As the world's top athletes sneak in their last training days before the Rio Olympics, a local sports massage therapist is ensuring he is at the top of his game as well.
As the world's top athletes sneak in their last training days before the Rio Olympics, a local sports massage therapist is ensuring he is at the top of his game as well.
Kip Petch will be volunteering as one of two massage therapists on the Canadian Core Medical Team at the Olympic Athletes Village.
“I'm getting more excited by the day,” says Petch. Even though this will be the eighth Olympics he has volunteered for, it will be his first trip to South America.
“I've heard so much about it, read so much, it should be neat just to be in that kind of environment.”
The 2016 games will be the sixth in a row for Petch, following his first assignment at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal as a 19-year-old student. He has worked with athletes at both summer and winter Olympic Games – from Calgary in 1988 to Sochi in 2014 – as well as several Pan Am and Commonwealth Games.
Petch has also been the massage therapist for the Edmonton Oilers, Eskimos and Drillers. He is currently part of the medical training staff for the Canadian National Women's Soccer Team.
If the Rio Games are anything like years passed, Petch will be in for long days filled with dozens of sessions with athletes.
“I've learned my lesson,” says Petch, who also owns the Active Life Centre in the Campbell Business Park. “This time I took the weekend plus two days off from work, which is really unique for me.”
With such a physically demanding profession, Petch runs and works out on a regular basis, a routine he plans on continuing while in Rio in order to stay at the top of his game.
Petch will be working within a team of 16 medical and therapy professionals, including doctors, physical, massage and athletic therapists, as well nutritionists. Many teams and some individual athletes will bring their own therapy teams, he explains, but the Canadian Core Medical Team will take care of those that “travel lighter.”
Despite controversy and political scandal, from the Zika virus outbreak to holding the games during Brazil's worst recession in recent history, Petch is staying positive.
“There will always be challenges and concerns ahead of time but I'm pretty isolated in what I do,” he explains. “I'm probably one of the most protected people there because my job description keeps me (in the Athletes Village), whereas the other medical professionals will go to (other) events and cover them.”
Like the Sochi Games, Petch is hopeful he will be able to catch a few events live. He will be cheering on the Canadian women's soccer team as well as the Canadian women's basketball team, a team he worked with at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
One athlete in particular has his support – Marisa Dick of St. Albert, will be competing in the games as the first gymnast to represent Trinidad and Tobago at an Olympics.
“I've been working on her for the last five or six years,” says Petch. “It will be my highlight to see her compete in the Olympics.”
