POCATELLO, Idaho- Shelby Erdhal knew at the young age of 12 that she wanted to be a physical therapist. Her reasoning for choosing that career path was simple.
"I got hurt as a 12 year old playing soccer," she said. "I went to a physical therapist and they fixed me. I thought it was super cool."
Year by year the passion for working in the health care industry continued to increase.
"As I went through high school and college I learned that physical therapy is much more than sports rehab," Erdahl said. "It still spoke to me. Thinking of people who can't do what they want to do, whether it is going out and walking to get their mail, walking their dog and even just going to the store every day. I was super lucky I found my passion young and it stuck with me as I learned more and more about it."
That passion has carried Erdahl to a job as a physical therapist in Kalispell, Montana after graduating last May with a doctorate in physical therapy from the University of Montana.
As Erdahl begins her professional career, she draws upon her final race as a collegiate athlete at Idaho State quite frequently. In the finals of 400m hurdles at the outdoor track and field championships at Northern Colorado in 2016, Erdahl ruptured her Achilles early in the race but still showed perseverance to finish the race to earn her team a point at the conference championships.
Erdahl caught the attention of people around the world as her finish went viral. She was interviewed on Sportscenter and ESPN made a video that had top performances while injured. The video had Erdahl in the same sentence as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. She received personal messages on social media from Dez Bryant and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
"I think back and it is still a little bit of Holy Cow," Erdahl said on the attention she received. "It was kind of surreal. If you google me I come up on ESPN. That is pretty crazy. I think it is pretty incredible even after four years. It was a horrible situation for me personally but still pretty cool how it turned out."
What people don't know about Erdahl is two weeks after her initial injury she retore her Achilles again while in the shower.
"I'll be honest that was about 1,000 times worse," she said. "To have to redo the same surgery three weeks later was psychologically horrible. The worst part of the whole thing was after all the crazy ESPN stuff had passed, suddenly it was I am still here. I retore it and I reset the clock to 0."
But a tough situation has since become a positive as Erdhal now finds herself relating to her patients.
"A huge part of injury recovery comes from the brain," Erdahl said. "How you think about your injury directly affects your recovery. A lot of people might not have that if you haven't been hurt before. It (her Achilles injury) comes up quite a lot. Not in a negative way but in a light such as I have been there and it is hard. This is what I did. Here is what you can do. It helps knowing that someone has been there before too. As a physical therapist I am here standing telling someone it gets better. They are like, 'Your walking it's easy for you to say,' and it's like, 'No actually I have been there. I know this sucks and it is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I use it to bond with patients and tell them there is light at the end of the tunnel. I was in a spot where that light was real small for a long time. You'll get there."
While Erdahl's injury has drawn global attention, people can't forget the success she had during her career, especially as a senior in qualifying for the finals.
She attributes her success as a senior to learning how to relax and enjoy the experience.
"As a runner everything comes down to 13-14 seconds and that is a very small amount of time," she said. "Learning to relax and enjoy those seconds was huge for me. Running relaxed is a faster time then running tight and nervous."
Erdahl added, "That really clicked for me my senior year when I qualified for the finals. I learned to combine the hard work and the aspect of having fun and being a competitor because I loved it. Not just I have to race this well to do this and that. For me the mental aspect was huge my senior year and figuring out that I can do this and lets enjoy it."
Erdahl carries that mindset into life.
"With PT school it was very stressful," she said. "The school I went to, a C+ was a failing grade. I am here because I love to do this. I have been training for it. It ended up being a good precursor for life. You have to train for something but you also have to enjoy it."
Erdahl has learned to enjoy life and maximize the moment. She is grateful for the experiences she had at Idaho State.
"I was supremely lucky in college to be a part of an athletic program that gave me a deep connection," Erdahl said. "I have lifelong friends, a lot of people with similar mindsets. I was really lucky to be in the athletic community at Idaho State. Nothing but fond memories from the competitive aspect of being a part of the track team and the school itself."
In the classroom, Erdahl's ability to manage her time with studying set her up well for grad school.
"I couldn't do my homework the night before," she said. "I had to make sure it was laid out and planned. That served me well going into grad school because having to study every night during the week wasn't a new thing. As a college athlete I studied during the week because I always had track meets on the weekend."
Erdahl's ability to adjust and prepare has also served her well during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We are still seeing patients," she said. "We usually do 45 minute appointments but we have extended those to an hour appointments for patient cleaning. We are also offering tele therapy to patients who maybe shouldn't come into the clinic or are increased risk to underlying illness. I never thought I would be doing essentially Skype exercise with patients but it was fun and especially since most of the patients I was treating were above age 70."
Making the most of each moment and finding the positive in each situation is who Erdahl is and now she is reaping the rewards of her dream she had as a 12-year old girl who wanted to be a physical therapist.
