Milano Cortina 2026 – Smooth baton handover for medical team
For Sarah, an HPSNZ Athlete Performance Support practitioner embedded in Snow Sports NZ and a medical support member for two summer Olympic Games and three Commonwealth Games, this has meant the build up to Milano Cortina 2026 will be more than planning and preparation for the athletes.
As the Medical Director of Snow Sports NZ for the past three years, Sarah works with most of the Park and Pipe team as their doctor in New Zealand, and offshore via Telehealth. Her changed circumstances mean drawing on the support processes already in place to ensure a seamless transition to the NZ Team Olympic environment for Dr Eloise Matthews who has picked up the baton as medical lead during Games time.
Eloise, whose multi-sport experience includes medical lead for the 2024 Youth Olympics, was always tagged to be Sarah’s reserve. The change of circumstances means she will work with Sarah as the medical team goes through the all-important series of medicals for athletes to ensure any issues are picked up ahead of their departure for the northern hemisphere campaign.
“Our current focus is to use the time the athletes are still in New Zealand to run a battery of tests such as bloods, ECGs and other medical assessments including mental health,” says Sarah.
“During the planning and preparation phase, we involve our athletes’ families as a big part of the process. We’ve held a whānau support session to help families with ways they can provide support when their children are away.
“We’ve also been spending time building our networks of specialist medical providers. Many of the snow sports events by their very nature are potential trauma sports so we’ve built up support with a range of orthopaedic specialists and radiologists.
“While in many respects the upcoming northern season is BAU for our athletes, because it is an Olympic year there is an added layer of support from the NZOC which is hugely important for what is generally a group of very young athletes. Despite their age, I am constantly impressed by the wealth of bravery and experience they bring to their sport.”
Dr Sarah Beable
At this point, Eloise picks up the preparation story and looks ahead to her first Winter Olympics as NZ Team medical lead with a team of four physios and a performance psychologist.
“One of the challenges we’ll face is the dispersed nature of the Games and the need for our team to cover a cluster of venues. Also, the final number of qualified athletes is not yet known, for example, we still don’t know if we will have any ice sport athletes to support,” says Eloise.
“So far we know we’ll have our alpine athletes and possibly the curling team in Cortina, freestyle skiing and snowboarding at the park and pipe in Livigno and possibly ice sports in Milano.”
Medical meetings with the organising committee and a check of facilities on the ground have been undertaken by NZ Team chef de mission, Marty Toomey, which has been an important part of planning for Eloise and her team.
“We’ve already shipped some medical supplies and equipment and I’ll take some with me when I head over in late December as will other team members when they head to Italy.”
Eloise says that despite best efforts, there are always illnesses to contend with such as viruses due to crowded spaces, the impact of cold, altitude and long travel times. “And of course these sports carry a high risk for injuries.”
Pinning down what a typical day will look like for Eloise and her team is not easy. “It really will be so dynamic. We have different athletes in and out during a day, different training schedules from very early through to late in the day.
“We’ll have a physio at each training session and at competitions and then run evening and late afternoon medical and physio clinics back at base.”
Eloise certainly doesn’t expect much down time and is really excited about what lies ahead. “In our profession it’s unique to work in such a team environment and already I can sense a great energy level. It will be a very special time.”