After watching days and days of Olympic events with athletes from all countries, sizes, shapes and abilities I decided to take a break from the TV and do a little search online as to how massage is being used in the Bejing Olympics.
My first find was an article on an New Zealand athlete who credits his success to Reiki on about.com. He used it to recover from a debilitating heart condition back in 2006.
Benny Vaughn- a prominent sports massage teacher is there at the games and blogging about it at massagemag.com
Then this headline ”
Olympics: Chinese massage knocks shooter off stride”
comes from the New Zealand Otaga Daily Times stating that massage made an athlete too relaxed!!
The Shanghai Daily News shows reporters getting free massages!
The NBCOlympics.com site search for massage shows a list of articles using the word massage.
Espn reports that the amazing Michael Phelps the swimmer:
Today, he had a massage — normally he has doping, [but] he didn’t today. He always has a massage. Then he’ll eat, take a nap and then come back on the bus and do it all again, usually twice a day. I always plan those warm-ups so they are exactly timed. He starts stretching two hours before [a race] and is in the water an hour and a half before. He’s always done those things, really.”
This was only from a few pages and few minutes of searching. The thing that struck me is with massage in the news so much lately – how can anyone say they don’t have enough clients or can’t find a job in massage therapy?
All of this free exposure for the massage profession can be made into marketing opportunities. If the athletes use it everyday just imagine what getting a massage once a week could do for someone who isn’t an Olympic athlete but just an everyday guy/gal working at the computer everyday and playing with their kids or doing simple workouts for better health?
There are some major articles on past Olympics that can also be used for gathering information.
A Champion Achievement By Eugene (Geno) Ortiz Originally published in Massage & Bodywork magazine, June/July 2002.
Golden Touch Massage Therapists Score Big at the Sydney Summer Olympics By Chaz Hudd Originally published in Massage & Bodywork magazine, December/January 2001.
Massage at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games: By Ruth Werner, LMP, NCTMB
Massage to Play Prominent Role in Athens – Massage Today
I would also love to have some more current info from massage therapists in Bejing who are doing massage there – but they are probably too busy to report!
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Thanks for the post and the links toward other people writing about massage therapy in relation to the Olympics. I have started to peruse your site and very much enjoy it.
Thanks,
Mark
You have done some good research.Thanks for sharing that with everyone.Hopefully,it will help someone.People don’t realize how massage really helps a person be better.
I was at work the other day and we were all talking about the vibration techniques the Chinese therapists were doing…very cool stuff. Thanks for sharing this article.
great article!
thanks so much for sharing with us.
i believe alot of people believe in massage and there are others that just are the once in a while clients….
i think you can convert some…but i have seen first hand that some people just dont have the money and are not going to spend it on massage…(their mind set.)
L