The Olympic Council of Ireland Medical and Science Team met again last night to continue their work on the delivery of the Rio 2016 strategy in association with Kevin Kilty Chef de Mission, Stephen Martin CEO, and Sport Director Martin Burke.
The OCI Medical and Science Rio Medical Strategy Group are developing a strategy document and work programme for the delivery of Medicine and Science services for the Rio 2016 Olympics, building on the success of the London Strategy. The OCI Medical and Science service provider conference of December 2013 was attended by 65 service providers from IIS, SINI and National Federations. The conference addressed the issue of medicine and science strategic planning for Rio and the feedback from the service providers has inputted to this strategic plan. Future conferences are planned for 2014,15 and 16 with key themes
Dec 2014 ‘Optimising health to maximize performance’.
Dec 2015 ‘Psychological preparation for Rio’.
April 2016 ‘Peaking for Performance, Ready Steady, Rio’.
The OCI Medical and Science Rio Strategy Group has identified the following strategic aims and specific objectives to underpin the achievement of the strategic aim and action plans within:
- Specific Objectives:
- To further develop and enhance established systems and structures which enable the OCI Medical and Science team to work seamlessly with the National Governing Bodies of Sports, The Irish Institute of Sport (IIS) and Sports Institute of Northern Ireland (SINI).
- To review the defined roles, responsibilities and functions of each member of the OCI Medical and Science team and ensure they are effectively communicated to all members of the Irish Olympic Team and their wider support network (i.e. athletes, coaches, team leaders, performance directors and medical and science support personnel).
- To develop medicine and science specific strategies that address the medical and science challenges of a multisport team participating in Rio at the 2016 Olympic games.
- To ensure the entire team have all the medical and science information required to perform to their optimum (development/collation of necessary information based on needs analysis) and the dissemination/communication of same (communication strategy).
- To develop people with the capacity to provide a professional and quality based medical and science support service to Team Ireland at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, which is athlete centered, ethically based and seeks to enhance performance.
- To establish a multidisciplinary training camp prior to the Rio Games for the optimal preparation of the Irish team.
- To develop a review process to enable the OCI to evaluate the performance of its own medical and science processes and working with the Institute of Sport and Sports Institute of Northern Ireland develop a process to debrief and support athletes in the post games period.
- To create a legacy building model of leading medicine and science practice for future Olympiads.
The OCI team is chaired by Professor Sean Gaine and include the following personnel:
Professor Sean Gaine
Sean is a Consultant Respiratory Physician at the Mater Hospital Dublin and was Chief Medical Officer at the Athens, Beijing and London Olympic Games. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, he completed his clinical training at John Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, USA. He is Professor of Medicine in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.
Dr Rod McLoughlin
Rod is Medical Officer to the OCI. He in addition Director of Performance Medicine at the Irish Institute of Sport and Irish Rugby Head of Medical Services.
Aidan Woods
Aidan Woods has over 16 years experience of treating Irelands best athletes. He was selected as head physiotherapist with the Irish Olympic teams for Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Sochi 2014. After graduating he worked with Athletics Ireland and some of our countries top boxers. He moved on to work with national rugby, rowing teams.
Dr Giles Warrington
Dr Giles Warrington is Deputy Head of School, Programme Chair of Sports Science and Health, Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Physiology and coordinator of the Applied Sports Performance Research Group in the School of Health and Human Performance at Dublin City University (DCU). He is also Head Sports Physiologist and Sports Science Advisor to the Olympic Council of Ireland and was Team Manager at the pre Games training camp held at Lensbury/St. Mary’s University College for the London Olympics and a member of the Irish medical team at the London, Athens and Beijing Olympic Games.
Sharon Madigan
A performance nutritionist and head of nutrition for the Irish Institute of Sport since 2010, Sharon is responsible for the co-ordination of nutrition support services to elite athletes and lead in the high performance boxing program. She teaches sports nutrition within the school of health and human performance at Dublin City University and provide support into projects with nutrition elements. She has been the OCI consultant on Sports Nutrition matters since Beijing 2008.
Niamh Fitzpatrick
Niamh is one of the most sought after psychological coaches in the country. She was appointed as HQ Psychologist to the Irish Olympic Team for the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games . In addition, she has worked with elite athletes from many different sports, including rowing, athletics, equestrian, canoeing, golf, and cycling, preparing them psychologically for events from National Championships through to European and World Championships.
