Helping athletes chase their Olympic dreams
When many Canadians were glued to their TVs during the Sochi Olympics, Mary Brannagan, physiotherapist and Windsor Program course facilitator, was working behind the scenes to ensure ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir skated their best.
As Tessa Virtue’s physiotherapist, Brannagan travelled to Sochi to treat the athlete.
“I was happily there to do what I do best, so that Tessa and Scott could do their best,” she said. “I was there as a part of Team Virtue-Moir, to support them in their quest to skate well in all of their programs.”
Brannagan met then 15-year-old Virtue after a referral from the Fowler Kennedy Sports Medicine Clinic. She has been treating the athlete, and occasionally Scott Moir, for almost a decade, watching the duo’s rise to international renown and an Olympic gold in Vancouver.
In her 28-year career, the physiotherapist estimates she has treated 20 Olympians and a handful of former Olympians. She’s also worked with pro hockey and football players, as well as the University of Windsor and Queen’s University’s football teams.
Brannagan worked at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto for 12 years, before returning to Windsor in 1998 to work in private practice.
For the past three years, she has assisted with orthopedic demonstrations for the Windsor Program’s PCCIM course and acted as facilitator for the PCCIA course. Brannagan also gives a lecture on orthopedic physiotherapy and rehabilitation for sports injuries to the fourth year class.
Her work with Virtue and Moir is always a popular topic and Brannagan is thankful for her time with the high-profile skaters. “I always want people to know that Tessa and Scott are above all else, wonderful, thoughtful people, with great character and fun personalities, and then they are the amazing, gifted athletes that you see,” she said.
