Tapering

The line up at McDonalds is still impressive

I was lazy today.
I had all intentions to get up early to get on the 6:20 shuttle and head of to the canoe/kayak venue at the lagoon. It takes at least 1 hour, if there's no traffic. Traffic is pretty much a constant here along the south shore which connects us at the west end to the east end venues just north of Copacabana at the Lagoa. We had 2 athletes competing in finals so I analyzed my options. Over 2 1/2 hours of shuttling to head to a beautiful area and cheer 2 athletes in a 200 m race. I won't be able to hang out at Copacabana beach to enjoy it as I need to be back around noon for the WCBB practice. Lots of dead time for little return so I stayed in the Village. I guess I was lazy. I am now hanging around the clinic and saw a few athletes who needed some medical attention, all minor which is nice.

Our athletes have been generally healthy at these games. I have been at games in the past where we are seeing a lot more athletes from a medical basis. My motto of "If we're bored, things are going well" usually applies and is in effect now. I am not really bored but I have a lot of time free allowing me to actually go and cover practices. I have never had the option to cover a team at practices as there are not enough MDs with our delegation and we are running on various shuttles to cover competing athletes and teams. I see the future of these games include more MDs to allow better presence. We don't need to be "busy" medically but being present is our role. If there's a requirement for something more then the therapist can provide at the clinic of competition venues, it's nice to be available at the scene. Of course we can't be everywhere all the time. Yesterday an athlete was injured at the competition venue and all MDs were covering something else. We still managed it all by phone and coordinated all care and investigations and everything went well. Minor issue.

Things are tapering off. Goalball men and women did not advance past quarter finals. Men's WCBB finished their tournament with an unfortunate 11th position. I can expect some changes will take place with the program and will need to see how it involves the women's program as well as they are who I'm involved with but it is still under the umbrella of Wheelchair Basketball Canada. The pool is still active and we picked up another gold yesterday with an exciting last 50 m where Katarina Roxon came from behind for a decisive touch on the wall!

The cyclists kept leading our medal attention as a sport. They are now the leading group as they picked up 3 in the track and now hauled 5 at the time trial. Tristan Chernove added a gold to his silver and Ross Wilson grabbed another silver. Charles Moreau, in a handbike, showed what it means to give every last watt of effort as he got himself a bronze medal with a time 0.22 seconds ahead of the 4th position. That would mean that at any time in the time trial, if he relaxed for one half of a revolution of his effort on the cranks would have lost his podium finish. Please go and check the Canadian Paralympic Committee Facebook page for stories, pictures and videos of our athletes competing.

So now we have less active Canadians in competition. As mentioned above, the pool is still active with various Canadians in various events. The athletics events still have a few Canadians competing until Saturday. The Women WCBBplays their final game tomorrow. Rugby has just started. The sailors are at it until Saturday as well.
That doesn't leave a lot of sports venues for me to go to and see Canadians compete. Spending hours at the pool may have multiple races where Canadians aren't involved due to the various classes racing.

At other games I have worked, I didn't have this luxury of having a more relaxed schedule . Maybe another factor is these are the first Games in many years I do not have the responsibility of being the CMO. Being Assistant CMO to Andy is quite easy as I don't have any administrative issues to deal with. We have had a few discussions of issues requiring his attention and having a conversation to look at options is useful.

So now we are already planning how we can start packing this place up slowly so we are not slammed with major packing and customs manifest on the last days.

Too bad we are so far away from any accessible areas (beaches and restaurants). Easier to hang out here at the clinic and see a few athletes if they need then head to practice then  sneak in a workout at the gym. I wish I would've brought my bike as I could have used to at these Games. I have never brought it as there has never been enough time.
Even the cycling road race loops are too difficult to access to help out for the next few days. Even being a spectator will be difficult as the best locations, the steep climb and the hairpin descents, are too hard to get to. We will watch it on TV.

Shot put using a throwing platform

Due to my limited access, I have used CPC photos of our athletes. They can be found at the CPC Facebook site.