PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE By Sian Cooper, MSMA

Working as a sport massage practitioner with elite athletes at a major sporting event is a great experience. To be able to do this at the biggest international sporting event in the world, the Olympics, was a fantastic opportunity. This article looks my personal experience as a volunteer sports massage practi- tioner at the Athens Olympics games, explaining how the opportunity arose and what the experience was like.

THE CRITERIA It was an ordinary working day in early January when I received an e-mail from the Sports Massage Association (SMA) with details outlining the opportunity to work for the Athens 2004 Olympics sports massage team. The e-mail set out the skills and qualifications necessary and I thought why not? The criteria were quite high, as well as being a member of the SMA, applicants would need 500 hours of training. This is because the original cri- teria for sports massage in the Olympics came out of the Salt Lake City winter Olympics games so has an American slant. To get a licence to practice in the United States you need to have completed 500 hours of training.

I had the right qualifications, was a full SMA member, do 20 hours a week of teaching, and currently run clinics and had experience of working with elite ath- letes. So I took the plunge and sent my application in. At the same time I had to apply for my volunteer status directly with the Athens 2004 Olympics’ organisers, which you have to do to gain access to the necessary areas. As a volunteer you are obviously unpaid but your travel and accommodation is provided. We were also provided with free entry to the Acropolis and the museums in Athens but not to the Olympic events.

I didn’t hear anything until 30 March 2004 when I received an email from Roger Olbrot and his co-directors of the Athens 2004 Olympics Sports Massage Team stat- ing that I had been selected. This team originally got together at the Atlanta Olympics to lobby the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to formally include sports massage practitioners in the Olympic set-up in an organised way with agreed standards. They had succeed- ed and were in charge of organising the volunteer sports massage practitioners.

8 A TALE FROM ATHENS

The e-mail also said the team would keep in touch and let us know of proceedings, in the lead-up to the Olympics. They also asked that as soon as we knew our volun- teer number to inform them of it, so that they could start to plan where and when we would be based.

In May, I was told I would be based in the Olympic Village which at first I was a lit- tle disappointed with, as I wanted to be based at one of the venues. However the village actually turned out to be one of the best places to be based, as those based at most stadiums did very little work with the athletes, mainly because athletes were on very tight schedules and did not have a great deal of spare time at the stadiums. Also if they did require treatment it tended to be with the doctors or physiotherapists whereas in the village we were inundated with work as so many athletes did not have access to sports

massage, especially those athletes from the smaller countries.

A NERVOUS WAIT I was also given the option of starting in Athens either from the beginning of August until the opening of the games or from the opening to the closing of the games. I chose to be there from the open- ing of the games as I already had com- mitments in early August and so I booked my flights! Over the next few months I received regular details on what was hap- pening in Athens in the build up of the opening to the games. I was also aware that my volunteer number had not come through. This was probably the most stressful part of the whole experience because no volunteer number meant no Athens Olympics.

As part of my application I had been asked if I had a criminal record and an

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