A team of 20 medics, researchers, graduates and students from the Centre for Sports Medicine in The University of Nottingham’s Division of Orthopaedic and Accident Surgery will provide medical care and support during the Olympics.

Academic staff will be working as medics and helping with research into sports injury and illness. Many Nottingham graduates have gone on to work with elite sports organisations and will be on-hand providing a range of expertise from MRI scanning to physiotherapy and osteopathy.

Professor Mark Batt, Honorary Professor and Consultant in Sport and Exercise Medicine, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for members of the Centre for Sports Medicine to get involved with the Olympic Games as well as demonstrate their skill and expertise. The strength of The Centre for Sports Medicine has been brought home by the depth of our multidisciplinary involvement.”

The 2012 Games is hosting 26 Olympic sports in 34 venues, with 10,000 athletes and 20,000 press and media personnel. More than 9m spectator tickets have been sold. Sports medicine and emergency doctors will be needed at all the competition and training venues and medics can expect to answer tens of thousands of calls for help from athletes, staff and spectators.

The Nottingham team

Professor Batt, who is also the Wimbledon Sports Physician, has worked with The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) helping to oversee the medical arrangements for the Games. He will also be at Wimbledon looking after the players for Olympic tennis.

Dr Lisa Hodgson, lecturer in sports medicine, who graduated from Nottingham with a Masters and PhD in Sport and Exercise Medicine will be at the Olympic Games from 1 July to 14 August as venue medical manager with particular responsibility for Horse Guards Parade (HGP). HGP is the venue for the volleyball tournaments with temporary seating for 15,000 spectators.

University teacher, Dr Clodagh Dugdale, will be based with the equestrian teams at Greenwich Park as well as the BMX cycling event between 28 July and 7 August.

Dr Jonathan Power, a second-year part-time student, will be working as a field of play recovery team leader at the Aquatics Centre — the venue for the swimming, diving and synchronised swimming events.

Injury prevention is a key mandate for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Sports Medicine Research Fellow, Dr Debbie Palmer-Green, will working on its Injury and Illness Surveillance programme.

Dr Palmer-Green, who completed her PhD in English youth rugby union injury surveillance just two years ago, said: “The IOC has been running injury surveillance for the last four or five summer and winter Olympic Games.

“I’ll be based in the athlete’s village, working with medical staff who will complete reports on any athlete injuries or illnesses. I have also got tickets for athletics and boxing. To be there watching and working at the Games at such an early stage of my research career, will be an incredible opportunity.”

Dr Palmer-Green has also been working on a UK Sport and English Institute of Sport funded project with 14 National Governing Bodies to reduce the occurrence of injuries and illnesses among some of the nation’s brightest medal hopes.

And she has more than just a professional interest: the former Olympian suffered “more than her fair share of injuries and illness” during a career as a short-track speed-skater. She went to the Albertville, Lillehammer and Salt Lake Winter Olympic Games in a career that saw her take three world cup medals and12 European medals at various championships.

Graduates on call

Dr Patrick Wheeler is among 15 Nottingham graduates offering medical support. As Chief Medical Officer for British Triathlon he will be working with them. Dr Wheeler is also the Lead Doctor for Paralympics GB. He will be part of the team providing medical care to British athletes at the Paralympic Games. He is also the Chief Medical Officer for GB Disability Target Shooting.

Graduate Dr Anyl Lloyd Gopeesingh will be at the Games in his capacity as team physician for Trinidad and Tobago. Their medal hopes lie in the track and field events, primarily men and women sprinters.

Head of Department Professor Brigitte Scammell said: “I am very proud of Nottingham’s contribution to the games. Our staff and graduates have major roles in sport throughout the UK and to have so many of them involved in the Olympics is a fantastic achievement.”