Hi All
If all goes to plan, as you read this, I will be on the Heathrow-Tokyo flight to the Olympic Games – starting to consider the +8 hours’ time difference and contemplating sleep at 6pm BST versus watching a film!
You will all be aware this is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games – I should have been there last year but of course Covid had its effect on that. Sadly, it seems that whilst the Games will go ahead – it will be without spectators. That is disappointing but the competition will be full-on all the same. In a role outside Connect Health, I have been the CMO for British Diving for the last 3 years and I can tell you those guys have worked so hard for the last 5 years for this one moment. Cancellation of the Games would have been devastating and this applies to all the athletes attending.
My role at the Games is at the Olympic Village (OV) as “Headquarters Team GB Doctor”. I attended the previous two Games in different roles. In London 2012 I was the GB Hockey Doctor – solely working with the two hockey teams (Men and Women) which I have to say was probably the highlight of my whole working career. The atmosphere, people and occasion was magnificent. I attended Rio 2016 Games as Medical Lead for the “Performance Lodge” which was the off-site GB preparation / training and chilling venue – an opportunity to get out the OV and train and/or relax. I lived in an apartment block outside the “Olympic bubble” rather than the village but did some shifts in the OV.
In Tokyo I will live in the village in the Team GB tower block. It’s about 15 floors high overlooking the harbour on the edge of the village which is a great site. There is a lot of negotiating with the home nation to get the best site and Team GB have managed a great one! The blocks are newly built apartments and after the Games people who have bought them move in. Whilst not designed for the purpose of an Olympic team, we will set up a medical clinic on the Ground Floor in one apartment where all the GB athletes can attend for problems or recovery (ice baths etc.) or for some light training. There is good use of the outside spaces for relaxation. The whole block, every room, communal areas and outside is dressed up in union jacks and inspiring posters for the team. It is meant to feel like a bit of Britain overseas.
Myself and the rest of the OV medical team (5 SEM Consultants and 5 Physiotherapists) fly out approximately a week before any athletes arrive to set it all up – there are almost 400 athletes though not all live in the village … sports can choose to stay outside in hotels but most use the village. Many sports also bring their own doc and physio but not all.
Once set up the next task in week-1 is to go out to all the sport venues and check them out and write a report for the individual sports coming so they don’t have to worry about medical facilities and emergency plans etc. In this respect we each have allocated sports and mine are:
Diving (of course) – Hockey – Judo – Taekwondo – Sailing – Fencing – Artistic Swimming
So the timetable is:
Week 1 – Set-up Team GB in the village in advance of athletes and inspect venues plus the medical team runs through all our processes and plans for all eventualities
Week 2 – Athletes arrive – we now move into support mode for any needs in the week before
Week 3 – 1st week of competition – either on duty in the village or out with a sport
Week 4 – 2nd week of competition – ditto
Clearly Covid prevention is having a significant effect on the Games. There has always been an “Olympic Bubble” but this has been a security bubble given the risks of terrorism etc. so you are separated from the public and the surrounds of the village are similar to a prison – high fences, barbed wire and security police. However, you were allowed to leave and re-enter the bubble via airport style security gates but at Tokyo no one is allowed out except to travel to venues on buses that don’t stop!
I will be back on a blog once settled. It’s a 12-hour flight and it is taking 3-4 hours to clear the airport on arrival due to Covid screening. No-one leaves the airport until the whole flight is cleared! I suspect the first 2 days will be recovery from that and starting to cope with 30 degrees heat and 100% humidity…… this will be the hottest Games ever!
Otsukaresama deshita (see you later)
Graeme
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