By Bob Duff, The Windsor Star, October 9, 2009
During the 2005 season, when back issues began to bother Canadian figure skater Tessa Virtue, she sought out relief from the Fowler Kennedy Sport Medicine Clinic in her hometown of London.
Instead of treatment, they offered her a recommendation, telling Virtue if she was interested in the best, she needed to get in touch with Mary Brannagan of Windsor’s Loaring Physiotherapy & Health Centre.
“They said, ‘She just gets it,’” Virtue recalled. “It was the best referral I’ve ever received.”
Since that day, it’s Virtue who gets all of her physiotherapy work done by Brannagan and as she preps for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, one of Canada’s best medal hopes - Virtue and partner Scott Moir are two-time world championship medallists in ice dancing - she plans to have Brannagan aboard for the ride.
Next week, Brannagan will travel with Virtue to Paris, France for the Trophee Bombard, an International Skating Union Grand Prix event. It’s part of a new program in which the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Committee is working with Canada’s elite athletes to give them as many creature comforts as possible leading up to the big dance.
“They asked me what I wanted and one of the things I asked for was to have Mary travel with me,” Virtue said. “She knows my body, she knows what needs to be done to keep me right on top of my game.”
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