Si Jiangtao, a doctor from the Wangjing Hospital of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, provides traditional Chinese treatment for a foreign guest in the Yanqing Olympic Village on February 14 (COURTESY PHOTO)

At the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, traditional Chinese medical treatments such as acupuncture, massage and bone setting have become much-sought-after in the Olympic Village. The Traditional Chinese Medicine exhibition and experience areas have become popular place for athletes, officials and staff from all over the world to post on social media. 

Si Jiangtao, a doctor in the characteristic diagnosis and treatment department of Wangjing Hospital of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, is expert in acupuncture, massage and acupotomy, a subsector of acupuncture that uses both a needle and a scalpel. On January 17, Si and other doctors in charge of traditional Chinese and Western rehabilitation and physical therapy programs settled in the Yanqing Winter Olympic Village to provide athletes with a variety of diagnostic and treatment services, mainly including acupuncture, massage, bone-setting and physical therapy.  

According to Si, nearly 30 athletes have received traditional Chinese physical therapies, including Ashley Watson, a bobsleigh athlete from Jamaica, and Said Fazlagic, Secretary General of the Delegation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Fazlagic suffered from pain in his neck and shoulders that required medication to manage, Si told Beijing Review. The doctors in the Yanqing Winter Olympic Village provided him with physical therapy and bone setting massage. Fazlagic felt great improvement on the same day, he said. 

Traditional Chinese medicine has a theoretical system based in science. It can produce optimal results in sports medicine, especially in the diagnosis and treatment of muscle and joint injuries caused by sports. Many athletes are plagued by chronic pain and sometimes this pain can end athletes’ sporting careers. Traditional Chinese medicine is effective in the relief of pain and can even prolong the sporting careers patients. 

“I have come into contact with several Jamaican athletes and an East Timorese alpine skier, who have received acupuncture, cupping, massage, scraping and other traditional Chinese physical therapies in their own country,” Si said. “I’m glad that the flower of traditional Chinese physical therapies has bloomed all over the world.” 

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson 

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