Winter Olympic Games 2010
Logistics: Over 2000 Bauerfeind products packed for Vancouver and Whistler, 16.12.2009
With less than eight weeks to go before the start of the Winter Games in Canada, they are getting ready to roll at Bauerfeind in Zeulenroda, Germany. Supports, orthoses and compression stockings are just as much part of the baggage as modern measurement instrumentation, tools and machinery for customizing the products.
For the first time Bauerfeind is looking after the athletes of all participating nations in the event of injury, so there is more to carry than ever before. A total of nine pallets with over 2000 products have been sent on their way to Canada in the last few days. The cargo consists primarily of supports as well as products with supporting and posture-correcting elements (orthoses) – everything needed to treat typical winter sports injuries to the hand, knee and ankle.
"This year we have two more pallets than we did for Beijing in 2008. But then in Canada we are going to be there for the athletes of all nations," explains Lars Birnbaum, Olympics project manager at Bauerfeind. The device manufacturer, an official supplier to the German Olympic teams since 2001, has "Friend of the Games" status in Canada and is for the first time an official partner of an Olympic organizing committee. What this means in concrete terms is that a Bauerfeind team will be assisting the work of the doctors in the polyclinics in each of the two Olympic villages in Vancouver and Whistler. If an athlete suffers an injury, the ideal Bauerfeind product for him will be chosen in consultation with the doctors and physiotherapists. The services of the German company also includes precision adjustment of the product. In addition, a pack containing supports and orthoses from Zeulenroda will be held ready for rapid first-aid at all Olympic competition venues.
Alongside its commitment as a "Friend of the Games", Bauerfeind will also have a presence in the German camp, the meeting point for athletes, sports officials, sponsors and journalists. Here the company will set up an orthopedic service station, as it did in Salt Lake City, Athens, Turin and Beijing. "It will be a little smaller in Vancouver, however, as the German athletes can make use of our services in the polyclinics in the Olympic villages," Lars Birnbaum reveals.
The Bauerfeind pallets will be en route from Zeulenroda to Vancouver for about 17 days. In contrast to the equipment for the German Olympic team, which due to ongoing qualifications is often not flown in until just before the Games begin, the Bauerfeind products are being shipped to Canada by sea. Transport is provided by Schenker Deutschland AG, like Bauerfeind also a Co-Partner. From Bremerhaven, the ship will call first at Montreal. The Olympics containers will then be transported on to Vancouver by rail.
The first Bauerfeind staff will be flying to the Olympic city to set everything up as early as February 1. "Our team in Canada has an international flavor and comprises a total of 12 people. The staff come from Germany, Austria, France, Great Britain and the Netherlands," says project manager Lars Birnbaum. The Games will be officially opened February 12, but most of the Olympic icons from the 83 participating nations will be arriving earlier: the Olympic villages open February 4 – and that is also when Zeulenroda-based Bauerfeind AG will be beginning its involvement with the 2010 Winter Games.
