Written by Dr Gert Ferreira, New Zealand, DC ICSC
My Chengdu China 2025 diary
谢谢成都 Thank you Chengdu
With a heavy heart of mixed emotion, I left my wife and daughter at home on my way to the airport, but I knew this will be a trip of a lifetime. I was reminiscing of the time I went to The World Games in Poland in 2017 and how much I learned and all the friendships I’ve made, however; I just knew this edition of The World Games will be special.
I travelled with Dr Tina Wu to China, and from the time we put foot onto the Chinese soil we were greeted by the most amazing volunteers who always smiled and eager to help or just to practice their English skills. The first thing I noticed was the extreme heat we are going to face over the course of the next fortnight. When we left New Zealand, it was -2 degrees Celsius and now, in Chengdu it is 42 degrees Celsius.
The first night our FICS team assembled was a cacophony of new people introducing themselves and old relations catching up and reminiscing of the previous games they worked together. A roomed filled with likeminded sports chiropractors from across 14 countries is a sight to be seen and which gave me a sense of pride to be part of this selected group of Chiropractors.
Day 1 – 2 – Beach handball
I hit the ground running when I was scheduled to work from day 1, Beach Handball, we were not even set up properly when the president and inventor of the sport came over and said he wanted a treatment. The appreciation from such an important person is invaluable. He knew the value of what Chiropractic can bring to his daily life.
Days 3 – 6 – Gymnastics
I was scheduled to work at the Aerobic gymnastics, Tumbling and Trampoline. Our team treated heaps of athletes, officials and volunteers. The Vice-President of the international federation of Gymnastics came for daily treatment as he understood the value of Chiropractic care as preventative treatment. Our team made friends with the volunteers, and one particular story was when one of the volunteers compared me to a Panda (Animal and pride of Chengdu), everyone had a laugh but from that moment on I was known as Panda. There were many highlights of my time at gymnastics, but we were all packed up and ready to go watch the gold medal routine of the Chinese team when I noticed the one athlete was struggling with her Kineiology tape on her knee, I dropped everything, grab my scissors and Kinesio tape and carefully approach the team and offered our services, the appreciation from the athletes who was in slight distress is something that will always stick with me, the Golden Girls (as I call them) went on winning Gold for China.
Days 7-11 – Floorball.
This was a tough venue as we had to take a 2-hour bus ride to the venue and 2 hours back again. We saw a lot of athletes, but even more volunteers. The wonderful thing was that a lot of the volunteers never heard of chiropractic and wanted to experience our services. Personally, the one thing that stood out was the comradery between us as colleagues and friends. We were all tired by then, but the laughter and support made the world of difference.
Days 12-14 – Speed climbing
Maybe I am biased because I do rock climbing, but these few days here was special. Slowly we gained the trust of various coaches and medical personnel, and then they referred their athletes to us. One of these cases was when I treated the coach from USA and in return, he trusted our treatment so much that he brought in the current World and Olympic record holder and Olympic champion for speed climbing, Sam Watson. I treated Sam over the course of a couple of days, and even though he did not win Gold, but he walked away with a silver and bronze medal, but most importantly the trust in FICS chiropractors.
My overall impressions about FICS, The World Games and Chengdu
I would like to thank all the hard work the team from FICS is doing in the background that we are not aware of. They are standing on the shoulders of the sports chiropractors who was there before us, and now we are laying a foundation for the next generation of sports chiropractors to take the profession to the next level.
The World Games, LOC and everyone involved has put up a show that I doubt will be recreated but saying that every edition of The World Games has been and will be uniquely special. The one lasting memory will be of the volunteers. They were always ready with a smile, a polite nod, a wave or just the curious chat. Like many of us, we have build wonderful relationships with the volunteers and we left China with many new friends.
