gotta love Sumi

With the games now over this is likely the last post for the sportphysio2010 blog.

All of us here at PABC would like to thank  the physios from across B.C (and Canada) who participated in both the Olympic and Paralympic  games,  and to everyone who took part in our 52 day blogging experiment as both contributors and readers.

The idea for the blog came to us less than two weeks before the Games started on March 12th, 2010. With a lot of enthusiasm but without much of a plan we set out to feature our many physios working behinds the scenes at the 2010 Games  and to offer our members an online place to share their Olympic experiences.  Fingers crossed,  we set-up the Sportphysio2010 blog hoping not to violate VANOC’s stringent blogging policy.

Stories came from members working  in a variety of roles. There were the sport physiotherapists with specialized sports training working directly with athletes  as team physiotherapists  and at the venues and Polyclinics. There were also stories from members providing expertise in anti-doping and presenting a sports injury symposiums,  as well as from physios not doing physio duty at all but who participated as torch bearers, drivers, or entertainers at the opening and closing ceremonies.  Some were behind high profile medal winning athletes- both Olympic and Paralympic,  some witnessed some pretty awesome Olympic moments (I know of at least one physio who was at the historic Gold Medal hockey game),  and others were there when disappointment and tragedy struck.

All good stories – when, and if we got them.

Ok, this is the part where I have to come clean and admit that our blog wasn’t exactly a rip roaring success  by the usual measurement standards.   Sure the focus was very niche in another wise over-saturated media market,  but we were hoping that it would have created more of a “conversation’ among our membership.  Sadly, comments were few and far between and many of the best stories were told offline. That said the blog was an awesome learning experience for PABC  making it successful on so many other  levels.  Not only did we go through the motions of creating a blog and finding content,  we had an actual test case for trying out social media. We tweeted @sportphysio2010 , created a Facebook Fan Page, and posted stuff to YouTube,  kick starting our journey into finding new ways of interacting and engaging our members.  Sure we have more to learn, but I think we’re off to a pretty good start!

PABC also plans to continue blogging on topics of interest to our membership  in the near future.

Here are  some blog stats (from Jan 29-March 22, 2010)

• 2500+ page visits
• 975 unique visitors (that’s more than half our membership)
• 50 blog posts
• 37 members were featured

.

Besides our awesome volunteering physios, we also send thanks to the communications group who worked so hard to find the stories in an over-saturated media field: Alison Osborne worked with PABC to showcase BC physios, and Virginia Bawlf at CPA (Canadian Physiotherapy Association) who lead the national initiative to highlight physiotherapy and physios from across Canada during the games .

I’d personally like to thank our CEO Rebecca Tunnacliffe who is never afraid to take on new and interesting projects. She’s a pretty good blogger too!

It was a fun project during an awesome event & for the last time Go Canada Go!

Suzanne Geba,
Member Services & Technology Lead
Physiotherapy Association of BC

Both  Paige Larson and Maggie Phillips-Scarlett were interviewed about their roles in the Paralympics on CBC’s On The Coast with host Stephen Quinn last Friday.  Sadly, I didn’t get to hear it so if anyone has the media file of the radio interview please send it my way.

Maggie was profiled in the local media about her role as the head strength and conditioning coach and team physiotherapist for the 13-person Paralympic Alpine racing team, because as everyone knows that two of the most important professionals any serious athlete has in their arsenal is a strength and conditioning trainer and a physiotherapist. Read more in Physiotherapist treats Paralympians: Phillips-Scarlett said she ‘loved the challenge’

It has been busy. Things in the Whistler polyclinic are chugging along. As with the Olympics we are seeing a lot of athletes from smaller countries such as Bulgaria and Kazakstan etc. Though this time around we have had quite a few Canadian athletes.

The real story of these Games is the athletes and their stories. From people who had an accident doing an extreme sport, those from Eastern Block countries injured by bombs and grenades, western world soldiers injured in battle overseas, to those born with their disability. They all have very different backgrounds, but have had the courage to ‘Soldier On’ through sport. For many sport is what has made the difference in their lives and help

The vibe is definitely different from the Olympics, but just as special. I was impressed with the crowds at the x-country and alpine events. Incredibly enthusiastic, lots of school groups. The kids were lined up to get autographs from athletes from all countries! We are lucky to have access to everything with our accreditation so being able to see these guys compete live has really helped to bring it full circle for me. You can’t help but be inspired by watching how hard they compete. The visually impaired skiiers on the downhill course are incredible, they fly!!

