Equipped from head to toe with helmets and skis, the skiing doctors of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 look very much like their potential patients, the athletes, except for the 10-kg backpacks they carry while working. Being dispatched to stations along the ski runs of the National Alpine Skiing Center in Yanqing, a northwestern suburb of Beijing, their task is to stand ready to treat injuries or medical emergencies at short notice.

They are members of the National Alpine Skiing Center's Medical Dream Team. "We are required to attend to any injuries within four minutes," said Li Rui, one of the Dream Team's members. "Alpine skiing is regarded as the most dangerous sport at the Olympic Winter Games due to the high speeds skiers reach. The athletes can be seriously injured and some injuries may even be fatal. It's a life-and-death race against the clock."

The Dream Team is China's first team of alpine skiing doctors. Formed in 2018 by doctors selected from top hospitals in Beijing, the team members underwent intensive training before taking up their positions at the Beijing 2022 Games.

Harsh training 

A neurosurgeon from the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Li is an avid amateur skier. "Performing surgery and skiing occupy most of my time," he said. In 2008, he served in the medical service team for the Beijing Olympic Summer Games. When his hospital recruited doctors in 2018 to offer medical services for the Olympic Winter Games, he applied without hesitation.

His proficiency in both skiing and medicine made him a strong candidate to join the more than 40 other skiing doctors selected from around the capital city. Some team members have been skiing for over 10 years. "As it will be China's first alpine skiing medical team, we are all very excited to be part of this ground-breaking task," Li said.

It was a difficult start. "The runs for alpine skiing are much more slippery than those at the ski resorts we'd visited before," said Yuan Qiang, Chief Physician of the Spinal Surgery Department at Beijing's Jishuitan Hospital. "I thought I could ski, but I couldn't make a single move on those runs."

According to Yuan, the longest alpine ski run at the National Alpine Skiing Center is about 3,000 meters long, with a drop of 800-900 meters, many ski jumps, and many sections steeper than 30 degrees. "This kind of slope is a challenge for both the athletes and the medical team," Yuan said.

During each ski season since 2018, the doctors have undergone intensive training for over 20 days. Some of the team members are over 50 years old and many have been injured during training. However, not one of them has quit.

The harsh training regimen has delivered some unexpected bonuses. Quite a few members of the team have become certified as skiing coaches and in March 2019, Yuan received the Canadian first-level coaching certificate.

Confidently skiing down Olympic-level slopes is just the first step to becoming a qualified member of the Dream Team. As the athletes reach speeds of up to 140 km per hour, there are many ways in which they can injure themselves. For example, they may leave the run and land in a steep section off-piste. "It is impossible to ski out to reach injured athletes in steep or slippery areas," Yuan said. "We need to use ropes to reach them."

"Applying medical techniques on the slopes is another major issue," said Huai Wei, a doctor from Peking University Third Hospital. "Chest compressions, for example, need to be done at the proper angle. Also, the super low temperatures make our hands go numb. When we need to perform emergency surgeries such as tracheal intubation, we have to make sure that our hands don't shake from shivering."

The doctors also need to keep liquid drugs in the inner layers of their clothing in order to prevent them from freezing.

Ready to go 

"There will be over 180 medical staff members at the venue during this Winter Games," Huai said. "We are the closest to the athletes and are the core members for the rescue work." The skiing doctors designed their own team flag and together decided on the name, Dream Team. "It will be the first time for Chinese skiing doctors to work at an alpine skiing event," he said.

They serve at the field of play (FOP) medical stations, which are set up every 300-400 meters along each run. Each FOP station has two alpine skiing doctors and four patrol members. Eight ambulances and two helicopters are also on call. 

The two helicopters, one for rescue and one for transferring patients, are capable of reaching injured competitors within five minutes. The one used for rescue has a winch capable of lifting patients from the steep slopes to flatter areas where they can be moved to the medical transfer helicopter. This second helicopter is equipped with facilities used in intensive care units, such as a ventilator and monitor as well as specialized medical staff.

There are also two such helicopters in Zhangjiakou, another competition zone in neighboring Hebei Province, where many skiing events, including cross-country skiing and ski jumping, will be held.

New hospitals have been built in Yanqing and Zhangjiakou, and others have been upgraded to ensure top-level medical services for the Olympic events. As all athletes will be in a closed quarantine loop for the duration of the Games, the whole set of medical services will be provided within the closed loop. Each venue and designated hospital has developed a medical plan, and many hospitals have transformed part of their wards into special treatment zones for the Games.

"Medical personnel in disciplines including orthopedics and oral medicine have been specially assigned to meet the needs of each sports venue," Li Ang, Deputy Director and spokesperson of the Beijing Municipal Health Commission, said at a press conference on December 23, 2021. According to him, additional equipment such as CT scanners and dental chairs are available at the ice hockey venue and the blood supply will be adequate at each event.

Alpine skiing doctor Huai looks at the bigger picture. "After the Olympics, more international, large-scale ice and snow events will be held in China and we can also serve these events," he said. "Maybe we can also go abroad and offer medical services at the alpine skiing events in other countries."

(Print Edition Title: On Site, on Call)  

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson 

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