Outside the New Zealand base at the Olympic village
Ngā mihi nui to all the Otago alumni who will be taking part in the upcoming Paris Olympics and Paralympics! The University is well represented by both competitors and staff working behind the scenes.
Leading the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) health team at the Games, which start on Friday (Saturday morning NZ time), is alumnus and Director of Performance Health at High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ), Dr Bruce Hamilton.
Bruce graduated from Otago with a BPhEd (1988), MB ChB (1993) and MD (2016), and heads both the core health team of six doctors, four physiotherapists, three massage therapists and a nurse, and more than 20 health professionals embedded in sports.
“Being in the surreal environment of the Games, supporting New Zealand’s elite athletes during a pivotal life moment is a privilege, a responsibility and an overwhelmingly fantastic experience,” Bruce says.
Olympics therapy team lead Jordan Salesa in the Paris Olympic village
“It’s difficult to find adequate superlatives to describe the experience of working (and it is work) with the New Zealand team at an Olympic Games.”
He says the NZOC draws together an inter-disciplinary team to support the broad range of sport and athlete needs over the duration of the Games. “The opportunity to work in such a talented and motivated group is a real privilege that I never take for granted.”
Bruce says preparations in Paris for the start of competition are going well – “but relocating 400 people and multiple containers worth of equipment across the globe is never without its challenges!”
“We spent four to five days preparing the New Zealand area of the Village for the arrival of the athletes, including establishing our own self-contained health unit – with physiotherapy, massage therapy, nursing and medicine all represented. When combined with the nutrition, physiology, psychology and conditioning support that we have available in our support team, the athletes are sure to be ready to go once they hit the ground in Paris.”
The Olympic Village and sport venues are ready and he says the atmosphere on the ground in Paris is building rapidly. As the New Zealand athletes have arrived in the Village over the last week “the real work of the health team has started”.
Those athletes include Otago Physiology alumna and swimmer Caitlin Deans, who is in the 4x200 Freestyle Relay team; equestrian eventing team member and BCom alumnus Clarke Johnstone; and javelin competitor and Bachelor of Physical Education graduate Tori Peeters.
Olympic swimmer Caitlin Deans
Former Otago students competing at the Olympics and Paralympics also include Paralympian and javelin thrower Holly Robinson; rowers Jordan Parry, Davina Waddy and Phillip Wilson; and canoe competitors Finn Butcher and Lucy Matehaere.
Another alumnus working behind the scenes at the Games is HPSNZ Physiotherapy lead, Jordan Salesa, who heads the Olympic therapy team. He says the health team is all set and “already in full swing with our athletes”. Jordan graduated from Otago with a PGDipSportMed in 2002.
In preparation for the Games, he says they sent a couple of 44-foot containers of gear and supplies to Paris in March. “It takes about a week in the pre-opening to set up our whare. We’re allowed 10 people in before the official opening (which was on 18 July).”
Jordan says the facilities in the village are great, and include cardboard beds and plastic mattresses, which are “quite comfortable actually”.
“The Paris Olympic Village is outstanding, the people are great, and the city and country is on a high.”
Also supporting athletes at the Olympics is alumna and NZOC Mental Skills Consultant Dr Kylie Wilson, who graduated from Otago with a BPhEd(Hons) in 1997.
Good luck and karawhiua!