Substantiating quotes from interviews with Olympic stakeholders in Australia and South Africa on ‘contextual perceptions—setting the scene’
| South Africa—considered by interviewees as being characterised by resource constraints and inequitable healthcare | ||
| 1 | I think what’s difficult is that there is not a lot of continuity amongst the medical fraternity. So, the structure isn't sophisticated enough to be able to allow ongoing sharing of information and for - there isn't a structure of progression, really. | South African interviewee 4 |
| 2 | In South Africa, like I'll contest that not everyone has got access to the same level and quality of care, which comprises some athletes in terms of their performance or their general health and this is even sort of at your top competing athletes. So, for me it’s all about accessibility and making that healthcare accessible and sports performance. Because we're not just talking about like basic healthcare, we're talking about also what’s going to distinguish our athletes to the next athletes, so making that quality of service and care available to all athletes or equally accessible. | South African interviewee 1 |
| 3 | The concerns would be the access to medical care because I see certain elite athletes that get the base care, and then you see also other obviously very talented, because they're on the team, that have not been exposed or referred or like that. Then also with the screening, the identification of where the screening is going to take place, it’s a different quality of screening and a different way of evaluating the ECGs (electrocardiograms) or following up who is having blood tests and who is not having blood tests. | South African interviewee 3 |
| Australia—considered by interviewees to be an efficient, existing system and resources for most major sports | ||
| 4 | Well, each team - for example, I look after the Australian [removed for confidentiality] team, so I'm seeing them almost every day. So, there’s someone who looks after them pretty much all the time. So, each team will have their own doctor and group support staff. | Australian interviewee 1 |
| 5 | I will work with the sports that I am involved with, and we have a network of providers, both medical, physio and soft tissue around the country. We would all be emailing back and forward and making phone calls. If it’s a sport that I'm not involved with but will be coming to the Olympic Games, what we do…is start liaising with the high-performance managers and the healthcare providers for those sports. | Australian interviewee 3 |
| 6 | But in smaller sports, where they don’t have that - the resources to do that, I think that they’re ones that probably adopt the IOC - a lot of the IOC consensus statements as policy. | Australian interviewee 4 |