sportphysio2010

Carol with Rick Celebrini & Diane Lee (flanked by polyclinic staff)

PABC asked Carol Kennedy, renowned Canadian expert on the cervical spine (also one of the 7 stars of the new CPA TV ad), about her Olympic experience so far.

“Over a year ago I had a call from Rick Celebrini asking if I could be talked into being involved with the Olympics. Probably! But as my years of formal involvement with teams (I was a team physio for junior football, junior hockey and senior men’s basketball in another life) were early in my 31 year career as a physio, I wasn’t sure what I had to offer.

Along with each Olympics there is a medical symposium that is attended by the various personnel that are here supporting their teams medically. The topic for the Vancouver Olympics just happened to be head and neck injury and so I guess Rick thought I might have something to say about that. So one week from today I will present ‘Could the Cervical Spine Contribute to Post-concussion Symptoms?‘ to an international audience of physios, docs, chiros, massage therapists… Realizing that English will be a second language for many of the participants, I am still trying to condense the available evidence for that first talk into the allotted 15 minutes! The following day I will use a case history format to present ‘Assessment & Management of the Cervical Spine Contribution to Post-Concussion Symptoms’. This second workshop is a group effort and I have enjoyed collaborating with a physio from Norway as well as local medical specialists on that project.

Rick then came back with an idea of having ‘on-call specialists’ available if needed and so I am waiting to see if the need for cervical spine expertise arises. Randy Goodman, who is the site director for the Polyclinic in the Vancouver Athlete’s Village, extended an invitation to come down to the clinic at any time, and so rather than wait to be called, I headed over there to spend the day with Diane Lee, another ‘on-call specialist’, along with Allison Ezzat and Chris May who were manning the fort that day. It was an amazing experience to walk into the Village and see the flags of the various countries hanging from the balconies of the athlete accommodations, and athletes from all around the world wandering around and relaxing between events. The Polyclinic is a hive of activity. We should be proud of what our Canadian organizers have put together as a state of the art facility. The collaboration among professions is done with mutual respect as we spent time comparing the similarities and differences in treatment approaches.

Then I headed to the Coliseum to sit in the stands as a spectator for Men’s Figure Skating, cheering on Patrick Chan. I feel privileged to be able to experience this Olympics from several different perspectives.”

Carol Kennedy, Physiotherapist, BScPT, FCAMT