U of T alumni to support Team Canada at Winter Olympics and Paralympics

Mireille Landry is heading to the Winter Olympics as the sport physical therapist with Skate Canada, the national sport organization that represents Canadian figure skating. Landry will support athletes competing in ice dance, pair, and men’s and women’s figure skating.

Landry, a graduate of the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute and lecturer in the department of physical therapy at U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine, has worked with Skate Canada for more than a decade. During that time, she has built longstanding connections with some of Canada’s top figure skaters, as they progressed through the ranks.

“I have created some good relationships over the years with many of these athletes, either through therapeutic relationships and treatments, or in a more supportive role,” Landry says. “Our relationship often starts when they’re young, from a prevention and education standpoint, such as proper warmups and injury management.”

When the athletes grow to be more senior, over time, therapy becomes a bigger part of their ongoing maintenance, Landry says. “Even if they are not injured, they require a lot of therapy to sustain high-level performance,” she adds.

Landry notes that figure skating is a decentralized sport, meaning athletes on the Olympic team will train locally throughout the year. She steps in to support them at national and international Skate Canada events.

Landry credits her postgraduate training in sport physiotherapy from Sport Physiotherapy Canada, a division of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association, for her career supporting high-performance athletes and sport.

When she is not attending the Olympics, she works in cardiac rehabilitation at Women's College Hospital, provides consultation privately and through the Canadian Sport Institute Ontario, and is a clinical instructor.

Michael Lenart is going to the Winter Paralympics as a physical therapist with Hockey Canada's national para hockey team. A graduate of the MScPT program at Temerty Medicine, he holds a diploma in sport physiotherapy and is a certified high-performance practitioner with Sport Scientist Canada.

Lenart has been a member of the Hockey Canada national para hockey team’s integrated support team for the past seven years. Currently, he works alongside a sports medicine physician, athletic therapist, sports dietitian, mental performance coach and a strength and conditioning coach. The support team meets regularly throughout the season to ensure these Paralympic athletes receive the support they need to compete at the highest level.

“A lot of what we do is geared toward facilitating a high-performance environment, Lenart says. “One of our strengths as a support team is being able to support the vision of the organization and use our respective fields of study to help develop high performance athletes.”

In para hockey, athletes are most prone to forearm, wrist and shoulder injuries, Lenart notes. “Being able to collaborate throughout the season as a support staff to adapt an athlete’s daily training environment is essential in maximizing their health and performance,” Lenart says.

He developed an interest in working with special populations when he was a physical therapy student at U of T doing a placement at Toronto Rehab – Lyndhurst Centre, working with people who had spinal cord injuries and related neurological conditions.

He says that working in para sport is one of the best tests for understanding concepts that were taught in school modifying them to each individual athlete’s impairment.

“These athletes and what they’ve overcome, whether it’s a congenital birth defect, a spinal cord injury, an amputation or being a cancer survivor, are the epitome of human resilience,” Lenart says. “Being able to support these individuals and work toward the common goal of winning a gold medal for Canada is extremely rewarding, and something for which I’ll be forever grateful.”

When Lenart is not traveling to support the para hockey team, he works at a clinic in Newmarket, where he provides physical therapy to the general public and local athletes.