Eyeworld

173 EW IN OTHER NEWS October 2016 by Liz Hillman EyeWorld Staff Writer years working at the U.S. Naval Hos- pital in Guam as the sole military ophthalmologist for the island. "It's been a year of growth and learning as an entrepreneur," he said. "In the spring we even transi- tioned to a new [electronic health record] and practice management software system, a difficult task in any setting. This was when I was trying to qualify for Rio and had to travel to Australia and New Zealand for international races." In late May, Dr. Lombard was notified that he had qualified for the Dr. Lombard took up cross-country mountain biking and found himself in Rio 5 years later U nlike Katie Ledecky or Michael Phelps, Olympi- ans who started swimming and competing in their youth, Peter Lombard II, MD, Lombard Health, Sinajana, Guam, didn't take up competitive cross-country mountain biking until he was 35 years old. Within 5 years though, he would find himself walking with team Guam in the 2016 Olympics Opening Ceremony in Rio de Janei- ro, Brazil. Dr. Lombard has always been active. He was a gymnast for 12 years before he "dabbled" in adven- ture races and triathlons in medical school. "After residency, I started to fo- cus more exclusively on the bike and discovered I was one of the strongest riders in Guam. This late introduc- tion into cycling is in stark contrast to the progression of most other pro- fessional cyclists who begin cycling in junior development programs as early as grade school," he said. He has been quite busy as an ophthalmologist as well. Last year, Dr. Lombard opened a solo practice with 10 employees, after spending 5 Ophthalmologist competes in 2016 Olympic Games continued on page 174 Dr. Lombard trained and competed in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Olympics. With less than 3 months to go, Dr. Lombard cut his afternoon clinic hours to train and took a month off in July to concentrate in Japan's mountainous Nagano region. "Our trails in Guam can be a lot of fun, but the terrain does not really approximate the type of riding that's typically seen at an Olympic mountain bike course, which has a lot of technical 'rock gardens,' fast switchbacks, and very steep and dangerous drops," he said. "In Japan I was able to focus 100% on training and skills work and was introduced to a Japanese professional mountain bike rider who invited me to train with him." In addition to this physical training, Dr. Lombard said he was careful from a nutritional standpoint as well. "I did the best I could by hiring a local company to help me with meal prep. But these are all aspects to training that are important to compete at the highest levels," he said. Dr. Lombard described Rio as a "cacophony of colors, sounds, and smells." The beaches were beautiful; the people were friendly and lively. While news headlines ahead of the games warned of crime and the Zika virus, Dr. Lombard said he never felt threatened. "If you asked repeat Olympians, they commented it wasn't the most organized, clean, or lavish iteration of the games, but I think Brazil should be commended for what it accomplished despite many chal- lenges," he said. Cross-country cycling took place on the final day of the games, but Dr. Lombard had practiced on the course several times ahead of the official race. "By design it's a very challeng- ing course and was largely unlike anything I had seen or ridden before," he said, adding later that he knew he would be "out of my

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