The inspiring stories of these Games continue! I just watched (live) our Canadian skater, Joannie Rochette, perform her short program. Her mother passed away suddenly a few days ago, upon arriving at the Vancouver Airport. This young athlete from Quebec just skated the program of her life, a personal best, and the fans brought the house down with support for her. Her tears at the end were heart wrenching, as she appreciated the fans’ deafening support. It was one of the most touching Olympic moments to date.

There have been many touching moments here…. as the Games continue in full force. One of the most exciting and rewarding moments for members of the medical team at the Polyclinic occurred last week, on one of our busiest days of athletic trauma. One of the Nordic skiers collapsed after her event. In her warm up, just prior to racing, she had crashed and fallen 15 feet down a ditch into a tree! She proceeded to race and win a medal! She collapsed as she crossed the finish line (all the Nordic skiers do this, as they completely kill themselves each race – it’s incredible to see!) but she was unable to get up. It turns out she raced with 5 broken ribs and a hemothorax (blood in the lung cavity causing a collapsed lung) and still won a medal!! As she desperately wanted to attend the medal ceremony, our team stablized her and an ambulance and paramedics accompanied her back to the ceremony, a tube draining from her chest cavity and attached to a suction device hidden beneath her shirt. The paramedics helped her onto the podium, she accepted her medal, then returned to our clinic and was transferred to the major trauma hospital in Vancouver for monitoring! An unbelievable story!! Imagine the pain of racing a totally aerobic event with 5 broken ribs and a diminished lung capacity!

The Americans, Germans and the Norwegians continue to dominate these Games, both countries turning in so many amazing medal performances. Whistler is FULL of Norwegians (see my photos) including many of the sponsors of their Olympic teams. These VIP’s have been putting on big parties for their winning athletes, fans and support teams. Because every day the Norwegians win several medals (today a silver and bronze in mens Giant Slalom and a silver in womens skier cross – a local Whistler girl won the gold!) these parties are happening regularly. The King of Norway is here and attending the parties, making them the BIG events in Whistler! A great site for viewing unbiased coverage and current events schedules and results is
www.vancouver2010.com

Life at the Polyclinic continues to be incredibly busy! My 8 hour shifts fly by and I see patients non-stop. Luckily they are not all athletes – we also care for the Olympic team coaches and officials, volunteers and the police and security force. Many of the volunteers are coming in with injuries from skiing on their days off! The athletes have been coming in as well – usually we see most of them in the afternoons following their races or training. From 3-8pm we are usually swamped with medical visits and mri requests from team doctors. (Most of the larger teams have their own team doctors traveling with them, and many also have their own mini medical clinics within the Athlete’s village. For example, Canada and the US both have small medical clinics within their areas in the village, staffed by their own team doctors. The doctors will send their athletes into the large Polyclinic for any diagnostic imaging, lab work or other issues that require more equipment than they keep at their smaller clinics. (I worked with the Canadian team at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney as part of the team covering our own medical clinic within the village, so I know that these team clinics are also very busy during the Games.)
The dentist and the eye doctor are booked out for the remainder of the Games. Our physiotherapists, chiropractors, accupuncturist and massage therapists have been extremely busy as well, as many of the smaller teams don’t travel with their own therapists (like the US and Canada do.) The Polyclinic itself is seeing over 200 visits a day (7am-11pm), including a few overnight patients (who remain in the trauma unit for monitoring.) We have seen acute coronary syndromes (preceding heart attacks) in visiting team coaches/officials, and many other emergent conditions. On the days that the dangerous events race or train, we remain on a level 1 state of readiness (5mins to prepare for incoming trauma) with a full trauma team (trauma surgeon, orthopedic surgeon, radiologist, all ICU nurses and xray/mri techs) on site. Often bobsleigh will train until 11:30 at night, so we all have to be ready and remain on level 1 alert until that training is finished. Then, overnight, we drop to a level 3 state of readiness -with all trauma team is within 5-15 minutes. Our busiest days are certainly those on which the sliding center hosts events and the alpine skiing races go (espcially during the downhill and super G races last week.)

