Podcast Episode
Racing Across Pakistan While Treating Patients From Trail — with Eliza Sampey

About this episode
Eliza Sampey started treating patients remotely in 2012, years before telehealth was a real conversation in U.S. healthcare. She wasn't following a trend. She was following the needs of her patients who were adventure athletes that couldn't make it to her clinic. Everyone said she was crazy but she trusted that her vision was worth fighting for even when her employer said no.
But Eliza's story goes way beyond being a telehealth pioneer. She is a national champion mountain biker, a professional expedition athlete who has fat-biked and pack-rafted across Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Puerto Rico, and built a life where her clinical skills and her athletic identity weren't competing things — they were one thing.
Then came concussion number five. And three years of unknowingly digging her own grave with every pedal stroke.
In this raw and extraordinary conversation, Eliza shares:
How she accidentally became one of the first virtual physical therapists in the United States and why no one believed it would work
The flash of insight mid-race that told her she didn't have to choose between being a PT and being a pro athlete
How she monetized her athletic career in ways that didn't exist yet and what that model means for clinicians today
The crash, the concussion, and the three years she spent missing what was actually happening to her brain
Why she retired from professional adventure sports and what she built from that loss
Her mission to change the culture around concussion in adventure sports and what it looks like to finally put your flag in the ground
This is one you want to listen to the very end. Eliza's story will shift how you think about what's possible when you stop separating the things you love.
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CONNECT WITH ELIZA
Instagram: @elizasampey
Website: elizasampey.com
Free Concussion eBook: elizasampey.com/concussion