I got to watch Brian McKeevor win a gold medal live and then meet him in the clinic when he saw a colleague! That was pretty cool. Overall I have seen Canada win 3 gold medals!

Once again, like the Olympics, working with all the huge variety of disciplines in the Polyclinic as one equal team has been amazing. The exchange of ideas is pretty cool!

Cheers, Shandia
(sent from my Blackberry)

Shandia Cordingley is physio from Penticton, BC. She is volunteering at the Polyclinic in Whistler for both the Olympics and Paralympic Games

Maggie

There’s a physio behind that medal
and she’s one of our own!

Yesterday Silver medalist Viviane Forest won a bronze in the Women’s alpine giant salom event at Whistler. Forest was in fourth place after the first of her two runs, but was taken away by ambulance for medical assistance and physiotherapy after re-injuring her pulled groin. She returned to the event to win a bronze for Team Canada. The physio who helped her get back on track was BC sport physio Maggie Phillips-Scarlett.

Maggie Phillips-Scarlett has been working with the Canadian para-alpine ski team team since 2005, initially as the strength & conditioning coach but is now as their team physiotherapist. The team consists of 13 athletes, men and women. There are 3 categories including visually impaired, standing (ie. amputees,), and sitting (ie. spinal cord injuries or congenital birth defects). She admits there is a huge array of injuries to manage.

Maggie describes her experience with the team:

Our team trains year round~ when not on snow, they do an intensive dry land program which includes both strength and cardiovascular training as well as pre-hab training to prevent injuries. This is paramount particularly for the disabled athletes because there are so many over-use issues (ie. stump sores, rotator cuff streings.etc).

We’ve had a 4 year plan building up to 2010 so now that it’s here, it’s pretty exciting and at times, overwhelming. There is a different feel for 2010 vs. 2009…the intensity and pressure is increasing and it is felt on all levels! We have just returned from 3 weeks of racing on the world cup circuit in Europe. We had some amazing days and some awful days~ a good awakening of what Whistler could be like. There will be lots to deal with both emotionally, mentally and physically.

Overall though, the team is really excited and looking forward to putting their goals into action. We’ve all worked really hard to be where we are and all we can hope for is some good luck and that the hard work pays off!

On a personal note, Maggie says that working with the team has made her a better physio for a number of reasons. In her words:

1. It has made me very much aware that an impairment is not a limitation.

2. I now know that I’m never going to solve an injury/disability but if I ‘think outside the box’, more often than not, I will be able to figure out a solution that can help the athlete perform better at life and sport.

3. There’s no ‘cookie-cutter recipe’ for treatment~ everyone is an individual and has to be treated with this approach.

4. The value of listening is paramount. When I started with the team, I had very little experience with athletes who had disabilities~ but I vowed to listen and stay very open to learn from them for what their bodies’ required both from a training and a physio stand point. More often than not, the client always knows their body best~ so listening to their concerns is crucial for a successful treatment.

Maggie Phillips Scarlett completed her Honours of Kinesiology in Athletic Therapy at Acadia University(2000), Masters of Kinesiology in Sport Science at the University of Calgary (2004), and Masters of Physical Therapy at the University of British Columbia in 2007. When not traveling with the team (ie. 2 wks/month), Maggie works part-time at Reach Physiotherapy Solutions in Squamish, BC.

Note: I love these stories. Yesterday I emailed Maggie about writing a post based on the article she wrote for the sportphysio.ca website back in January. I knew she was up at Whistler and hoped she would be checking her email. When she replied with the ok, I asked if she knew the physio who was behind the Forest story (I had heard about it on CBC radio this morning). From her mobile phone she simply replied “oh that physio was me”.

Congrats to you Maggie and to the para-alpine team!

Read more about Viviane Forest‘s Bronze medal win in the Vancouver Sun. ‘Tough cookie’ Viviane Forest doesn’t crumble, wins her second

source:Vancouver Sun

medal of Games

Vivian (left) is pictured here with guide Lindsay Dubou

We had two Paralympic torch bearers leading up to the Opening Ceremonies. John Cumberbirch of Surrey was selected to represent Sportability – CP Sports, in recognition of John devoting his career enriching the lives of children with special needs, in both his role as a dedicated and caring pediatric physiotherapist and his many hours spent as an International Classifier for CP Sports. And Louise Burton was “beyond excited” to be carrying the Paralympic torch during the 24 hour relay portion of the relay. Her application to “You Gotta Be Here” won her the spot. Now retired from Vernon Jubilee Hospital after 35 years, Louise is undertaking that all important role of retired physios – vacation relief for her colleagues!

