One of Ireland’s top sports physical therapists, Anthony ‘Star’ Geoghegan, has said this country is backward in terms of adopting new techniques which could help track and field athletes.
Carlow man Geoghegan has worked with athletes such as Usain Bolt and David Oliver and is organising a major sports therapy conference in Carlow this Sunday where many of the recent World Championship medallists will be in attendance, including Blanka Vlasic, Tori Bowie and Curtis Mitchell.
Bolt, the fastest sprinter on the planet, says that Geoghegan is one of the men behind his success and brings a board specially developed by Geoghegan around the world with him. The pair also worked together in the run up to the recent World Championships.
"Usain is a very nice man," said Geoghegan. "This year was the first year I worked with him.
“His manager met me in New York and we talked and I did a bit of work with Usain and they sent me down to Jamaica. Ricky Simms, his manager, is a pure gentleman."
Geoghegan went on: "I believe Ireland is backward, and I have to be blunt saying it like that, we’re backward on the science going forward.
“And people will say that we’re not, but I look at statistics and the athletes in Ireland, we can’t blame them, they train really, really well. They’re great athletes and they train really hard but they are not using the science."
Jamaican's Eddie Edwards, who is the strength and conditioning coach with Bolt and Sean Kettle, sports massage therapist who works with Johan Blake, are both in Carlow this week to learn more techniques from Geoghegan of bio mechanics of the body.
Oliver, 110m US hurdling champion, is also in Carlow training with Geoghegan, whom he met four years ago when he had pelvic problems and he says the Carlow therapist helped cure that problem.