The Polyclinic also promotes public health and tracks the local communicable diseases (such as the now diminishing problem with a gastroenteritis going around the workers living outside the athletes village – not involving the teams themselves, luckily. We promote hand washing and gives out condoms – the clinic has already given out over 37,000 condoms in the 12 days of the Games!!

One of the best parts of working in the Games is access to view all the sports competing each day on live HD tv! There are HD TV’s everywhere around the athlete’s village and most of Whistler. (Usually I am too busy while at the Polyclinic to sit down and watch an event, but it’s great to catch the latest results of Nordic qualifying heats or alpine races as I run by the tv’s, en route from patient to patient to xray to physiotherapy and back!)

Tomorrow is my last shift in the clinic. It’s been a lot of fun and I feel privileged to have worked with such a great team! The athletes and visiting teams have made the most of our wonderful facilities and are all so thrilled to have access to such wonderful medical care and diagnostic imaging (xray, ultrasound, mri and ct scanners all compliments of GE, donated specially for the Games.)

See my photos under the tab Olympic Gallery!

Life in Whistler continues at a dizzying pace! So many great events, concerts, and medal ceremonies to see, not to mention the incredible skiing (blue skies, cold, fresh snow and NO one on the hill!!)
Life at the Polyclinic has been very busy. The crazy hours are between 2 and 8pm, when the athletes come in from their events or training for assessment and treatment, or during the times of the more dangerous events such as bobsleigh, luge, and alpine skiing. We also take care of the workforce (volunteers) and police so we are always doing something! If we get a quiet moment (usually before 9am), we make sure the clinic is prepared (medications stocked, crash carts all functioning, everything clean and organized) and then, if there is any time left over, we watch any events (often this happens if it’s quiet after 9 or 10pm.) Yesterday I treated a Brazilian Alpine skier (who lives and trains in Italy), and the Iranian woman skier also came in. The athletes from the smaller countries tend not to have doctors traveling with them so utilize our services more. Athletes from the larger teams (USA, Austria, etc) have team physicians and will often come in with their team doc for Xrays, MRI’s, CT scans or lab work.
I was off today and went to the very exciting ladies Super G! Such a technical course produced some upsets and surprises in the results, which kept it exciting! Normally the skiers race on the same courses every year, and this course has only had one other race on it (last year World Cup) so no one really knows it well and the athletes have to learn it and adapt very quickly. For this reason, it is often better (in Super G) not to be the first one down (as Julia Mancuso was today). The coaches watch the first few racers down and radio up to the other athlete any changes in plans, ie, the line they must take to be fastest (and today, to even stay on the course.) For the downhill, the athlete’s get 1-3 training runs in the days leading up to the race, so they have a better idea of the course. The super G has no training run and the athletes get about an hour to inspect the course, or go down it very slowly, with the aid of their coaches, to memorize it and plan their line. Canadian John Kucera, the World downhill champion from 2009, who is unfortunately not racing in these Games due to a leg fracture he sustained in the first race of the year in Lake Louise, compares inspecting and racing super G to cramming for a really big test – but you only have 60-90 mins to learn it all and then your life is at stake if you get it wrong!
After the ladies Super G, I skied all afternoon under blue skies on incredible snow. Now we are off to see the second run of men’s 2-man bob sleigh. Tonight in the village is a big medal ceremony: Canada will receive it’s first medal (a gold in men’s skeleton) in Whistler! The US continues to clean up….. but their are many Noregians here (all thrilled for Svindal, their men’s Super G Olympic champ) and Swiss celebrating recent wins. Next week I will make my first trip to whistler Olympic park to see some X-Country events, which should be very exciting! Tomorrow night the entire nation of Canada will be watching the US-Can hockey game, as will many Americans I’m sure!
Go Canada!
Go USA!