Sharon Clarke is a Cross Country Canada Official Level 3- involved in Nordic sports; at the Paralympics she will be a member of the Timing team for XC skiing. During the Olympics, she was in Falun, Sweden as a Jury member for the Masters World Cup (MWC) in Cross Country Skiing.

Marilyn Atkinson is “very excited” to be working as a wax technician for the Chinese Paralympic cross country ski team, assisting her friend the wax coach for the team. Says Marilyn, “I have official credentials and everything!” Working part-time at Courtenay Physiotherapy, she has a few hours to devote to her Level 2 cross country ski coaching of a developmental program for 10-13 year olds of Strathcona Nordics Ski Club on Mt Washington, as well as competing in a few races a year as she has done since the 1960′s.

Barbara Picton is continuing her Olympic stint at the Athlete’s village into the Paralympics. She is in admin helping with logistics, but also covers the front end when more people are required. Some of the jobs have included hours breaking down cardboard boxes in the depths of an underground parking lot, completing inventory lists in the athlete’s rooms, welcoming athletes into the village and hauling luggage through the security checks, COC members to their meeting rooms, hauling cedar trees in tubs to pretty up the place, sponsors and partners around the Village, and issuing guest passes, “for which we had 1½ hours training from the RCMP in how to match people to passport photos – I now have a great respect for why they won’t allow us to smile anymore as it really does change the shape of the face.”

Alison Hoens provided training on the use of electrotherapeutic agents, and is an On Call specialist, “called when my area of expertise is required and/or helping out in the medical clinic in the Vancouver Village whenever I can.”

source: Vancouver Sun

We’ve taken a short break between games here at the Sportsphysio2010 blog, but that doesn’t mean our physios are done. Many will be back to help out athletes in the Paralympic games and we’ll be here to tell you about them.

It isn’t difficult to be awestruck by athletes competing at the Paralympic games. Can you imagine skiing down a course reaching speeds of over 130km/hr with only 10% vision?  In a series of recent Vancouver Sun articles (Faster, higher, stronger and paralympians have top-secret edge), Randy Shore highlights the sophisticated technology behind paralympic sports and the national program in place to give Canadian paralympians the technological edge to put them at the top of the podium.

Funded through Own the Podium, the Top Secret program is developing high-tech gear and improving technology for paralympic athletes. From advanced-damper sit-skis for the para-alpine team to specialized picks and blades for the sledge hockey team, athletes are experiencing a phenomenal difference in performance levels according to Shore, who expects to see some fierce competition when the Paralympics games begin. Sales of wheelchair curling and sledge hockey tickets are going fast!

Physiotherapists play a huge role in working with these awesome athletes.  Physio Paige Larson has  vast experience working with paralympic athletes  and has seen a lot of action during the 2010 games.  She was  venue medical supervisor for figure skating and is now is now with the wheelchair curling team.  Paige, who  has  been with Team Canada for  the last three Paralympics, was recently featured in The North Shore News.  Read about Paige here.

Paige in action

We look forward to hearing more from Paige and other  physios volunteering for the Paralympic games!

Suzanne Geba
Member Services & Technology Lead for PABC

Goodman is charge of  leading therapy services at the “best polyclinic in Olympic games history” says a recent article in the Kelowna Capital News.

The 10,000 square-foot multi-specialty, state of the art medical clinic has everything from physiotherapy to massage to chiropractic, acupuncture, bracing and orthotics. Goodman is in charge of a team of physios (many PABC members )  who were treating mostly athletes from outside of Canada,  some of whom wouldn’t have been able to compete without the services at the polyclinic,  he says in the article. While many of the larger teams brought their own physios, most relied on the services provided by Goodman’s team.

A story in the Vancouver Sun also featured the world class facility in a February 15th article.

Goodman applied for the position to run the polyclinic three years ago and began preparations for the Olympics two years ago.

Kudos to Goodman and his team!

Read the full article.

With the games now over and the city/province/nation slowly (and possibly reluctantly) returning to normal, it’s time to turn our appreciation to the thousands of volunteers of the 2010 games.

