Local volunteers are the backbone of the Olympics and Kelowna’s Randy Goodman has certainly played a central roll.

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.

Sometimes the parts of an Olympic games you will remember and fondly reflect on are not obvious or predictable.

Last night, Randy Goodman (Sport Physio, and Athlete Village Polyclinic Manager) dropped by the Canada Hockey Place (CHP) Therapy Room to check how we were doing with regards to staff and supplies. He has done such a great job helping us fill gaps on very short notice, at times walking over from the polyclinic himself to deliver therapy supplies. After touching base and arranging to restock our tape supplies, I was able to take Randy on a tour of our facility.

Our clinic is in fact the Vancouver Canucks medical-therapy clinic, dynamically located between the Team Canada and Team Russia dressing rooms. It is not a temporary facility set up in a locker room or conference room like many of the venue clinics.

We have a trauma bay set up on one half of the room, and a therapy bay on the other half. Our therapy area includes a complete selection of tape and associated bandages as well as a full spectrum of rehabilitation electrophysical agents.  We have an IIHF recommended selection of prescription and over the counter medication, creams, ointments, decongestants etc. and have been able to help out the visiting NOC teams with our supplies.

We are a popular spot with international colleagues who love our tape! Swedish physio stopped by 3 different times to borrow tape our tape for his athletes.  The athletes are very particular about what tape they use. The hockey player from Ottawa wants a slightly different product or brand than the player from Philadelphia and that of course is different than the tape used by his Detroit and NYR players.  The tape used in Europe is not quite the same as that used in North America, and most of the Swedish team members play in the North American based NHL.

Our clinic is extremely busy.  To cover Athlete Care, at each game we have 2 Physicians, 1 Therapist, 1 Medical Supervisor, a Paramedic Commander, a pair of ALS Paramedics, a Dentist, a Radiology Tech, and a Diagnostic Ultra Sound Tech.   In most cases one physician is an orthopedic surgeon and one is a primary care sports medicine physician.  We communicate on a dedicated medical radio channel.

We are also responsible for Spectator Care at CHP, which involves 1 Physician, 2 Nurses and 6 First Responders and a team of Paramedics.

As well, we cover practices at Britannia Ice Arena with 1 Physician, 1 Therapist and a Medical Supervisor.  The game day skates and team practices for men’s hockey are all at Britannia.  CHP ice is challenged with the 3 games a day, so no practices are held at the competition facility.

Ron Mattison, Sport Physiotherapist

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