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Medical back-up for Olympic Brit pack

The Brit pack heading to South Korea for next year’s winter Olympics will have access to 24/7 medical support in case of accident or illness.

Members of AIPS – the international sports press association – visited the PyeongChang 2018 sites last week where the new medical initiative was revealed.

The Korea Sports Media Medical Aid (KSMMA) support centre will be located in Gangneung, inside the media village, and will provide a 24-hour  service, a general medical service and professional treatment for any injury as well as sport massages. It is a historic first for the Olympics.

Singu Park of KSMMA suggested the medical back-up after learning of a journalist in distress at Rio last year.

He said: “Journalists get injured. At the greatest festival of all mankind there are harsh realities behind the scenes. I thought about it and now the the world’s first medical support for sports media starts.”

The local organising committee are also promising state-of-the-art technology for reporters, photographers and broadcasters, who require high-speed, reliable lines of communications.

Mobile networks will run on 5G – 20 times faster than 4G – while there will be super-fast cabled access for photographers and UHD and VR for broadcasters.