Higher, faster and stronger — and healthier.

While the Olympic spirit goes a long way to inspire the contingent of Chinese athletes to chase glory at the Games, there is a group of unsung heroes that often have to help the athletes cross the finish line — the medical support team.

During the recently-concluded Paris Games, the delegation included 15 rehabilitation therapists and 16 doctors, most of whom specialize in sports medicine.

Wang Jianquan, a senior doctor with the team, who is also the head of, and a senior expert at, the Sports Medicine Department of Peking University Third Hospital, believes the increasing participation of rehabilitation therapists, doctors and sports scientists at the Olympics is a positive sign of the domestic sports sector's growth and modernization, which benefits not only the athletes, but also the general public.

'Champion hands'

The public has some knowledge that certain kinds of sports are linked with certain injuries, such as meniscus tears in runners, but most people know little about the damage that long-distance running can do to the whole body.

"Running stems from prehistoric times, when our ancestors would hunt," Wang said. "During the process, our bodies must employ all of the energy possible to support the muscles, and, as such, the blood supply to the organs might decrease temporarily, which results in damage.

"That's only one example. Many sports might result in muscle strain, muscle contusion, bone fractures and ligament injury, among others," said Wang, adding: "It's the responsibility of sports science to closely integrate professional knowledge with public applications, and use medical means to protect the health of everyone who exercises."

Wang pointed out that it means not only promoting the recovery of the athletes when injuries happen, but also trying to minimize such damage or prevent injuries from happening in the first place. Measures range from medical monitoring and massage, to exercises under therapists' guidance for light injuries, then to surgical operations for more serious issues.

Unlike the impression that rehabilitated patients suffer permanent issues, Wang pointed out that, for athletes, rehabilitation is a common experience and they often recover to a point where they still compete for, and win, gold medals.

In Paris, Hong Kong, China's Vivian Kong Man-wai won a fencing gold in the women's epee. Based on her performance, few would have realized that she suffered a torn ACL in her left knee in 2017 and another in her right knee in 2019.

For both, she returned to competition after just a few months, clinching the Asian Championship title following her surgery in 2017, and then winning the World Cup championship after her treatment in 2019.

Among the mainland athletes, there are quite a few who have spent time under Wang's care.

"Professor Wang has the nickname 'champion hands' because of the number of patients that won their gold medals after receiving surgery from him," said Li Dai, a departmental colleague at Peking University Third Hospital.

International exchange

The domestic medical sports science sector is still a bit of a fledgling field.

Wang recalls that, in 2016, when he attended the Rio de Janeiro Olympics as a doctor with Team China, he was astonished to find that the medical contingent of the United States delegation numbered in the triple digits in the Olympic village, with an additional group living aboard a ship.

"The US team brought their medical devices via ship, so that their athletes could rehabilitate as usual," Wang said, recounting how his team marveled at their US counterparts' facilities during a visit.

That's why Wang has always emphasized the importance of international communication. For years, the doctors, nurses and rehabilitation therapists from Wang's department at the hospital have engaged in international exchanges, sharing their experiences and advocating that sports medicine departments nationwide to follow suit. From Sep 2023 to June, at least three teams from the department were invited to display their recent achievements at the International Congress on Shoulder and Elbow Surgery held in Rome, the International Cartilage Regeneration and Joint Preservation Society Annual Meeting held in Barcelona and the 18th International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine Conference in Sydney.

These international exchanges don't just mean learning from their European and US counterparts — the Chinese specialists also have plenty to share with their global colleagues, especially concerning the use of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which Wang said can be best integrated with modern methods in the field of sports medicine.

At Rio 2016, the video of US swimmer Michael Phelps undergoing cupping therapy went viral on social networks and on mainstream media.

That combination is a key sector, one which Wang believes can drive innovation. He insists that only by establishing an innovative system that combines TCM concepts with modern medical technology, can China's medical sports science lead the world.

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