Thank you all for your commitment and high spirits – you have made the games a success!

This blog was set up to honour the many members volunteers working these games. Thanks for sharing your stories, and please continue to post your thoughts and memories.

It’s time to reset the countdown, as this blog will continue to follow our physio volunteers through the Paralmpic games!

Alison Osborne, PABC’s Communications strategist shares a few thoughts about her role in getting media attention for our physiotherapists:

With 73 BC physiotherapists working and volunteering at the 2010 Winter Games, this is a great  opportunity to showcase the work of PABC members. In January, PABC contacted me to develop a plan for raising the profile of physiotherapists through the BC media – an initiative that would dovetail nicely with the Association’s television advertising campaign throughout the Games.

There are no guarantees when it comes to media, and we knew there would be lots of competition  for media attention related to the Olympics. So, in consultation with the Canadian Physiotherapy Association, VANOC and the Canadian Olympic Committee, we determined our primary strategy would be to highlight PABC members by targeting local news media in their home communities – profiling their commitment to helping athletes compete at the top of their game.

We were really delighted by the number of physios who were willing to share their pride and enthusiasm about participating in this once-in-a-lifetime event, from Gabriola Island to Nelson (and many points in between!). In total, my colleague Anne McLaughlin and I liaised with 22 PABC members and approached 13 different community media outlets. So far, our efforts have yielded stories in six community papers, with three more stories currently in the works.

In the mainstream media, we were excited to put forward Chris Napier, the team physio for Julia Murray of the Canadian women’s ski cross team. Global TV’s O Show – hosted by sports personality Squire Barnes – ran a great story on how physiotherapy was crucial for helping Julia get back on track to compete after a serious knee injury. As someone who works primarily in the health and research sectors, it’s been a real thrill for me to be involved in some small way with such a fantastic, world-class sporting event – a big thanks to PABC for this opportunity!

posted by Alison Osborne, Monkey Hill Health Communications

PABC thanks Alison for all her fantastic work!

Here’s a partial listing of media coverage of BC Physios:

Damien Molroney
Highs and lows for local Olympic physiotherapist, Nelson Daily News
Pushing to the highest level: Local physiotherapist helps Olympic athletes reach their best

Steve Witvoet
North Okanagan flavour at Games, Vernon Morning Star

D’Arcy Boulton
Residents ready to help at Games, Nanaimo Bulletin

Jen Jones
Ex-River resident brings healing to Olympic athletes, Campbell River Mirror
COFFEE WITH—Games support, South Delta Leader
Healthy dose of Deltans helping out with Games: Medical professionals posted at various Olympic venues, Delta Optimist

Greg Bay
Heading up an Olympic operation, Abby physiotherapist leads team in Whistler, Abbotsford Times

Chris Napier
Julia Murray is back on track, CBC, Vancouver Now
Global TV National – crew filmed in Chris Napier’s clinic Feb 10 with ski cross athlete Julia
Murray; anticipate airing closer to ski cross event

source: Nelson Daily News

Damien Moroney, who is also Nelson, BC’s man at the Whistler Sliding Centre is again featured in the local media .

Nelson Daily News writer Colin Payne who has been following Moroney (see previous post) writes about the highs and lows for the local Olympic physiotherapist.

Working with several Olympic bobsleigh and skeleton riders in the lead up to their Olympic competition, Moroney  has been with them at the track in Whistler where he’s bore witness to both victory and defeat says Payne.

Moroney  has certainly seen lots of action! Early on he got to see one of his clients, Canadian moguls skier, Jen Heil take home Canada’s first medal of the games (a silver). Following that, Canadian skeleton rider Jon Montgomery took home a gold .

“Canada’s looking really strong,” said Moroney of Canada’s bobsleigh teams. “We’ve got two strong teams and I think they can both compete for medals.”

Women’s bobsleigh teams of course went on to win gold (Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse)  & silver (Helen Upperton and Shelly-Ann Brown) on Wednesday night in a race marked by yet more spectacular spills on the Whistler track.

With the highs came the lows. The most tragic of course was the death of the Georgian luger (two weeks today), and the disappointing defeat of the medal hopeful two-man bobsled team that was taken out by a spectacular crash.

No doubt Moroney will be standing by as the four-man bobsleigh heats start today with the medal event  scheduled for 27th at Feb. 27, 2:40 pm.

Great work Damien!

Read Colin Payne’s article at Nelson Daily News