Salford PhD student supports Irish swim team in Tokyo Olympics
Paul Talty, a PhD student at the University of Salford has been supporting the Irish Olympic swimming team in Tokyo, Japan.
Working directly for Swim Ireland as the Head of Physical Preparation, Paul’s role was to look after the physical preparation and recovery of the swimming team, ensuring athletes were in peak physical condition in the lead up to the games.
During the holding camp in Hamamatsu, Japan he supported the strength and power training of the athletes, as well as being part of the back-room staff providing ‘final prep’ before athletes went out to race.
Upon the completion of the races, Paul would then support athletes with their recovery through preparing and monitoring the use of ice baths, providing recovery shakes and supporting nutritional strategies to optimise sleep.
Paul said: “I am delighted to be able to be part of the team supporting athletes at the greatest sporting event on earth. I never imagined I would be at an Olympic Games in any capacity, so this is very special.
“This is the culmination of a huge amount of work and effort from a lot of people across a long period of time and it is great to play a small role in that.”
Dr Paul Comfort, a programme leader in Strength & Conditioning at the university, said:
“It is great to see some of our PhD students supporting athletes at the Tokyo Olympics. More importantly, seeing students, such as Paul, applying research in applied settings and gaining excellent results, alongside their Doctoral studies is inspirational for the rest of our sports science and strength and conditioning students.”
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