SYDNEY 2000 — THE BEST GAMES EVER………………!

by Chris Salvary LSSM Dip., MBTER, MGCP

Having worked as a sports massage therapist with athletes with disabilities for some 6 years now it has been an honour and a privilege for me to be selected as part of the medical team supporting the British Paralympic squad at two Paralympic Games: Atlanta 1996 and the supremely successful Sydney 2000. The Paralympic Games does not mean "paraplegic games" as is commonly thought but actually refers to the "parallel" Olympic Games for athletes with disabilities, ranging from those with spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, learning disability, visual impairment and amputees. In Sydney there were events over 18 different sports including archery, track and field athletics, cycling, equestrianism, powerlifting, sailing, shooting, swimming, volleyball and table tennis. Some sports are available for those with a specific disability e.g. goalball and judo for the visually impaired, football and boccia (a kind of wheelchair bowls) for those with cerebral palsy, and wheelchair basketball, fencing, tennis and rugby (which used to be known as murderball — for obvious reasons once you have seen teams play!!). Great Britain had competitors in all events except football and volleyball.

It is probably not unfair to say that Atlanta was widely regarded as being a disappointing games: certainly the media reports of poor accommodation and food and inefficient transportation were not exaggerated and our athletes achieved their good results (39 gold medals, 42 silver and 41 bronze, totalling 122 to give GB 4^th position overall) in spite of, rather than because of the organisation of the Games. Happily I can report that Sydney was the complete opposite: a good standard of accommodation in the superb Olympic Village, excellent food available 24 hours a day, and a seemingly endless supply of wheelchair-accessible buses covering the whole Village and all the Games venues.

The organisation of medical team support for Sydney saw some changes, most notably that the two largest squads, athletics and swimming, selected their own dedicated medical team (in Atlanta there was a single medical team looking after all squads). For athletics there was a competitive selection process where posts were advertised in "Athletics Weekly" in January following which applicants were shortlisted for interview by the Team Doctor and Performance Director at the UK Athletics office in Birmingham. The final team consisted of one doctor, one nurse, two physiotherapists and myself as sports massage therapist. We would have links with the core medical team and would use the same record keeping systems to ensure uniformity in gathering statistical and other information, but otherwise we would run as an autonomous unit. Our doctor and nurse also took part in the on-call rota for the whole team.

There was a full GB squad training weekend at the University of Nottingham in July which allowed us to get to know other members of the team and also enabled the medical support to finalise orders of medical supplies and equipment. Further athletics squad weekends prior to Sydney enabled members of our dedicated medical team to start working together, which helped us build good relationships and resulted in what I feel was a very strong and cohesive medical support.

Our first stop in Australia was the Radisson Resort Gold Coast in Queensland for the holding camp. We used the same facilities as had our Olympic team a month previously — and they were superb. Athletes and staff shared twin rooms and the GB squad had its own dedicated lounge and dining facilities. The hotel staff were extremely helpful and we soon had a medical room up and running next to the Athletics team office. We tended to start clinic at around 8.00 a.m. and would usually finish around 9.30 — 10.00 p.m. (with the occasional break for lunch, dinner or a quick swim in the pool!) The purpose of the holding camp was to allow athletes and staff to acclimatise and relax, offering the best pre-competition preparation possible prior to the Games. Good sports facilities were available within easy reach of the hotel to allow the athletes to maintain their training.

Just under a fortnight later the next stop was Sydney where we sped through the airport’s specially organised Paralympic Family Accreditation area and were then taken by bus to the Olympic Village. On the way in we passed close by the Stadium Australia which I think gave even the most hardened veteran team members a shiver or two of excitement! The Olympic Village was now the Paralympic Village and offered exactly the same facilities and standard of accommodation as our Olympic team-mates had enjoyed. Most amazing to me were the volunteers of all nationalities working in the Residents’Centres which were dotted around the tree-lined streets: these charming and friendly people offered all sorts of help including all manner of maps and information, extra pillows and towels, e-mail, telephone and computer links, daily newletters about village life and personalities — and they would even do your washing for you and have it ready for collection the next day — a boon to a hot, sweaty massage therapist! The Dining Area was a huge space with a wide range of food available 24/7— some of our young athletes thought they’d gone to heaven when they discovered a 24 hour McDonalds! Recycling was done as a matter of course with groups of 3 different bins for plastics, cardboard, paper and others situated at various points throughout the dining room and indeed the whole village. As well as the state-of-the-art Polyclinic for people’s medical needs, there were sports massage and bodycare areas where athletes could be pampered. The International Zone was a retail and relaxation area, with post office, shops, phones, the IBM Surf Shack with internet facilities, a hairdressers (which soon began a roaring trade in wild hairstyles in team colours!) and various entertainments.

