THE ATHENS EXPERIENCE

up-to-date passport and I had replied ‘yes’ to both. On reflection, I began to get wor- ried that my brush with the law in an anti-apartheid rally when I was 17 meant that I would be refused volunteer status. I had a nervous wait. The co-directors of the sports massage team worked really hard to chase everything up and it actual- ly took until the beginning of August for confirmation from Athens. Apparently my details had been lost on their system due to the fact that I have a circumflex over my name and this confused the Greek computers!

NETWORKING The sports massage team had thoughtfully provided us with a list of all the sports massage practitioners who would be work- ing at the Olympics and I had made con- tact with my prospective room mate from Sweden. Isla Scott, from the Isle of Man, had also contacted all the British sports massage practitioners and we exchanged various bits of information. Isla and I spoke regularly, and as she was flying out a few days before me, she was able to let me know exactly what to expect when I got there. This proved to be invaluable as I was aware of the teething problems that were going on. Just before I left I asked Isla if there was anything I could bring out. She replied: “Yes some massage oil!” They only had body moisturiser to work with.

I arrived in Athens in the early hours of the morning, so at least it was not too hot. Roger had e-mailed me a few days before, wishing every- one a fantastic time, but also warning us to be prepared to expect some changes and to be patient. True to form my Swedish room mate therefore became Judy from Arizona. I travelled to get my accreditation, because without that I could- n’t start work, only to find that they decided to only accredit officials that day, and the following day was a bank holiday - in the middle of the Olympics! I soon discovered that several people had experienced problems one way or another, so I had to just be patient. For the past 10 years I have worked with Karen Pickering, the British 200m freestyle swimmer, who was swimming in

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the relay team in Athens, so I rang and met up with her family who were also in Athens and we went to a Speedo Beach party which was great fun.

The following day I did get my accredita- tion and so went to the Olympic village. I had at least a 90-minute journey from my hotel in Omonia square, by train and bus to the Olympic Village, north of Kaffissia. This journey was often in very cramped, hot conditions but it gave me the oppor- tunity to see some of Athens.

THE CLINIC

On arrival, I was told I was to be one of the team captains of the Athens Olympics sports massage team for the Olympic Village south clinic ‘Phevos’. The sports massage practitioners were put into teams. My role was to ensure that the team were organised. This meant setting up a rota as one hadn’t been put in place. I then had to ensure this was correct on a daily basis and we had enough therapists for the two shifts from 8.30am until 2pm and 3pm until 9.30pm. We also had ther- apists coming in from outside venues to work for one or two days to help out because it wasn’t long before we became very popular and very busy. We had two clinic rooms with six massage couches in each, so at any one time we could have 12

athletes with 12 therapists. Each session lasted 30 minutes, each therapist worked on a rolling schedule and so most thera- pists would work with up to eight athletes in any one shift.

It was also my role as team captain to make sure that everything ran smoothly, enough towels, massage oil/lotion as well as many happy athletes getting what they came for a ‘good massage treatment’. There was also the need to make sure everyone understood what was required, which is where some of the fun started. We had over 30 therapists based in ‘Phevos’ over the duration of the games. They came from 15 different countries and treated on average, over 100 different athletes from all over the world, so language was often an issue, as well as culture and sex. As a result some very delicate situations had to be addressed. This included ensuring women from the Muslim countries received treatment from female therapists. Some married Muslim men refused to be treated by female ther- apists and as the athletes often dropped in for treatment these issues often result- ed in the juggling of therapists.

We also did not just treat athletes, we were open to coaches, doctors and phys- iotherapists who wanted treatment.