Massage therapy can prevent injury and speed up recovery and rehabilitation  when an injury occurs. In upcoming Winter Olympic Games you may glimpse Massage Therapists working on the sidelines, the back stages of many venues plus the Olympic Village. It hasn’t always been that way.  Massage therapy didn’t become an official part of the training and care of Olympic athletes until the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta.

Olympic massage has come a long way. In 1906, the top US athletes receiving massage were winning medals and championships. In a few years, the successful American methods of training with incorporated massage gained recognition and were adopted by the Swedes, the Germans, the French, the Australians and finally in 1912, the British.

Today US Massage therapists who meet the requirements work and gain experience in Olympic Training Centers and/or the Olympic Games. Massage therapists who find the work rewarding often return again and again and then bring their knowledge and experience back to offer their clients in their local practices.