Duxbury doctor on Olympic team

Team USA’s figure skating athletes know him as “Dr. Skip,’’ and Zabilski knows them well. As the team physician for the US Olympic figure skaters, he’ll stand ready on the sidelines, prepared for the worst and on hand to provide whatever the skaters need - whether it’s an ice pack, a bandage, or a few words of encouragement.

“My first responsibility is to take care of the skaters and try to keep them as healthy as possible,’’ said Zabilski, the lone Massachusetts doctor on the Win ter Olympics team.

That means caring for their chronic injuries, making sure they stretch their muscles, and being there in case anyone gets hurt on the ice.

“Fortunately,’’ said Zabilski, “most of the injuries are not major ones.’’ The 52-year-old Duxbury resident said he mostly deals with “a lot of bumps and bruises and sprains.’’

But the possibility for serious accidents always looms. “There’s a lot of sharp objects flying around the ice,’’ he said. Figure skaters have been known to suffer concussions, fractures, cuts, and other serious injuries. “That’s one thing I worry most about,’’ he said.

Zabilski recently traveled with the team to China, and one of the US skaters suffered a cut to her wrist. “We had to treat the laceration,’’ he said, using a butterfly bandage to close the wound.

He remembers a scary moment in 2007 when a pair of Canadian figure skaters attempted a side-by-side camel spin - a tricky move in which both skaters lean over, extend one leg into the air, and spin around and around simultaneously. The two skaters were spinning quickly, only inches apart, when the man’s outstretched leg suddenly clipped his partner in the head. His skate blade sliced the woman’s face, and the cut required dozens of stitches. Zabilski wasn’t there, but the images he saw on video are fresh in his mind.

Injuries can also happen outside of the competition. There can be up to six to eight skaters on the ice during warmups or practices - which can make for a hazardous mix. “You have several pairs warming up, or practicing,’’ he said. “They’re all doing their thing, and sometimes one routine can be on a collision course with another one.’’

He recalled another on-ice accident last spring, when he was covering a figure skating event in Tokyo. After the competition, a pair of Canadian skaters were performing in an exhibition. The man threw his female partner up in the air, and somehow her elbow caught him in the head, said Zabilski. Momentarily stunned, the male skater failed to catch his partner, who ended up falling on her face.

“They were both down on the ice,’’ said Zabilski. He helped treat the injured skaters before they went to the hospital - the woman suffered a mild concussion, and the man got a bruise across his cheek. “Fortunately that doesn’t happen often.’’

But one can understand why Zabilski is on edge during figure skating routines.

“I really don’t relax until the competition is over and the last skater is off the ice,’’ said Zabilski. “I’m nervous the whole time.’’

Zabilski isn’t a skater himself, but he’s no stranger to the world of competitive sports. He’s the son of legendary Northeastern University football coach Joseph P. Zabilski, who was the head football coach at NU from 1948 to 1971.

Zabilski followed in his father’s footsteps and enjoyed a successful collegiate football career himself: After graduating from Westwood High School in 1976, he went on to play quarterback at Boston College. (“The pre-Flutie era,’’ said Zabilski, with a chuckle.)

Zabilski earned his medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine and later completed a sports medicine fellowship at Children’s Hospital.

He was introduced to the world of competitive figure skating by a colleague, Dr. Mahlon A. Bradley, an orthopedic surgeon at North Shore Medical Center in Salem. Bradley, a former figure skater himself, invited Zabilski to help out during the 1996 Skate America competition in Springfield.

Zabilski was happy to help, and continued to do so. He’s been offering his medical expertise to the US Figure Skating Association, the national governing body for the sport, since 1998 - a role that has taken him to Slovakia, Poland, Russia, Korea, Japan, China, and all over Europe.

“That’s how I got involved. The first several years I traveled with the junior skaters. Some of the kids skating now [in the Olympics], I saw them grow up through the ranks,’’ said Zabilski.

He most recently accompanied the US Figure Skating athletes to the Olympic Training Camp in Colorado Springs and the ISU World Team Trophy in Tokyo. “It’s been a nice thing. I’ve seen a lot of the world through doing this,’’ he said.

Not bad for someone who doesn’t skate much. The only ice skating Zabilski did was when he was a kid: He would occasionally lace up to play hockey with his buddies on the neighborhood pond, he said.

When he’s not traveling to skating rinks around the globe, Zabilski works at Jordan Hospital as an orthopedic surgeon specializing in hip and knee replacements, computer-assisted joint replacements, sports medicine, joint arthroscopy, and general orthopedic surgery. He also sees patients at Plymouth Bay Orthopedic Associates in Duxbury. Not everybody knows he has treated some of the best skaters in the world.

Joanne Russo, a registered nurse and clinical leader at Jordan Hospital’s orthopedic unit, has worked with Zabilski since the early 1990s, but she said she and her co-workers only found out about Zabilski’s role in US Figure Skating a few years ago.

“He’s very quiet and unassuming. He would never be boastful, and say, ‘Hey, guess what I did?’ He’s just that kind of guy,’’ said Russo. “But he’s excited about working with top-caliber athletes. His eyes light up when he talks about it. He’s very enthusiastic. After all, sports medicine is his specialty.’’

One thing is for sure: Many of Zabilski’s medical colleagues and co-workers will be tuning in to watch the Olympic figure skating events.

“It’s very cool. We couldn’t be more proud,’’ said Russo. “We won’t miss it - it’s fun to cheer on for someone you know. We hope he doesn’t have to do any work there. We hope everyone stays healthy. “

Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/emilysweeney.