Sports Physiotherapy at the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival 2019

Hampden Sports Clinic's Senior Physio Therapist Lindsay Smart was assigned to provide official Physiotherapy support for the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival (Bosnia-Herzegovina 2019) The EYOF was the first-ever top European multi-sport event aimed at young athletes aged 14 to 18. A year on we caught up with Lindsay about this medical and sporting experience and what he took from this trip to what was a war zone only 20+ years ago...

It’s been a year since I had the pleasure of being part of the HQ physio team for the Youth Winter Olympic festival. Watching this year's Youth Olympics in Lausanne on BBC iPlayer has brought memories flooding back. I took notes too for a blog but never got round to it at the time.

I have always been interested in the Balkans since watching the horrible scenes of war unfold on television in the early ’90s. Trips with work tend to give me opportunities to visit countries I wouldn’t normally visit. The festival was very special for Sarajevo as the last time an international sporting event was held there was the winter Olympics in 1984, before the catastrophic events which followed for the area. The festival was seen as an opportunity for healing in an area which is still very divided. Bosnia was divided into thirds following the war. Half of the festival events were held in The Rebublic or Serbia and the other half in Bosniak governed area.

Days 1-2 Alpine Skiing (girls and boys slalom)

The girls and boys slalom events were held at the ski resort of Jahorina. Team GB was based at hotels near the airport which was approximately 30km from the ski resort. This bus took about an hour normally through the city and up a narrow mountain road.

The girls' event was hampered by heavy snow which caused the road to block resulting in a 3-hour journey home. The slalom course is chosen by team coaches. There are 2 runs and in the second run, the top 20 are sent out in reverse order. The more racers go down the more challenging the course becomes as the course becomes rough and uneven. This has the result of evening up the field.

My job was to help provide First Aid in the event of any injuries. There was also a medical team onsite stationed in an ambulance. I was also asked by the organisers to take some photos for social media as poor conditions and multiple events on the programme made it impossible for the social media team to cover all events. There was a small tent at the bottom of the course and a café at the car park, however, there was no toilet near the course and no shelter at the start hut. This made is extremely difficult for the skiers to keep warm whilst waiting for their starting slot. A warm-up consisted generally consisted of jogging on the spot and lunges/squats. I have been a keen skier since I was a kid growing up in rural Aberdeenshire (near Glenshee). I always fancied covering skiing as a physio imagining it being very glamorous.
I suppose it is obvious on reflection that standing at the side of a ski slope for 6 hours is cold cold cold, but as far as work goes - I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Day 3 Snowboarding (Bjelisnica)

On day 3 I was allocated to cover Snowboarding training at the resort of Bjelisnica. Logistically this was much easier as amenities were plentiful and the jump was built at the centre of the resort. A heated tent with endless supplies of hot food and drinks were in hand. Snowboarding isn’t something I had seen much of, however - Team GB coaches Steve and Euan were fantastic at keeping me informed. Like many great coaches, I have met over the years their attention to detail and observation skills were incredible.

Day 4 Alpine Girls training (Bjelisnica)

The alpine girls and boys were at different resorts on day 4 and I was needed to accompany the girls training for the team slalom event. The girls did 7 runs of the course in the morning and then we did a gym recovery session in the afternoon. I also helped slip the training course to stop the course from cutting up.

Normally there is very little time to take in local culture and landmarks nevertheless, in the evening we were given a tour of Sarajevo by our incredible attache followed by a visit to the British ambassador's house. The city centre is a beautiful combination of eastern and western influences. The historical highlight was visiting the spot where Franz Ferdinand was assassinated which triggered the first world war...

Day 5 Short track

My last day at the event was covering short track ice skating. This is the first time I had covered this event and it was a fantastic learning opportunity. Short track speed skating is a lightning-fast, adrenaline-fuelled winter sport full of unpredictability, where skaters reach speeds of up to 50km /ph on blades 46cm long and only 1mm thick. It is a highly tactical and physically demanding sport with split-second decision making and race strategy playing a crucial role in racing, where skaters go head-to-head in races of 4 to 6 skaters in a knock-out style of competition.

My initial impression was how technical speed skating is and I have picked up lots of ideas for exercises/drills that can be transferred into other sports. A huge problem for the skaters is finding ice for practice with the athletes restricted to 4 hours on on-ice training (per week!!!) This has made the athletes and coaches think outside the box as to improve their performance using dry land technical drills and other forms of fitness work.

Reflections

The days were very long often getting up at 5AM and having treatments late into the evening. Sharing a room with 3 people also presented challenges in getting enough sleep due to people having different schedules. Overall it was a very memorable experience and I one I would love to do again!