When five-time Olympic champion Hayley Wickenheiser retired from hockey after 23 years, holding the record for most assists, points and goals for the Canadian Women’s National Team, she set her sights on another challenge: becoming a doctor. But while medicine and sports may seem to share certain similarities, they do not share a common culture when it comes to taking care of our bodies or preparing our minds for physical and mental challenges. In particular, medicine operates under the assumption that physicians can override their physiologic and emotional needs without a safety net – or a supportive team – beneath them. In this, the second talk in our 2020/21 series, we’ll explore some of medicine’s blind spots, and what one of Canada’s most decorated athletes can tell us about the mindset and the cognitive shifts we need to make in order to survive the ordeal of the pandemic – and, ultimately, to change our culture.
