With the 2026 FIFA World Cup hitting Houston, the city will be a flurry of athletic activity this summer. More than 500,000 people will visit Houston and NRG Stadium for two weeks in June and July, according to early estimates.

To celebrate the soccer excitement and the athletes in the World Cup who are at the top of their field, BCM Family is featuring a few of Baylor College of Medicine’s own from the School of Health Professions’ Orthotics and Prosthetics Program who competed in sports at the high school, collegiate and Olympic level.

Amandi Rhett
Assistant Professor, Orthotics and Prosthetics Program
Track and Field

What was your highest athletic achievement?

I ran track and field for Georgia Tech as an undergraduate, scholarship athlete. I ran the 100- and 200-meter dash and was All-American, All-ACC (Atlanta Coast Conference). I also participated in 2004 Olympic Trials in the 100- and 200-meter dash. It was fantastic. You have to make a certain qualifying time to participate in the Olympic trials. In track and field, the U.S. team was the hardest team to make in the sprints. American sprinters are very fast, one of the hardest teams to make. Just getting there was a great experience.

Did you compete professionally?

After college, I ran professional track and field for four years. I ran across the U.S. and some locations in Europe, separate from the Olympics. In 2014, I was inducted into the South New Jersey Track and Field Hall of Fame due to my high school accomplishments in track. Fun fact: I still hold my high school sprint records in the 100- and 200-meter dash.

Did your background as an athlete predispose you to a career in orthotics and prosthetics?

I feel like being blessed with athletic ability, I was interested in what happens to people when they lose their mobility or are born different and have different prospects for mobility. What sparked my interest in orthotics and prosthetics, instead of going the medical route, was that I went to Georgia Tech for a degree in mechanical engineering, which brought me to the actual devices, orthotics and prosthetics professionals, the field of orthotics and prosthetics and the prospect of patient care.

Lisa Abernethy
Assistant professor, Orthotics and Prosthetics Program
Tae Kwon Do

What was your highest athletic achievement?

I started Tae Kwon Do when I was about 8-years-old. My parents put me in as a kiddo, and as I learned defensive maneuvers growing up, I stayed in it. At 12 to 13, I started competing aggressively locally and then, statewide.

In 2002, I tried out for the Team USA World Kickboxing Association championship at age 15. It was fun. I made Team USA and traveled to Italy to compete representing the USA. I competed, but I didn’t medal that year. I made it to Team USA the next year and brought back three bronze medals. Technically, I have two gold for national. International, I have bronze.

Did you continue competing as an adult?

When I graduated from college in 2007, I was diagnosed with multiple bone tumors and had surgery on my left tibia. Instead of going back to kickboxing after college, I went to physical therapy. But 20 years later, I ended up picking up rock climbing to help with limited range of motion on my ankle. I climbed for years and years, and a couple years ago, I felt like I was strong enough and stable enough on the ankle to pick up kickboxing again.

It was never really a goal (to get back into Tae Kwon Do). After all the surgeries, I had given up on it completely. When I tried it out in the gym, I found I still enjoyed it quite a bit. Man, it was harder than I remembered but just as much fun.

Did your background as an athlete predispose you to a career in orthotics and prosthetics?

The competitions taught me persistence and really working toward a goal and focusing on that. I went back to school after seven years, and then graduate school after working in the field for a while. Training as an athlete taught me that if I work hard enough for long enough, I’ll get what I want. Surgeries are how I found my field. I had so much physical therapy after surgeries, that’s how I found out about orthotics and prosthetics. In a roundabout way, I ended up pursuing (that career).

Megan Glahn Castille
Assistant Professor, Orthotics and Prosthetics Program
Gymnastics

What was your highest athletic achievement?

I started competing at 5. For the first couple of years, they were fun classes but pretty quickly, I went into the competitive side of it. I competed all the way until I was 16. I like to say that I retired and began coaching then.

I got up to level 10 which is the highest before you go for the elite level and compete internationally. I feel like I grew up watching Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson (compete internationally and at the Olympics); I was a few years behind them and remember watching their rise.

It depended on the day, (but my best gymnastics skill) was probably beam. I ended up coaching through college, for about six years. I started off with the little ones, Level 2s, from ages 4 to 8 years old. When I went to college, I coached at the same gym as the Louisiana State University gymnasts. I coached the younger kids there from ages 6 to 16.

Did your background as an athlete predispose you to a career in orthotics and prosthetics?

I always knew I wanted to do something in orthopedics. I had my fair share of injuries. Me and my orthopedics team got pretty close over the years. A lot of people stumble into the profession through a family member or personal experience with a certified prosthetist-orthotist. The rest of us have happened across the field with some sort of interest in physical therapy, pre-med, biomedical engineering – there’s a bit of a mix coming into the profession.

On the coaching side of it, I still coach my patients through the process. People ask me if I miss coaching but to some extent, I feel like I’m doing that on a daily basis. Working with scoliosis patients, it’s the same population as the teen girls I was coaching back in the day. That’s why I ended up loving scoliosis care so much; I love that group, walking them through that vulnerable time of life.

Christopher Hovorka
Assistant Professor, Orthotics and Prosthetics Program
Track and Field, Cross-country

What was your highest athletic achievement?

I started competing in track and field and another event cross-country as a kid in high school. I was discovered by one of my PE teachers who said I had some running talent. (Another coach) saw that I had some talent, asked me to do a race with his team separate of my high school running. I joined that team, which went on to win national and regional championships with many runners who went on to compete in Olympics and professionally. Joining that group of runners brought me to another level. I made Top 5 in the nation.

After I graduated high school, I ran for University of New Mexico. When I decided to leave that team, I explored triathlon, which was very new at the time. I made the switch from competitive runner to doing three events – running, cycling and swimming. I competed locally, regionally and nationally for several years during college. This was before triathlon was an Olympic event. I competed with a really good triathlete named Lance Armstrong in Texas and New Mexico. But of course, he abandoned triathlon and went to cycling. He was quite good.

Did your background as an athlete predispose you to a career in orthotics and prosthetics?

(After being recruited to coach), I ran across people who had limb loss; brain injury survivors from crashes from bikes; athletes who got injured in a car crash, whose lives were changed forever. It was foreign to me, and I realized I was a little uncomfortable of losing my own capabilities.

It was my first exposure to people with physical and mental challenges. I talked to a client who wore a brace for their everyday activities. They said it enabled them to do what they want to do and that they used it every day. I knew I wanted to make a difference in peoples’ lives. I learned about orthotics and prosthetics and went to the local Veterans Affairs medical center for job shadowing. I saw sad faces of people coming into office as new amputees who had not been treated. Then I saw them leave wearing a device, walking out the door happy with a new lease on life. It was so inspiring because it allowed them to move. I was hooked.

By Julie Garcia, senior communications associate in the Office of Communications and Community Outreach