From Grand Falls-Windsor to Paris: Dave Green is soaking in the Olympics as massage therapist for Canada

We're into the second week of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games, and while athletes are getting crowned champions on the global stage, it's the staff behind the scenes who are keeping them in top shape.

Dave Green of Grand Falls-Windsor is part of that support staff for Canada. He's a massage therapist for the Canoe Kayak Canada teams and has been soaking in the moment in the south of France since late July — in a town he calls the Badger of France, comparing it to a central Newfoundland town of fewer than 700 people.

"It was really cool. The whole community kind of rallied around their canoe-kayak team and our canoe-kayak team that was there training with them," said Green who, with the Canadian team, has since moved the operation to the eastern borders of Paris ahead of the events.

"We did a 10- or 11-day camp in southern France just to get acclimatized to the heat and the time adjustment for the athletes as well. More so the heat because it's going to be very hot next week."

Green is based out of Halifax, the home of the Canoe Kayak Canada national training centre. 

About eight or nine years ago, he said, the organization was looking for a full-time athletic therapist to travel with the team and work locally.

"It was something I was interested in doing, they decided to give me the position and I've been working and travelling with the team basically full-time since about 2016, 2017," he said.

Building relationships

For now, the hard work and preparation is mostly over for Green and the therapy staff as the team looks ahead 

"About 99 per cent of our work is done. Knock on wood, our athletes are really healthy right now. They peaked at the right time, they're as strong as they're going to be, they're as fast as they're going to be, as fit as they're going to be," he said.

"I'll do some tune-ups if anybody has some muscle soreness or whatnot, just little aches and pains, but hopefully we have no serious injuries, obviously."

He said the medical staff is going to enjoy the races just like anybody else and hope there's no big problems.

"When we're working that means people are not at 100 per cent. So, right now, we've done what we need to do and we're just going to watch and have a lot of fun," Green said.

Some of that fun includes killing time inside the athletic village, playing table tennis and darts. 

Green said that's the Newfoundland version of the Olympics, and if there were medals, he'd be the champ. 

But more important, he said, is building relationships with the athletes, many of whom he has worked with for nearly a decade now.

"Once you get to know these athletes for years like I have, you travel around the world with them, you eat with them, you're with them a lot, so at some points you're like a big brother, a dad, an uncle or a mental performance person and they get very comfortable with you," he said.

"You can get very caught up in it and be very emotional, too. A couple of our girls were on the podium in Tokyo, and I didn't think I would get as emotional as I did. All of a sudden you see them on the podium, and I started to cry. This is a big deal, this is really cool."

The canoe-kayak events begin Tuesday.

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