Local massage therapist to work at Summer Olympics

Tammy Thornton-Aumbaugh's hands will receive quite a workout this summer in the land down under.

Thornton-Aumbaugh, who owns The Soul Cage Professional Massage Therapy, provides deep tissue, sports and stress reduction massage therapy services and will leave Springfield Aug. 23 for Sydney, Australia to massage the world's best amateur athletes at the 2000 Summer Olympics.

"I'd been working on this project for about a year and a half. I became interested in volunteering after reading an article about the Olympics in Atlanta, and because of the big push to promote massage therapy for athletes in the United States," Thornton-Aumbaugh said.

She said she wrote a letter of interest in 1998 to volunteer her services in Sydney, then sent in a formal application to the Olympic Committee in 1999 and received a rejection letter a few months later.

"Then I received a letter in March of this year that said, congratulations, you've been chosen for Volunteers 2000.' I got a confirmation number and found out I was on the roster after all," Thornton-Aumbaugh said.

Thornton-Aumbaugh said she will train for two weeks before the games start Sept. 15 and continue for two weeks. She said she will be assigned to the beach volleyball area, but because she received notice from the Olympic Committee that several massage therapists have had to cancel their trips because of the mounting expenses, she will probably fill in where needed.

Thornton-Aumbaugh said her original contract with the Olympic Committee stated that she would work either morning or afternoon/evening shifts and have days off to rest, but because of the volunteer shortage, she may have to work more and in different areas of the Games.

She said approximately 13,000 athletes will be at the Olympics this year.

"I was approved to work the Olympic Games and the Para-Olympic Games, but decided that I couldn't be gone for two months to work both because of the out-of-pocket expenses," Thornton-Aumbaugh said.

Thornton-Aumbaugh is the only employee of The Soul Cage and will refer her regular clients to other local massage therapists before she leaves for Australia.

She's waiting for confirmation of her accommodations at the Games, which would consist of a dormitory-like living space. Thornton-Aumbaugh said there's a chance the hostels at the Olympic village are already full and she may have to stay in a hotel in Sydney at her own expense.

She said she's looking forward to providing her services to the athletes and learning new techniques from the other massage therapists who will volunteer at the Olympics with her.

"I learn new techniques from other therapists who work on me didn't learn every technique that's out there at school. I consider it continuing education," Thornton-Aumbaugh said.

Thornton-Aumbaugh massaged vacationers at Chateau on the Lake in Branson after becoming certified and opened The Soul Cage in 1997.

Before becoming a massage therapist, she worked as a counselor at a girls' shelter and decided to go into massage therapy after realizing she needed to be able to see the results of her work quickly in order to stay motivated.

"In this job I can see results in one hour and I'm still helping people. It's a creative human service and I enjoy the one-on-one contact with people," Thornton-Aumbaugh said. "There's a lot of overlap with counseling and massage therapy that I didn't realize."

Thornton-Aumbaugh said she's become the confidant of many of her clients, which she thinks is because of the trusting and intimate relationship between a massage therapist and their clients.

She said her clients come to her for medical reasons as well as for relaxation and stress relief.

"I have enough staggered business to keep me busy. I have some clients on a one- two- or three-week rotation. I see some people once a year on their birthday or on some other special occasion. Some people come in for a specific condition, and once I treat their injury, I don't see them again for six months or so," Thornton-Aumbaugh said.

She said while massage therapy has become mainstream in the Midwest and that most people understand what her business in Plaza Towers and others like it are about, she still receives phone calls on a regular basis from people who think the term massage means something else entirely.

"When I started this business, I wanted to build an ethical practice, and I've gone the distance to try and do that," Thornton-Aumbaugh, who is nationally certified as an Advanced Massage Therapist, said. "Still, every week I get calls from people asking how late they can get an appointment, if I will come to their hotel or what they can get' for $50. It's unbelievable."