It's a well-known fact dedicated athletes give their blood sweat and tears to become high calibre world-class athletes, but what about the army of professionals that help get them there?
Two of the most important professionals any serious athlete has in their arsenal is a strength and conditioning trainer and a physiotherapist.
About 94 Canadian physiotherapists worked to keep more than 250 Canadian Olympic and Paralympic athletes in tip top shape during the 2010 Games and 麻豆社国产resident Maggie Phillips-Scarlett was among them.
Phillips-Scarlet is the head strength and conditioning coach and the team physiotherapist for the 13-person Paralympic Alpine racing team and she loves every minute of the challenge.
In 2005, Phillips-Scarlett, a recreational able-bodied ski racer who works at Reach Physiotherapy Solutions, applied for a position conditioning disabled alpine racers and got the job.
"I kind of applied out of a whim, thinking this would be fun, it would be a challenge. So I actually had zero experience working with anyone that was disabled," she said.
"I had only worked with able bodied athletes in the past."
Phillips-Scarlett said she liked her new job, right from the start because disabled athletes seemed to be more eager to learn than athletes she had previously worked with.
"They were so keen and so naive almost to try all these new things, so it was a really cool feeling instead of having an athlete saying 'Yeah yeah, I'm in another program.'"
She said more than anything she loves the challenge of working with each athlete and tailoring a program to each athlete and their specifics needs and wants.
For wheelchair users who compete in the sitting classification, Phillips-Scarlett said she spends a lot of time doing upper body strength conditioning.
"Basically their arms are their legs, so really trying to get all of their shoulder muscles and their back muscles stable and strong."
For the visually impaired, Phillips-Scarlett focuses on fine-tuning co-ordination, balance and motor skills. She modifies the training program for standing classification athletes as well, in order to prevent any wearing down of the skin on a skier's stump.
"So they'll all have very individualized programs according to what works or what they need," she said.
Since every athlete is different, Phillips-Scarlett is always keeping busy creating new programs.
"I just really have to pay attention and focus on who needs what. I think that's sort of been the challenge because I can't do a cookie cutter formula which I used to do for [able-bodied] teams So it's actually a lot more work to do, but that's sort of the way it has to be done and I love it. It's neat to sort of see then develop and become better and better athletes because of it."
Phillips-Scarlett said she was moved by the inspiring stories of all the disabled athletes she met and trained.
"They just want to be treated like a normal athlete but it is pretty inspiring when you think of where they've come from and how far they've gone."