Well, it’s been a busy few days! I’ve now worked 3 shifts in the Polyclinic, then medical clinic within the athlete’s village. The village itself is another topic altogether, which I will write about soon…. for now, I will just say that I have to go through several security checks to get in each day.
The Polyclinic is designed to provide comprehensive medical care for all the Olympic athletes and Olympic family (coaches, staff, chef de missions, etc.) This clinic has full medical facilities, including a trauma room and mini operating room, which is to be used in case of a major emergency. Our main job in Whistler is to “pack and send” major traumas for definitive care in Vancouver, 75 miles away, but occasionally the helicopters can’t fly (due to bad weather) and the 90min drive will take too long for a very injured patient. Thus, we have capabilities for life-saving surgery if necessary.
I am doing sports medicine in the clinic, seeing injured knees, backs, shoulders, etc. An emergency doctor is also working, seeing all other types of problems (allergic reactions, illness, and other problems.) We have trauma and orthopedic surgeons on call and here when needed, as well as radiologist to read the imaging studies being done all day long. We have Xray, ultrasound, mri and ct scans on site – which are busy! We also have a stocked pharmacy and give out appropriate medication (always making sure it is not on the banned substances list for the athletes.) We have a lab on site which can do and analyze most blood work, and casting facilities. The biggest hit of the clinic is the dental and eye care provided to the athletes. One of the perks of making the Olympics team, besides competing, is living in the athlete’s village, and getting all this great care. Many of the athletes from Eastern Europe and Africa don’t have access to good dental care at home, so they really appreciate having this service. The athletes can come in for teeth cleaning, and any other dental work needed, from crowns to root canals. We also have an opthamologist on site, who is seeing athletes for eye care and dispensing eye glasses. The dental and eye care are booked out for at least a week!
We also have a therapy department, fully stocked with all treatment modalities including shock wave treatment (used to treat tendonopathies.) We have 2-3 physiotherapists, a chiropractor, accupuncturist and 2 or 3 massage therapists working on athletes all day long. The clinic is a very busy place – especially in the late afternoons after the events finish. I believe we are seeing at least 150 visits per day. I work 8 hour shifts, 7am- 3pm or 3pm-11pm. We are keeping track of all the visits and injuries with an electronic records system, which the IOC injury commission will use later to study injury patterns at the games. When it’s quiet (rarely, but sometimes, the athletes are just coming in for pre-booked appointments with the dentist or therapists), we watch the events on the amazing HD tv’s scattered throughout, or go to IOC organized medical talks (eg, concussion management) broadcast by teleconference from Vancouver.
That’s it for now I work early tomorrow morning. More to come on life in the athlete’s village….

Hello from Whistler, BC!

What an incredible place to be right now! Whistler is home to the sliding sports (skeleton, luge and bobsleigh), ski jumping, biathlon and X-country events, as well as the Alpine races. Today, due to soft snow conditions on the bottom of the course and too much snow on the top, the men’s downhill (THE big event here) was postponed until Monday. The women’s super combined was scheduled to go off tomorrow, but the women weren’t able to complete a training run today. The international ski federation (FIS) rules state that at least one training run must be completed before the athletes can race in a downhill event. So the races have just been pushed back a few days (hopefully the women’s training run will go tomorrow, as the women’s downhill is scheduled for Wednesday and men’s downhill for Monday.) The athletes are very used to these delays in alpine skiing – it is common for races to be pushed back a few days to wait for colder, clearer weather to arrive. Sometimes the athletes even wait hours in the same day to race, as the fog lifts or the winds subside. However, because of the logistics of media and other officials coming up from Vancouver (2 hours by car) for the races, decisions on race have to be made either the night prior to or very early on the morning of the race. We knew last night that the men’s downhill would be canceled today – which meant that I got to ski!! The conditions on the top of the mountain are amazing, with lots of fresh powder and cold wintery snow. (It’s the bottom half of the mountain that has soft, slushy snow.) Also, the visitor and locals are not skiing – they are all attending events – so up top there are no line ups and great conditions!

