Expertise: Sports and exercise medicine

The Centre for Sports and Exercise Medicine is a unique research centre based at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry at Queen Mary. Investigating the impact that exercise has on the body and coming up with ways to improve athletic performance are just two examples of the kind of research going on in the Centre. So it should come as no surprise that many of the Centre’s staff are involved in the world’s biggest sporting event happening in 2012: The Olympic and Paralympic Games. 

Who is doing what in the 2012 Games

physical therapy neck

• Centre Lead, Professor Maffulli is on The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG)
• Senior Clinical Lecturer Dylan Morrissey is working at the Paralympics as GB headquarters physiotherapist
• Honorary Senior Lecturer Nat Padhiar will be running podiatry at the Olympic Polyclinic – a state-of-the-art healthcare facility that will be open to the public after the Games finish
• Alumnus and Queen Mary fellow, Richard Budgett is the Chief Medical Officer for the London Olympic and Paralympic Games.  Dr Budgett is also a medal winner with an Olympic gold at the Los Angeles Games in 1984 in the coxed fours
• Alumnus Dr Nick Webborn, sports medicine consultant from the London Independent Hospital, is chief medical officer for the Paralympics Team GB

MSc in Sports and Exercise Medicine – the only programme of its kind in the UK

Students on the MSc in Sports and Exercise Medicine get outstanding hands-on experience with  six in-house clinics per week and the chance to attend professional sporting events at weekends. Many of our graduates have gone on to be involved with the Olympics.  For example:

patient in the rehab

• At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, the Chief Medical Officer for the Greek national team was a graduate of the programme
• At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, there were 14 graduates working as doctors and medical officers for Great Britain and other national Olympic teams
• Graduates hold pivotal positions in sports medicine in the UK – including the Chief Medical Officer to the British Olympics Association and the Medical Director to the English Institute of Sport
• Approximately one third of the doctors on the Olympic medical committee are graduates of this programme

Find out more about the MSc in Sports and Exercise Medicine