THE PARALYMPICS

MASSAGE AT THE PARALYMPICS

quick because you may be the only person at the training venue and there may be two or three people who wanted massage and they often had a bus to catch back to the village.

ARCHERY I spent a lot of time at the archery venue, apparently during the Olympics they did not have massage at this venue, but I found that it was busy. The archers came for massage between training ends and the different countries tended to finish their training at different times so that there was a steady stream of people. The archers generally had right shoulder problems due to the repeti- tive nature of their event.

During my time off, I did manage to see some of the archers com- peting and it was satisfying to see people who we had massaged, doing well in competition. The Korean men won gold in the team event and they said that my massage had helped them. This made me feel very proud and humble.

There were some teams who had physiotherapists with them and at the beginning did not want any massage therapy from us. However, once they saw what we were doing and that we were in fact professional, some of them relented and we ended up provid- ing massage for the coaches, physiotherapists and the people who looked after the wheelchairs, as well as the athletes. I found the athletes were a wonderful group of people and really appreciated everything that was done for them, as many did not have massage facilities available in their own countries.

An important thing I learnt was that you did not have to help www.sportex.net

these athletes, your first instinct is to lend a hand and help them get onto the massage couch, however, they do not need help and they will ask if they need it. The atmosphere in the village was wonderful, always full of laughter and smiling faces, pins were swapped and eventually shirts were exchanged. I have only respect and admiration for these athletes who overcome every- thing to be able to compete at such a wonderful event. All of the massage therapists decided we were glad that we had been cho- sen for the Paralympics and not the Olympics.

It provided me with the opportunity to work with athletes with disabilities. The athletes had a wide variety of disabilites and I saw how they overcame these. I learned how to deal with what- ever I was presented with. Our watchwords were ‘Be Flexible’ and that was what we had to be as things changed from one day to the next.

from the other massage practitioners as we all had skills to offer each other. Also just being part of a team of massage practition- ers and all the give and take that involves was an experience because I normally work on my own.

I was sad when it was over, but am now looking forward to maybe going to Turin and Beijing. In the meantime I would like to get involved more in disabled sport as a massage practitioner.

THE AUTHOR ■ Kathrine Crompton qualified in sports massage in 2002 after com- pleting the SPS sports massage course. She currently works as a sports massage practitioner at Wilmslow Physiotherapy and the Aquatics Centre in Manchester. She worked at the Commonwealth games in 2002 and at a couple of half marathons.

7 It also gave me the opportunity to learn some new skills