The Olympic visitors are not skiing, but they are down in the village, which is going crazy with activity, live music, street performers (2 hockey players on stilts!) and big screens broadcasting live Olympic competition. The feeling in the village is remarkable! So many international visitors are here! I think many of the European Olympic fans have come to Whistler (rather than, or in addition to, Vancouver), because the sports Whistler is hosting are typically strong for the many of the European countries (eg X-country, biathlon, ski jumping, etc.) The village walks are packed with every nation’s people, and everywhere one turns, you can hear, Italian, French, German, Japanese, British accents, Aussie accents…. you name it! Many of the locals have rented out their houses and condos to Olympic visitors, so the village is now a melting pot of international tourists – most walking around with their country’s flags and gear on their backs! During Apres (that’s what we call happy hour after skiing here) I sat, in a little hidden bar because all the main ones were too packed with visitors and live entertainment to even get into, watching live women’s freestyle moguls with friends. I sat beside two men from Munich who told me, in broken English, that they are here for 5-6 days to watch events! They are big skiers back home – Munich is central to many great ski areas, such as Innsbruck, Garmisch, Kitzbuhel – but are not skiing here at Whistler because they “don’t have time!” They are too busy going to so many events, and loving it all!

Everything is underway. The men’s luge had two practice runs today, on a course with a lowered start. The men had to start from the lower women’s start, which, apparently, many athletes were not happy about. They have raced and trained on the original course for over a year, and are used to it. To start from lower down changes their timing throughout the course. One athlete interviewed today noted that the one who wins will be the one best able to adapt and learn to drive fastest on the “new” course after only 2 training runs. The bottom of the course is still fast, but the top is slower for them – and many of the experienced lugers say that the fast and technical top part was their favorite and most exciting part. A wall was built overnight in the area where Nodar went off the track, so it is now impossible to do off. (An overnight investigation found his death to be the result of human error, rather than due to an deficiency in the track itself.) The athletes are very focused and the race should go well.

Tomorrow morning is my first shift in the Polyclinic, and my first trip to the athlete’s village. Should be fun!

Olympic fever has hit Vancouver and Whistler! The Games are officially open, and the Opening Ceremony was unbelievably beautiful and emotional. I have never seen Canadians so proud and excited to host the World! The host towns are buzzing and the organization has been excellent. The worries of traffic in the city and road closures today were nearly unfounded. Even a few protesters and quick route changes didn’t distract the thousands of supporters and fans from coming out to see the Olympic torch. The spirit, pride and anticipation of the events which will unfold over the next 16 days here is palpable and very contagious. Even the rain can’t put a damper on it.

The Olympics are a celebration of humanity; today, we have experienced a true test of the human spirit. The tragic accident on the luge track this morning put everyone into shock. The contrast of emotions – shock and sadness coupled with underlying excitement and anticipation – on this first day could never have been anticipated. The organizers were in tears and at a loss for words when commenting on this unthinkable event, and the luge practices are on hold indefinitely for now. The athletes will have to pull together and draw strength from each other, continuing in honor of their fallen colleague. The Georgian athletes bravely marched tonight in the Opening Ceremonies, in honor of their teammate. The most moving part of the whole incredible ceremony was the moment of silence for Nodar – the stadium went from deafening noise and celebration to complete silence and mourning.

In the days to come, we will see what unfolds at the sliding center. An investigation is underway, but I can’t imagine how the luge race will go off tomorrow. As I begin work in the athlete’s village on Sunday, I am sure I will feel the full impact of what has happened today. Tonight, as we mourn his death, we celebrate the athletes’ dedication and spirit, as they bring the World together in Vancouver and Whistler.

The excitement is building: 7 days left to Opening Ceremonies!

The final preparations in both Athlete’s villages, Vancouver and Whistler, are coming together.

Here is a sneak peak at the beautiful, waterfront Athlete’s village in Vancouver, one of the most environmentally sustainable neighborhoods in North America!

http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-videos/tour-the-vancouver-olympic-and-paralympic-village_268272g110288-tp.html

See you in Whistler in one week – I will be working in the Whistler Polyclinic, the main medical clinic in the Athlete’s village!
Kristin

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