And now to the Games themselves! The day of the Opening Ceremony was wet and miserable, but by the time we arrived at Stadium Australia the rain miraculously cleared and allowed us to enjoy the exciting spectacle. The front seats had been reserved for all the teams so everyone had an excellent view as they watched the pageant of inflatable creatures, listened to Aussie stars including Kylie Minogue (our young lads thought they’d gone to heaven again!) and felt their bodies reverberate to the crescendo of fireworks following the moving spectacle of Australian wheelchair track star Louise Sauvage lighting the Paralympic flame.

Day one of competition saw my schedule change: from having been "confined to base" working in the clinic, my brief was now to attend at the warm-up track every day; the physios working a rota system shared between the clinic and the track. A typical day for me would be up around 7.00 - 7.30a.m., quick breakfast and on the bus to the warm-up track with the first athletes and staff. ready to start massaging between 8.00-8.30a.m.. The workload would vary according to how many athletes were competing or training, but once the last athlete had left the area I would sprint over to the stadium to catch the last few events, and be available to give post-event treatment if necessary. Then back to the Dining Area for lunch, and if I was lucky, an hour or two to pick up washing/write postcards/have a snooze! In the afternoon I would accompany the first athletes to be competing back down to the track, and then between 6.30 — 7.30p.m. go to the stadium once the last athlete had left, again to catch the last few evening events and provide treatment if requested. On some occasions treatment had to be postponed to the following day — usually because an athlete had to attend a medal ceremony and then found it took over an hour to return to us because they had been besieged by fans wanting autographs or to take photos with them!! The only exception to this timetable was the last day — Marathon day! Physio Helene and I dragged ourselves out of bed at 5.00 a.m. to meet the endurance events coaches for breakfast, and then we were taken by minibus to the hotel that the lads were staying in near to the marathon start so that we could do some pre-event treatment.

I have so many wonderful memories of these Games: Bob Matthews taking Britain’s first gold in the 10K;Tanni Grey-Thompson winning her set of 4 gold medals; Lloyd Upsdell, our 17 year old gentle giant smashing the 100m and 200m sprint world records to take 2 golds; Sally Reddin, who had been ill with respiratory problems on reaching Australia but went on to take gold in the shot putt; Caroline Innes who took gold in the 400m, smashing the world record, and another gold in the 200m, setting a new Paralympic record (and then announced her retirement and her engagement!); Hazel Robson who finally won gold in the 100m after her disqualification from silver medal position in the 200m running against Caroline; Noel Thatcher, who broke his own world record in the 10K but "only" came 3^rd, and then broke the 5K world record in a superb gold medal winning performance….and there are so many more. On a personal note, I had a wonderful time working with our 2 physios: we sang little ditties together to our athletes (perhaps they ran/wheeled all the faster just to get away from our dulcet tones on "Simply the best" and "I feel good"!), affixed GB team flag tattoos to various parts of our athletes anatomy (and our own too), discussed the meaning of life and athletics — oh yes, and also did a bit of massage, stretching, taping…

I could go on indefinitely but perhaps I should save the rest as wonderful memories, supplemented by 12 rolls of film and a host of newspaper cuttings and video footage! The Closing Ceremony was almost an anti-climax: but in a lovely touch everyone was given a disposable flash camera to record their own highlights: the full-to-bursting stadium; more inflatables, kangaroos on bikes, more Aussie performers, more fireworks, the extinguishing of the Paralympic flame...and the party to end all parties down at the Homebush Bay Brewery!

We Brits celebrated with good reason, as our final position was 2^nd only to the Aussies, with 41 gold medals, 43 silver and 47 bronze giving us 131 medals in total. I am sure that our superb sports men and women owe these performances in part to the Lottery Sports Fund and to the British Paralympic Association’s super-six sponsors: Adidas, BA, BT, Lloyds TSB, Marks and Spencer and Racal. The team has probably been more professional and well-prepared than ever before, but this has been of necessity as standards of competition have been rising in leaps and bounds. Many Paralympic and World records were shattered in Sydney — not only by the gold medallist but often by silver and bronze medallists too. Some of our veteran Paralympians are retiring now but it is exciting to see how much new young talent is coming through, with a number of our youngsters, for whom Sydney was their first Paralympics, already breaking records and winning medals. We all applauded the announcement by Kate Hoey, Minister for Sport, at a reception for the British team in Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art, that Lottery funding would continue for Paralympic athletes, and hopefully this should help to maintain and build on our success in Sydney.

Athens here we come……………!

Chris Salvary is a Senior Tutor at the London School of Sports Massage and also lectures part-time at the University of Westminster on their Complementary Therapies degree. She has practises in London, Hertfordshire and Essex, she treats a wide variety of sportspeople and others.

Call: 01707 850064

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