How top medical team revived Schoeman’s dream in Rio

THE Olympic bronze medal won by triathlete Henri Schoeman has shone a light on the efforts of a team of medical experts from the Prime Human Performance Institute that played a pivotal role in his performance in Rio de Janeiro.

After he had poured much blood, sweat and tears into his build-up to the sporting spectacle, Schoeman’s Olympic dream hung in the balance when illness struck just days before the triathlon.

A common cold turned into a chest infection and threatened to undo all the hard work the 24-year-old Durban North athlete had put in during training.

"For as long as I can remember it has been my dream and goal to be an Olympic medallist and I went into the Olympics with my training being at a near-perfect level," said Schoeman. "I was feeling good and confident.

"When I started feeling the cold/chest infection on the Sunday before my race I remained positive because I was sure I had more than enough time to recover.

"However, when it got to Wednesday, the day before the race, I was feeling at my worst and I became quite emotional as I could feel my lifelong dream of being an Olympian slip away," he recalled.

Cue the intervention of Prime Human Performance Institute specialist and Team SA doctor Kevin Subban.

"I worked very closely with doctor Subban, who advised me that going for chest and sinus X-rays as well as having my white blood cell count taken would be the best way to go. The results came back in my favour and the doctor gave me the go-ahead to race.

"I felt a lot more at ease and positive knowing I would be able to start the race and push myself during it without the risk of doing any long-term damage to my body or career."

Having been restored to full fitness, Schoeman took full of advantage of the work he had put in with performance specialist Davor Šavija of the institute based at Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium prior to the Games by finishing third behind British brothers Alistair and Jonny Brownlee.

"Davor has worked with some of the best athletes in the world, including some top Kenyan runners, and we are exceptionally lucky to have someone of his expertise in the country," said the institute’s director, Dennis Jackson.

"Since being based in Durban from the beginning of the year, Davor has been instrumental in working with Henri over the past six months."

Under Šavija’s guidance, Schoeman added unconventional conditioning techniques to his regimen.

In a similar vein to American swimmer Michael Phelps’s use of "cupping" and Japanese sprinter Chisato Fukushima’s "mid-race acupuncture therapy", Schoeman used electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) extensively in training.

"Miha Bodytec is an innovative EMS development which allows for training of all major muscle groups while being individually challenged," explains Šavija.

"By application of selective, individually controllable training stimulus, the deeper muscle groups are activated and strengthened, which is difficult or impossible to achieve with conventional training."

Schoeman first incorporated EMS into his regime after sustaining a running injury. After seeing the benefits, he added it to his weekly conditioning programme.

"I simply started getting stronger, more efficient and I felt my running started to improve," Schoeman said.

Gameplan Media