World-Class Sports Physician for Elite Kiwi athletes

Media Release
Wednesday 31 October, 2012

World-Class Sports Physician for Elite Kiwi athletes

High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ) and the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) are delighted to announce internationally-renowned sports physician Dr Bruce Hamilton has been appointed medical lead for the New Zealand high performance sport system.

In this role, Bruce Hamilton will ensure New Zealand has a world-class system in place for injury and illness prevention, and the timely return from illness and injury so high performance athletes anywhere in the country can be back training and competing as quickly as possible.

This is the first time this role has been jointly provided by HPSNZ, which allocates resources to targeted sports and athletes, and the NZOC, which manages the New Zealand Team at Commonwealth and Olympic Games.

HPSNZ Chief Executive Alex Baumann and NZOC Secretary General Kereyn Smith say this joint approach will ensure athletes receive consistent medical support in the lead up to competition and at their most important events.

``We believe that this joint HPSNZ/NZOC medical lead role gives New Zealand an advantage over other countries as it means we will have one systematic approach for the provision of sports medicine and rehabilitation services provided to high performance athletes,’’ Kereyn Smith says.

Alex Baumann says he is very pleased the country has been able to secure Bruce Hamilton, a New Zealander, in this role.

``Bruce is a world-class expert, he is internationally renowned for his work in sports medicine, and he will lead our system in New Zealand to be one of the best in the world. The medical team plays a very important role in supporting athletes so that they can train and perform to their best, and secure medals.’’

Bruce Hamilton says he is extremely excited about the opportunity to return to New Zealand and work with this country’s elite athletes and sports medicine practitioners.

``Once again in 2012 New Zealand performed exceptionally at the Olympics, and I look forward to working with the HPSNZ and NZOC teams to build on that great result, as we start the journey towards Rio 2016. My family and I are all looking forward to returning to the New Zealand way of life after 20 years offshore,’’ he says.

For the past 12 years, he has been working in the high performance sport systems in Australia, the United Kingdom and most recently in Qatar. In these roles, he has been responsible for developing multi/inter-disciplinary sports medicine programmes as well as providing individual care to elite athletes.

His past roles include as Sports Physician for the Australian Institute of Sport, Medical Coordinator for Athletics Australia, and Team Doctor for Triathlon Australia.

He has been Regional Lead Physician for the English Institute of Sport and Chief Medical Officer for UK Athletics.

In 2010, he was appointed Chief of Sports Medicine at Aspetar, Qatar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital -- a purpose-built facility where athletes are assisted to achieve their sporting potential.

Bruce Hamilton has attended two Olympic Games (Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008), the Manchester and Melbourne Commonwealth Games, as well as multiple world championships for Athletics and Triathlon.

Born in Gisborne, he gained a Bachelor of Physical Education and Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery at Otago University. He is a Fellow of the Australasian College of Sports Physicians.

Bruce Hamilton will leave Qatar early next year to take up his new role in March 2013.

Ends

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