David Mottram, Mark Stuart, Pamela Venning
In just under three years time the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic and Paralympic Games will begin. The massive task of planning the pharmacy services is now well underway. This article describes how the Olympic and Paralympic pharmacy planning is progressing.

New Olympic and Paralympic Pharmacy Clinical Services Group
An Olympic and Paralympic Pharmacy Clinical Services Group has been appointed by the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) under the leadership of Mark Stuart who was the superintendant pharmacist for the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games. This group formally began its planning work in April this year and comprises a team of specialist pharmacists, whose skills cover the many diverse aspects of setting up the unique world class Olympic and Paralympic pharmacy services.

Mark Stuart, Dezhi Wang, Rong Han, Dora Chan
Published in the Pharmaceutical Journal UK, 2008

The Polyclinic in the Beijing Olympic Village was the impressive focal point of the Olympic medical services. Along with a fully stocked pharmacy, there was a comprehensive collection of specialist departments including: radiology with 2 MRI machines, X-ray, emergency medicine, surgery and internal medicine, sports medicine and ENT. In addition, there was a physiotherapy department with over 100 treatment beds and an optometry department, which dispensed hundreds of pairs of glasses during the Games. For the first time in an Olympic polyclinic, a Chinese acupuncture clinic was available to the athletes.

The Olympic pharmacy had a prominent position near the entrance of this impressive state-of -the-art medical complex, with a design that facilitated an efficient patient journey. A team of nurses in the reception area coordinated the patient registration, notification of test results, and the generation of the prescriptions for the pharmacy.

Mark Stuart BPharm MRPharmS
Bill Horsfall FPS (Aust) AACPA
Mel Blachford PhC (Aust) FPS
Published in the Pharmaceutical Journal UK, 2006

The pharmacy within the polyclinic of the Athletes’ Village at the recent Melbourne Commonwealth Games was a showcase of modern Australian pharmacy practice. Twenty volunteer pharmacists from Victoria and from other Australian states served a record 4500 athletes and 1500 team officials who converged on Melbourne for the 12 days of competition.

The pharmacy was located at the entrance to the purpose built medical centre where all medical disciplines were represented. The close proximity and frequent communication between specialist sports medicine, physiotherapy, podiatry, optometry, medical imaging and dentistry services, meant that athletes received concentrated treatment from a highly specialised multidisciplinary team, in a single visit to the polyclinic. This environment, unique to the games setting, allowed pharmacists to actively contribute clinical and pharmacological information as part of the ‘front line’ care for athletes and team officials.

Mark Stuart
Published in the Pharmaceutical Journal UK, 2006

Given the spread of Olympic venues across the mountains surrounding Turin, three separate Olympic Athlete Villages were purpose built. One Village was in central Turin and two near the mountain venues: Sestriere and Bardoneccia. Each Village had a separate Polyclinic which provided athletes with the full range of medical services including a new purpose built pharmacy on each site.

Each of the three pharmacies was open from 8am until 10pm daily with emergency overnight services. The facilities were staffed by two pharmacists at any one time, who were assigned one week periods to manage the operation of each pharmacy. Pharmacies were restocked on a daily basis, with the distribution point of all drugs being the regional Italian government pharmaceutical authority that serves the Turin region.

Mark Stuart
Published in the Pharmaceutical Journal UK, 2006

Implementation of the doping control program began as a challenge for the Organisers of the XX Olympic Winter Games in Turin. Normally, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) disqualifies and expels athletes for doping at the Olympics, but does not issue or support criminal penalties. However, under Italy’s strict anti-doping law, athletes can face criminal sanctions for drug offences.

Drug testing at national and international sporting events in Italy is usually conducted by the Italian Health Ministry. In the months before the Games, the ministry undersecretary threatened to send police to conduct drug tests on Olympic athletes during the Games, to ensure that Italian law was being complied with and that criminal sanctions were issued when a doping offence was found. After ongoing discussions with the IOC, the Italian Health Ministry eventually backed down from its demand to conduct tests during the Games and put the IOC in charge of all testing. However, no change was made to the law imposing criminal sanctions, which the Ministry stated is aimed at protecting the health of athletes.

