancer surgeon, is a former Team USA figure skater who has used her experiences as an athlete to help her grow as a physician.

Heelan began skating at a young age, moving away from her family at the age of 12 to focus on her craft. She routinely spent around eight hours a day training during her teenage years.

“I didn’t attend school in the typical fashion as a result, but the value of education was still instilled in me, as I was not allowed to skate if I didn’t perform well on my schoolwork,” she said. 

Her hard work paid off when she earned a spot on the Team USA figure skating team in 1999 competing both in singles and as a pairs skater with partner Eric Leser on the team through 2003. Leser also pursued a career in medicine after hanging up his skates and now practices emergency medicine in Chicago.

“I still look back at those days with pride and gratitude, especially the privilege of representing my country,” Heelan said.

While she never competed in the Winter Olympics, Heelan said she is grateful for the experiences figure skating offered her.

“Skating provided me with so many opportunities and taught me so many life skills. I had the opportunity to travel around much of the U.S. and to many other countries to compete, exposing me to all types of people and cultures,” Heelan said. “I developed friendships with people whom I am still close with to this day, more than 20 years later. I learned the value of hard work, determination and perseverance.”

Heelan says her training as an athlete prepared her well for a career as a surgeon. The long days and hard work, day in, day out, taught her mental and physical toughness she carries to this day in her work, she said.

“I believe that being an athlete is a perfect parallel to being a surgeon. You do a lot of training of your mind and body to be able to perform when the time is right,” Heelan said. “I have spent innumerable hours training to be a surgeon, working on perfecting my surgical skills and knowledge, so that when my patients are on the table and the pressure to perform is on, I am prepared to do the best that I can.”

Just like when she was training as an athlete, Heelan said she also continues to work every day to fine-tune and improve her surgical techniques. 

“I find operating even more rewarding than being on the ice because it also requires me to utilize my intellect,” she said. “And the reward of curing a patient of cancer is far greater than any gold medal.”

Featured photo at top: Alicia Heelan competes with partner Eric Leser. Photo/provided