2023-10-29 17:29:25
La Croix l’Hebdo: What makes you get up in the morning ?
Geoffrey Wandji : What motivates me is to develop and democratize sports medicine by making it accessible to as many people as possible. Everything I do revolves around that, whether here, within DocForSport (read opposite)or in the French team.
For most amateur athletes, sports medicine is only dedicated to professionals whereas we could support all patients and prevent them from lingering pain… I like taking care of Rudy Gobert or Nicolas Batum in the same way that Mr. and Mrs. Everybody!
The second branch of sports medicine develops around the support of chronic diseases through adapted physical activities, producing a real impact on public health.
How is it going at work?
G. W. : Very good, because I have a passion for work. 43% of doctors and 46% of physiotherapists show signs of burnout: my entrepreneurial experience helps me balance all of that. I don’t just do twenty-minute consultations which generate a very significant mental load!
I alternate between office and home to develop DocForSport: we are currently integrating two new doctors and a postural assessment physical trainer and we are opening a cardiological assessment room in November.
Without forgetting my activity as a doctor for the French men’s basketball team: last season, I traveled 86 days, hence the importance of working alongside other sports doctors for continuity. care.
Who do you trust?
G. W. : I trust my patients themselves. In the series Dr Housethere is this sentence “the patient lies all the time”, which is a bit opposite of what I think! For me, you have to know how to remain open and empathetic, listening to the signals described by patients.
In medicine, we have scientific bases that allow us to work, to advance and to structure our work. But there are also things for me that are a little out of the box and for which we do not – yet – have scientific proof.
If we take the example of knee pain, even if the MRI does not detect a problem, that does not mean that the patient is not suffering and that the pain should not be treated. I am a pragmatic person: from the moment the problem is resolved, even if I have not scientifically proven why, we have resolved it and move on to something else.
Something that would change your life right now?
G. W. : Have recognition in a medical specialty. With the Primary Health Insurance Fund, the sports doctor does not fit into any box! It is located between general medicine and specialists, we are called “special practice doctors”.
Our European neighbors have mostly taken this step: in England, it was recognized as a specialty at the time of the London Olympics, I hope that the same thing will happen in France in 2024. This recognition would truly change lives and the development of this medicine, particularly for the support of chronic diseases through physical activity.
And for tomorrow, an idea to change the world of sport?
G. W. : Health is organized around four pillars: mental health, diet, rest and physical and sporting activity. Everyone should have a better knowledge of these fundamentals in managing physical activity; the world of professional sport has done so but not the amateur world, which brings injuries and related problems leading to a cessation of physical activity and public health problems. This ties in with the idea of democratizing and developing sports medicine: you should think about coming and seeing us!
Was participating in the Olympics a childhood dream?
G. W. : I’m like a child at the idea of doing the Olympics! It is the benchmark sporting event at the world level, the most followed, it is where dreams are born: I started basketball with the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona and the Dream Team (the American team, Olympic champion, made up of stars of the time, such as Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, Editor’s note).
It’s all the more magical for me as the basketball competition will begin in Lille, at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium, 2 km from the office. Participating in the Olympics as a sports doctor is already extraordinary whatever the discipline, but now I’m doing them in my sport and at home, it’s an incredible alignment of the planets!
For you, the Paris Olympics will be successful if…
G. W. : I don’t really know what the economic or ecological legacy of these Olympics will be, but they will be successful if we manage to sustain the interest of public authorities and the population in physical and sporting activities.
With the Rugby World Cup, then the Olympics, I would like us to continue to live and breathe sport in France. Take advantage of this big magnifying glass so that there is a legacy in terms of public health over one or two generations, since the next time we have the Olympics, it will perhaps be in 100 years…
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Geoffrey Wandji, a 41-year-old northern doctor, created DocForSport, a sports medicine center in 2022 open to the general public in Villeneuve-d’Ascq (North), near Lille: alongside other sports and health professionals, he supports the Sunday sportsman as well as the high-level athlete.
Dr Wandji has also been following the French men’s basketball team for two seasons. Memories of the Olympics, as a kid and then as a teenager, he has plenty in mind: “The France-United States basketball final in Sydney in 2000 with Vince Carter’s dunk or the Usain Bolt final in the 100m in 2008… »
For the 2024 Games in Paris, this athlete, who plays basketball and practices yoga every day, hopes to win the gold medal and “arrive at the competition with 100% of the team injury-free and in the best possible shape”.
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