PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

If I worked a morning shift then we would all go and have lunch in the international dining zone with all the other volunteers from the village. We then travelled back to the hotel and had the evenings free to go and see some of Athens or to attend some of the events. I saw some athletics, swim- ming, rowing and baseball. Unfortunately, even though we were volunteers and unpaid, we still had to pay to get into the events. Once the Olympics were underway tickets were hard to come by and expen- sive. If I worked an afternoon/evening

shift then I would go to the village for lunch with the team and work through the evening so by the time we got back to the hotel it was often well after midnight.

The clinic sessions were very busy and very interesting, as you never knew who would come along next. Some athletes booked on a daily basis, others just turned up on the day hoping for an appointment. This was amazing at times, with some very famous athletes coming in with their medals.

A FANTASTIC EXPERIENCE Working at the Olympics was a truly fan- tastic experience and although extremely hard work, I learnt a lot. It was great working with some of these athletes whose life’s goal had been to get to the Olympics and it was amazing to witness their passion for their sports. I also made some wonderful new friends from all over the world. I look forward to the next big event and have already submitted my applications for the Winter Olympics in Torino and the 2006 Beijing Olympics.

THE AUTHOR

Sian Cooper is a full member of the Sports Massage Association and is a tutor on the ITEC sports massage course at Suffolk Colleage, part of East Anglia University. She was one of the sports masage team leaders at the Athens Olympics. Sian qual- ified with the London School of Sport Massage and has worked in a range of both sporting and non-sporting settings. Earlier this year she was employed to provide sports massage to singer Will Young while he was on tour in East Anglia (much to the sportEX office, and particularly Tor’s, envy!).

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