Mark Stuart

A version of this article published in the Pharmaceutical Journal, UK, 2002

The biggest and most successful Commonwealth Games ever, was recently staged in Manchester. Mark Stuart, superintendent pharmacist of the Athlete’s Village Pharmacy reviews the pharmacy operations that served 5000 athletes and hundreds of officials for 25 days.

The Athletes’ village pharmacy was the sole information point in the Village to assist athletes with drug information. One of the most important roles of the pharmacy was to provide advice relating to substances prohibited in sport and the restrictions regarding the use of some drugs. Many athletes concerned about their medication, particularly prior to competing, accessed this confidential service.

Mark Stuart
Published in the Pharmaceutical Journal, UK, 2002

With only days until the XVII Commonwealth Games, the largest sporting event ever to be held in the UK, and highlight of the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations, excitement is mounting as organisers are nearing the conclusion of many years of preparation. Around 5000 athletes from 72 countries will converge on Manchester to compete from the 25th of July to the 4th of August. Mark Stuart, superintendent pharmacist of the Athletes’ Village Medical Centre Pharmacy, gives an insight into the pharmacy preparations.

Over the last year and a half, a dedicated pharmacy-working group consisting of pharmacist representatives from NHS trusts in the Greater Manchester area, as well as a number of pharmacists involved in sports medicine, has been meeting monthly.
The pharmacy-working group has constructed policies, procedures, and developed the services that the pharmacy will provide. They have anticipated the many unique issues that an event of this type will present.

Mark Stuart, BPharm PGDipCDDS DipBotMed MRPharmS
Maria Skouroliakou, Director of Pharmacy, Athens 2004 Olympic Games
Published in the Pharmaceutical Journal UK, 2004

The Polyclinic Pharmacy in the Athens Olympic Village opened on July 30 to provide the pharmacy requirements of over 17 000 athletes, team officials and technical officials from 202 countries. The Pharmacy provided medicines to residents of the Olympic Village and acted as a central point of organisation, coordination and distribution of drugs to the satellite pharmacies at each of the Olympic sporting venues. Pharmacists worked alongside other medical experts in a closely-knit environment to provide a world class level of medical care to the ‘Olympic Family’.

In addition to the pharmacy, the Polyclinic also contained a comprehensive range of medical services and specialties which included: sports medicine, medical imaging, podiatry, physiotherapy, dentistry, physiotherapy, pathology, eye services including opticians and ophthalmologists, orthopaedics, and gynaecology. With its contemporary design, brand new high-tech medical equipment and marble floors throughout, the Polyclinic functioned as a complete luxury hospital and state-of-the-art sports medicine clinic.

Mark Stuart
Published in the Pharmaceutical Journal UK 2004.

The ruthless desire to compete and win is as old as humankind. Ancient Greek Olympians are known to have used stimulating potions and high protein diets to improve athletic performance and Greek gladiators were doped to make their fights more vigorous and bloody for the spectators. It seems doping in sport has gone full-circle, with Greece having just undertaken the largest and one of the most successful Olympic doping-control operations ever.

In the year preceding the Athens Games, the war on drugs in sport was well underway. The sporting world was rocked by a number of positive drug tests and allegations of drug use by elite athletes. Britain’s favourite for a gold medal in Athens, sprinter Dwain Chambers was suspended for 2 years following detection of the ‘designer’ steroid THG. Another British Olympic hopeful, cyclist David Millar withdrew from the British team only weeks before the Games after admitting to a French judge he had used EPO. Vials of the drug were found by police in a raid of his home just prior to the Tour de France. He was to compete in at least three Olympic events: the time trial, road race and team pursuit.

Mark Stuart
Published in the Pharmaceutical Journal UK, 2001.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity of working as a pharmacist at the pharmacy in the athletes’ village at the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, last year. It gave me a unique insight into sports medicine and the operation of an Olympic pharmacy. A team of 20 volunteer pharmacists was chosen from nearly 1,000 applicants from all over Australia to operate the pharmacy over the two-week period of the games, providing a service to nearly 12,000 athletes.

The pharmacy was within the polyclinic in the village, along with other medical services including sports medicine, physiotherapy, radiology, dentistry, massage, hydrotherapy, opthalmology, an emergency department with three intensive care beds, and general medical consulting services. A team of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health care professionals made up the medical team, all volunteering their services for the duration of the games.