London 2012 Olympics Illustration © Bill McConkey In the first <strong>of</strong> our six-issue countdown to London 2012, Commentary speaks to Dr Ian McCurdie, chief medical <strong>of</strong>ficer <strong>of</strong> the British Olympic team, about being an Olympic doctor 18 Commentary n June 2011 n www.rcplondon.ac.uk
London 2012 Olympics Comment Write to us... Respond to any <strong>of</strong> the articles featured or share your views on RCP matters. Email us at: letters.commentary@rcplondon.ac.uk ‘When I was at school I enjoyed sports. If I were a journalist I would have been a sports journalist or a sports photographer’ The London 2012 Olympic Games will be big. The Athletes’ Village in the Olympic Park will host around 17,000 athletes and <strong>of</strong>ficials, and the Games will feature 26 sports at venues in the Olympic Park, across London and outside <strong>of</strong> the city. The Olympic Flame will travel around the UK for 70 days before arriving in London the weekend before the Games. There will be street parties and celebrations – the 2012 Olympics will be an historic event for the city. Commentary starts a six-issue countdown to London 2012 with an interview with Dr Ian McCurdie, chief medical <strong>of</strong>ficer, Team GB. What were the highlights <strong>of</strong> being Q part <strong>of</strong> the Beijing Olympics I don’t think we anticipated winning A so many medals and doing quite as well. Before Beijing we set a target to get fourth in the medal table in London and on the last Friday in Beijing we were third, but then Russia won a couple <strong>of</strong> golds over the weekend and we finished fourth. Beijing was so big. The Olympic festival is massive but Beijing was huge in terms <strong>of</strong> buildings and numbers – the venues were spectacular. That and our team’s performance were the highlights. As an Olympic doctor did you feel Q that you shared in the success <strong>of</strong> the British team Yes, as part <strong>of</strong> one big team. We had A 311 athletes in Beijing and around 200 support staff from coaches, managers, physios and others. The biggest impact on sports performance is illness or injury. If an athlete gets injured in the run up to the Games that could be the end <strong>of</strong> their Olympic hopes. There is only so much that you can do to restore full function after injury, so you need to try to prevent athletes from getting injured. This is a challenge in the last weeks <strong>of</strong> training. But the thing that is eminently preventable is illness. Illness in one athlete or the squad can have a massive impact on the team’s performance. From injury you might lose one rower in a boat, but from illness you could lose them all. I don’t mean bird flu like we had in the lead up to Beijing; there is always something brewing, like in Sydney we had a potential seasonal flu epidemic. Even a snivelly nose, a cough or cold, for an Olympic athlete can take the edge <strong>of</strong>f their performance and stop them achieving 100%. Part <strong>of</strong> the overall medical provision is to keep people in optimum health – not just the athletes, but also the people around them. Do Olympic athletes live inside a Q bubble at the Games That is exactly the phrase that A people use, ‘the bubble’. It is mainly a security bubble, but you are literally in a different world. What steps can you take to make Q sure an Olympic athlete doesn’t catch a cold Most <strong>of</strong> it is educational, but there are A certain practical steps to take. In Beijing we issued every athlete their own hand gel dispenser and there were automatic hand gel dispensers outside every accommodation block. The dining hall is the central hub <strong>of</strong> any Olympic village. Around 15,000 people lived in the Olympic village in Beijing and they all ate in one place – a self-service canteen with everything from salads and healthy food to fast food. It was free and open 24 hours a day – unlimited food <strong>of</strong> any variety 24/7, which in itself was a potential problem. The dining hall produced around 60,000 meals a day and you had people from 205 different countries picking up cutlery from trays and bread rolls. The potential risk <strong>of</strong> spreading bugs was huge, education and using hand gel was vital. All the athletes coming into the village would get briefed about security and where things are. As a doctor I would talk to them about hydration, hand gel and keeping clean. Image©Shutterstock I used this phrase that my grandmother would say: ‘Coughs and sneezes spread diseases’. If athletes felt unwell, they were encouraged to report symptoms early. So what are the challenges <strong>of</strong> Q working with athletes compared to regular people Small things make big differences – A that’s the key. The differences between success and failure for an Olympic athlete are minute. Anything that takes the edge <strong>of</strong>f performance is crucial and you have to understand the importance <strong>of</strong> that if you are looking after these people. There is no margin for error or compromise. There is a lovely statistic from the Athens 2004 Olympics about the difference between winning gold and silver. In Athens we won gold in the coxless four [rowing event] with Steven Redgrave, Kelly Holmes won two golds in the 800-metre and 1,500-metre run, Chris Hoy won a gold in the kilometre, and the mens’ 4x100-metre relay won one gold. If you take these five races and look at the difference in time between winning a gold or a silver, the sum <strong>of</strong> those times is just over half a second. Across five events, the difference between winning gold and silver was half a second. That’s how close it is. If we were half a second slower that would have been five silvers. How did your years <strong>of</strong> working with Q the British army and the <strong>Royal</strong> Ballet prepare you for being an Olympic doctor I was a doctor in the army for 23 years A and looked after soldiers. Soldiers need to be physically fit and robust to do their job. If they are ill or unfit then they are not fully functional. So the concept <strong>of</strong> being a doctor to try and improve people’s physical function to return them to high levels <strong>of</strong> activity was something I grew up with in my medical career. As you might imagine, working in the army has lots <strong>of</strong> parallels with working for the Olympics. The idea <strong>of</strong> sport and exercise medicine (SEM) and military medicine, or www.rcplondon.ac.uk n June 2011 n Commentary 19
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