Yvonne Visser's Travel Diary
September 3, 2005
Olympian at heart (introductory article)
Former elite athlete remains close
to competition as massage therapist
by Walter Cordery, Nanaimo Daily News
When Nanaimo massage therapist Yvonne Visser listens to the concerns of athletes
she administers to, she understands their fears and frustrations more than
most.
Visser, part of the 30-member strong Canadian Winter Olympics medical team
going to Turin Italy for the 206 Games, was once an elite-level athlete herself.
When she’s not at her Nanaimo practice, she is often accompanying the
Canadian bobsleigh team across the globe as they prepare for the coming Olympic
Games. As a former Nordic athlete – cross-country skiing and biathlon
– she can empathize with the emotions and aches and pains the athletes
feel during a competition.
She can also empathize with their lifestyle – or lack thereof.
Visser spent many years toiling in poverty to represent her country, the
native Albertan says.
“The lesser known athletes and the athletes in the less glamorous sports
certainly don’t dedicate themselves and push themselves to their limits
for the money.
“Oatmeal and rice – I lived on that stuff.”
However the former Albertville Olympian says she doesn’t believe the
elite-level, lesser-known athletes hold any resentment against the perks and
money some of the high-profile athletes, like professional hockey players,
receive.
I think there’s a lot of respect from athlete to athlete and the sentiment
seems to be more of ‘I wish I could make that much money,” she
says.
Even her position with the medical team that leaves for training sessions
in November is entirely voluntary.
She will be away from her family and practice for the better part of three
months, she says.
“I leave for a training session Nov. 4 and then come back to town Dec.
24.”
Just back home long enough to celebrate Christmas and the New Year with family
and friends and then she’s off to Italy.
“I leave Jan. 4 and will be in Turin until the 27th, the end of the
Olympics.
“Hopefully I’ll still have a husband when I come home from Turin,”
the 40-year-old Visser says with a chuckle.
While she is assigned to the Canadian Bobsleigh and Skeleton team, “for
that last month, I’ll be operating under the auspices of the Canadian
Olympic Association, doing whatever they want me to do,” she says.
The medical team will administer to whatever athletes need attention.
“We’ll be working to help athletes in all dimensions of alpine
– downhill, snow boarding, aerials, moguls and all the sliding sports.
“We will be incredibly busy. These are going to be very difficult days,”
says Visser.
Not only do the people on the medical team treat the athletes, they are also
part of the support team that helps the athlete in his/her particular event.
For example, Visser may be asked to videotape a Canadian team’s start
of the two-man bobsleigh in practice so coaches can examine their technique.
Besides soothing their muscles with massager, Visser listens to the athletes.
During the run-up to the Turin Games, they are tense because they have to
reach the Canadian standard in their discipline. Some don’t make it
and therefore do not go to the Games.
Visser says Canadian standards are tougher to meet than just about every
other country which will be competing at Turin.
“I’m the person they can vent to because I don’t make any
decision that can really affect them in their sport.”
Visser moved to Nanaimo five years ago from Canmore, Alta. She had been picked
as a member of the 1994 Canadian team that was going to Lillehammer, Norway
but injuries prevented her from doing so.
“It was heartbreaking really. You spend years just to earn a spot and
then you can’t go.”
It’s knowing the reality of what the Olympic Games mean to an athlete
that Visser believes makes her as valuable to the athletes she treats as her
knowledge of musculature and the human body.
“As an athlete, I’m much more valuable to the team because I’ve
seen both sides,” says Visser.
After leaving Nordic competition, Visser studied kinesiology and then massage.
During her competitive years, she realized how much massage enhanced her
performances.
“And it is all about performance. I realized how beneficial it was
for me as an athlete, that we had a massage therapist with us.”
She traveled throughout Europe with Canadian athletes for many years as a
massage therapist before deciding to settle down in Nanaimo. When she was
in Canmore, Visser was close to the athletes on the Canadian team and thought
a move to B.C. would get her away from that proximity, she says.
“I thought we were moving away from the hot bed of Nordic sports in
Canada,” she says of her move to the Hub City.
That thought quickly changed with a telephone call around last Christmas.
I got a call from the national bobsleigh team and they were looking for a
massage therapist.”
The bobsleigh team involves the “skeleton” athletes.
Skeleton is a little like luge except the athletes are hurtling down courses
face first, says Visser. Canada does very well at skeleton.
The reigning World Champion, Duff Gibson of Calgary, leads a strong men’s
team into the Turin Games. He will be joined by 2003 World Champion, Jeff
Pain of Calgary, who will make his return to the sport after spending a year
convalescing due to a foot injury, and Paul Boehm of Calgary, who is coming
off his best season which saw him make two trips to the World Cup podium.
The Canadian women will also be back in full force for Turin. Calgary’s
Lindsay Alcock, the 2004 Overall World Cup Champion, is poised to position
herself as the top sliding athlete in the world. Alcock’s stiffest competition
will be from her teammate – Michelle Kelly of fort St. John, who finished
third overall on the World cup last year.
Though the sport involves an icy track, Visser says it is not uncommon for
competitors to suffer third-degree burns – that’s how fast they
travel.
Canada’s skeleton team is poised to medal at Turin. The question, Visser
says, is how many of the five athletes will medal and what colours will those
medals be.
“It all comes down to preparation,” she says. “Whoever
is the best prepared mentally and physically will do the best on race day.”
Gibson and Alcock are hardly recognizable names in Canada though they are
world champions in their chosen sport.
They, along with the rest of the Olympic team, have dedicated years to participating
in the coming Winter Oluympics, sacrificed much and rely on the expertise
of the medical team to ensure they are in top form before hurtling themselves
down the course.
Despite all the preparation things happen, Visser says. She recalls a race
this year when a Canadian bobsleigh racer sprained her ankle just before her
heat.
“It was about 10 minutes before her event and she was just on the verge
of qualifying for the Olympic Games.
“She didn’t make it and we had no time to really help her.”
The athlete was inconsolable but that’s how things work out some times,
Visser says.
“It can be so heart wrenching when something like that happens but
we have to move on.”
Thankfully, that athlete had the opportunity to talk things over with Visser.
If for nothing else, to understand that injuries happen and they can play
havoc with your dreams.
Visser accepts and understands this.
“Still the athletes are the show,” she says. “They are
the entertainment the world will stop and watch during the Games.”
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