PWHL chief medical officer trades in hockey stick for a paddle at 2nd Olympics

Dr. Tina Atkinson grew up dreaming of going to the Olympics.

Now, she can check both the Winter and Summer Olympics off her bucket list.

The Nova Scotian is the doctor for the Canadian canoe/kayak team at the Olympic Games in Paris. The team began competition in slalom events on Saturday. Sprint events begin on Aug. 6.

Her selection to the team’s support staff caps off a whirlwind three years for Atkinson. She was also a doctor on the Canadian women’s hockey team’s staff at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, and helped launch the PWHL as the league’s first chief medical officer this past winter.

“For me, it’s about being part of something bigger than yourself and sport, but also the people that you get to work with and spend time with,” said Atkinson, who spoke to CBC Sports earlier this week from canoe/kayak team training in Le Temple-sur-Lot, south of Paris.

It’s the culmination of a journey that started when Atkinson, who grew up in the small town of Shelburne on the southern coast of Nova Scotia, wrote a high school essay about wanting to become a sport medicine doctor. She played several sports in high school and competed in rugby in university, before going to medical school.

That love of sports came from her family, and that’s where her love for the Olympics began, too.

A gold medal in a bubble

Atkinson has been a sport medicine physician, family doctor and emergency room doctor in the Halifax area for more than two decades.

She was the team physician for the QMJHL’s Halifax Mooseheads for more than 10 years, and also spent time as the chief medical officer with Hockey Nova Scotia.

But no experience may be more unique than being the team doctor for the Canadian women’s hockey team in the middle of a pandemic inside the 2022 Olympic bubble in China.

COVID tests and regular calls with public health colleagues back in Nova Scotia were part of the norm, with everyone under strict COVID protocols.

The team was all in on making sure they followed those rules to be able to compete, Atkinson said. It’s hard to forget the image of the Canadians wearing N95 masks for an entire game against Russia due to COVID concerns.

“For our team, dealing with COVID for a few years and having world championships cancelled and so many sacrifices, so many COVID…