Muscling Medal

Dipo Odunuga
Head Physiotherapist
National Sports Commission

Ask a Nigerian athlete what their greatest fear is whilst competing at the Olympics and they will quickly tell you- Achilles heel. The athlete’s body is her machine and in spite of the athlete’s overall strength a sprain or a bruise can make the difference between passive participation and winning a medal. Olusoji Fasuba and Damola Osayomi of Nigeria suffered injuries during the Beijing games. China’s leading 110m hurdler Liu Xiang withdrew from the games due to an injury. From the United Kingdom also, British gymnast Beth Tweddle sustained a rib injury. Oladipo Odunuga is the Head of the team of four physiotherapists treating the Nigerian teams at the Olympics. This is the eight Olympic games he has attended as physiotherapist for the Nigerian team. “ I was in Moscow in 1980, Los Angeles in 1984, Seoul in 1988, Barcelona in 1992, Atlanta in 1996, Sydney in 2000, Athens in 2004 and now Beijing 2008”. His role at each of the games was to give physical therapy to the athletes and manage their injuries. Odunuga trained as a physiotherapist at the University of Lagos College of Medicine. His training continued with postgraduate degrees in physiotherapy from Japan, Scotland, Australia and the U.S.A. He works quietly behind the scenes in Beijing attending to the athletes needs. He may not be an Olympian, but without him, many of our athletes would not be fit to hit the Olympic tracks. From his clinic in the bowels of the Olympic village, he tells Ebun Olatoye why.



Do you have a daily physiotherapy schedule for the Nigerian athletes?

We have for every athlete before a competition and when they have injuries. Before an athlete goes out we do a lot of stretching and massaging We do this to help them adjust their muscles, spines and joints to suit the impending exertion that will take place during the competition so that the muscles are more elastic. It’s a lot of work and many times we are here 2am every day.


Have our athletes had any serious injuries?

During the training in Korea there was one of our athletes- Durotoye, who sustained meniscal damage to the right knee joint. It’s not an injury that goes before six months so he had to pull out of the Olympics. (The meniscal cartilage acts as shock absorbers to absorb the impact of the upper leg on the lower leg, and to improve smooth movement and stability of the knee.)


What caused Durotoye’s injury?
It was because of the heightened training that’s all. He is here in Beijing and getting follow up treatment at the Poly Clinic for further expert opinion.

Damola Osayomi and Fasuba also sustained injuries, how serious were those injuries?

Olusoji Fasuba had a sprain to his right ankle joint before one of the races. But he is being properly taken care of and he is running tonight. Such sprains are managed in two ways: Physiotherapeutically (physical treatment) and chemotherapeutically (medicine). As for Damola, her injury was something she experienced because she is running at a very high level for the first time and she wants to do well. You know when you want to do better than your best you has to pay a price. She really wanted to do something but she has not trained to that level. She was running against seasoned veterans and pushing herself, which is good in many ways, but her muscles couldn’t cope with it. She is better now and she will be running the women’s relay.

What is the opinion of the physical framework of the Nigerian athletes?

We have the ideal framework for each sport. There is no problem with that.

Were the athletes examined before the games?

Yes. We did the examination in Abuja before camping began at all.

The physical framework for each sport differs one from to the other. For an athlete who wants to compete in more than one sport, which muscles need to be developed for sports like athletics and soccer?


In athletics for instance you need good height and appropriate muscle framework. The running muscles must well developed e.g. the hamstrings (bottom thigh), the quadriceps (top thing) and the calf muscles. Those are the muscles for propulsion and movement. Our people have the ideal build they just need to train those muscles for the extra exertion required for Olympics. For swimming, in addition to the athletic build, you must have well developed chest muscles. (i.e. the pectoralis major, minor and deltoid muscles.) Taekwondo is relative depending on the weight category but one thing is important, all the muscles you use for fighting must be strong. They may not necessarily be big, but they must be strong because apart from strength you need skill, stability and ability to think fast otherwise you will risk a knock out. For soccer, in addition to the athletic build, you need a lot of muscles for stability especially when you are dribbling. The muscles that control the ankle joint for example are tibialis anterior and posterior as well as the peroneals.


If the Nigerian athletes had the required physical framework for their sports, why did they perform so poorly altogether at the games?

A man who uses a goat to set a trap will know the animal he wants to catch.” Any of the big cats clearly. But having said this, the level of sports at the Olympics is different from other levels. It’s the height of all Sports both at the training of the athletes and the people who train them. I mean the coaches and other handlers. Like I mentioned earlier, Damola tried her best and wanted to go beyond her best but her level of training could not support her desire because the Olympics required of her muscles what she wasn’t used to.

What are your professional recommendations regarding physical preparation for the 2012 Olympics?

We should have very early camping. Most countries camp for four years. The Chinese who will compete in 2012 are already in camp as we speak. In 2004 prior to the Athens Olympics we were in Cuba. Whilst there, we were introduced to the boxers who were training for Beijing there in Havana. This means that whatever sports they do will become natural to them by the next Olympics. A long period of camping is required to develop muscles. It is not enough to have the physical framework, that framework must be trained. Also people must have adequate and comprehensive medical coverage and all the relevant medical personnel must be represented in camp. Such as doctors, physiotherapists, sports psychologists, nurses, dieticians, kinesiologists (they specialize in management of movement of the joints.)

Do you have all these medical personnel in the Olympic village now? Well,…. it can be arranged.


Ebun Olatoye
Beijing, China

This article is sponsored by Nagode Industries Limited.