Team Ireland Chief Medical Officer Prof. Sean Gaine and Chief Physiotherapist Aidan Woods will lead a medical visit to Rio and Uberlandia next week.
They will be joined by Chef de Mission Kevin Kilty, Sports Director Martin Burke, OCI Medical Officer Dr Rod McLoughlin and Sports Scientist Dr Giles Warrington.
Ireland will be the first NOC in the world to visit the official Rio2016 hospitals chosen for the Games.
Over an intensive three day programme in Brasil the team will meet Rio 2016 staff and observe the Olympic village environment, training venues, medical services and sport venues.
The main purpose of the visit is to engage with Rio medical staff in the organising committee and in hospitals in Rio/Uberlandia and gather as much information as possible in Rio to gain a performance advantage.
The team will then head up to Uberlandia, the proposed “Team Ireland ” training camp venue, to further discussions with Minas Gerais state authorities,and local hospitals.
Early 2013, Dr Fegan, a tropical medicine expert, travelled to Rio with Kilty and Stephen Martin and provided a detailed report to the OCI Medical & Science group.
Key information was shared with Team Leaders,coaches and the science and medical community at the 2013/14 Olympic Conferences.
The OCI Medical and Science Rio Medical Strategy Group have developed 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 Rio OCI Medical and Science service provider conferences are attended by 65 service providers from IIS, SINI and National Federations. The conferences address medicine and science strategic planning for Rio and the feedback from the service providers has inputted to this strategic plan. Key themes as follows from December 2013 and future conference themes as follows:
Dec 2013 “Promoting a Multi-disciplinary Approach to Service Delivery”
https://olympics.ie/news/9010-science-and-medical-team-conference.html
Dec 2014 ‘Optimising health to maximize performance’.
https://olympics.ie/news/11563-science-and-medicine-rio-2016.html
Dec 2015 ‘Psychological preparation for Rio’.
April 2016 ‘Peaking for Performance, Ready Steady, Rio’.
Overview of the OCI Science and Medical Group
https://olympics.ie/summer-games/rio-2016/10157-olympic-medical-group.html
