News Report / Profile
Medicine Olympics in the First Person
The Medicine Olympics go far beyond the experiences of those who participate in them... spreading as a contagion to those who have the privilege to professionally have contact with the students of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon.
However, it is important to make a brief and concise summary of the subject so we do not catch anyone unawares.
The Medicine Olympics are a sports and cultural event that this year is completing its respectable XVII edition. In short, they are a moment of socialization and leisure, seen by the students of the Faculty of Medicine as one of the most important and esteemed events of the year.
In 1993 they started out as just a sports event held in the Lisbon University City Stadium, but as more and more future doctors from the University of Lisbon joined in they rapidly grew in dimension and quality.
This year the Medicine Olympics included the participation of 1,200 doctors and medicine students, and took place at the Balaia Golf Village Hotel, which specifically closed its doors in order to receive the FMUL between the 14th and 18th of April.
Besides the sports events, the social programme is made up of thematic parties organised in partnership with discos, radio stations and important brands, always in spaces provided only and particularly for this purpose, like a fully equipped 1,000 m2 tent with a stage and a sound and light system set up for the major names in the world of music.
Our curiosity about these magical and extraordinary days may be satisfied in a subtle manner, particularly through the first person testimony of two students for the first year of the Integrated Masters in Medicine.
Indeed, this journey from a distance has only been possible due to the goodwill of both of them and a Great help, not only from one of the members of the Students’ Committee – Rúben Miguel Malcata Nogueira – who did the special favour of contacting all our colleagues with my request for an “interview”, but also from the Students’ Association, particularly from Francisco Goiana Godinho Silva, who, besides an excellent introduction to the event, did me the great favour of providing indispensable help in the process of recruiting the interviewees.
Without further delay, I propose an excursion to the Medicine Olympics 2010, through the personal and non-transmittable testimony of the student Maria Guilhermina Batista de Loureiro Pereira and the student Afonso Maria da Silva Moreira.
Miguel Andrade: Before participating in the Medicine Olympics, what were your expectations and the ideas you had about the event, and what motivated you to enrol in it?
Maria Guilhermina Pereira: When people told us about the Olympics (mainly the older students), they said that it was, along with the Medicine Night, not to be missed as students at our faculty.
I didn’t know what it was, but I was soon told that it was a long weekend that brought together all the students at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon at a place relatively far from our area of study, with sports activities, with competitions between different years and with a lot of parties!
I spoke to other colleagues, and everyone liked the idea. What we thought was: “If it can’t be missed, then let’s go!”
Afonso Moreira: At the beginning one couldn’t say that my personal expectations were very high.
The concept of the Olympics was still shrouded within a mist of mystery… But I progressively discovered things about it and what it in fact involved. I have to say that only after what colleagues from higher years told me did I get high expectations, which led me to want to enrol.
Some people say: “On the Medicine course there are two things you mustn’t miss: The Medicine Night and the Olympics!”
MA: In the comments and hypothetical advice that the more advanced colleagues gave you, how did they describe what was going to happen, and how did they help you?
MGP: The more advanced colleagues described the event as being unmissable, as I said. Whenever anyone mentioned the Olympics, they always changed their tone of voice, and their mood changed immediately.
As for the advice they gave us, this was basically for us to take advantage of the 4 days, as our holidays are spent studying and at the Olympics we put everything aside and they are real holidays (although only 4 days)!
AM: Despite always reminding us that the Olympics were coming, our colleagues were always a little evasive on more concrete questions about what happened at this event, without doubt, a way of creating even more curiosity and expectation. However, about the more functional aspects of the organisation in general our colleagues were well informed and were able to give rather useful practical advice.
MA: Now concentrating on the experience itself… Is it true that one sleeps very little and that these are “crazy” and “exhausting” days? In short, what is your routine and what happened this year in terms of activities?
MGP: That all depends on the people, as is obvious. There are some who sleep a lot and others who want to enjoy all the activities or just take advantage of the day to the utmost!
The fact is that if we want to sleep we have our own homes! And yes, one sleeps very little!
These are days with lots of parties, lots of union!
The routine is to get up and go to meet the rest of the people, participate in the sports activities (for those who want to defend their year, of course!), and at night we have the thematic parties, which for those with most stamina last until the morning!
AM: That’s an interesting point about the Olympics… They might be like this, but they don’t have to be!
It’s an event that can be enjoyed in many different ways. The party never stops, there is always something to do, and it’s up to the participants to decide how to go about it.
There are cultural quizzes and many sports activities to choose from, like basketball, football, handball or paintball.
In my particular case I tried to enjoy every moment to the maximum, which obviously led me to cut down on sleep. Amazingly, perhaps because of the atmosphere one feels in the Olympics, I never felt exhausted. Only when I got on the bus back to Lisbon!
MA: What were your best memories? The ones that will surely last?
MGP: The social aspect in an environment away from the study environment is without doubt an advantage. We are used to socializing in the Faculty, but at the Olympics it is different.
We understand that our relationships are not only about Medicine. There is more beyond this.
The time we spent with our friends will be the best memories we will take with us, without doubt.
AM: During these Olympics I felt that on the one hand I met many people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise, and on the other hand I strengthened friendships that wouldn’t have so easily been developed during the period of classes in the faculty.
The moments I shared with these people, namely the last ones, will without any doubt be something I will remember for many, many years.
MA: Did any episode worthy of being told to your grandchildren happen?
MGP: Any specific episode? I think all the four days deserve to be remembered!
AM: Obviously! Among those that will only be told to our grandchildren, the episode “seven boys stuck in a lift for forty minutes”, which is famous among the 1st year community, will be at the top of the list!
MA: No doubt there were some less positive things to comment on, something that needs to be corrected, some important point that the future organisations should avoid. What can you tell us about this?
MGP: Personally I think the organisation was impeccable.
We have a great Students’ Association that organised a magnificent long weekend.
There are, and always will be, the excesses that some people commit… And sometimes these excesses cause serious harm. I think this has nothing to do with the organisation. It has to do with us. We, as medicine students, must be responsible and be aware of our actions. Sometimes our actions go too far, which means that others are harmed for things for which they are not to blame.
AM: I can’t blame the organisation for this fact, but I was faced with a situation when getting on the bus back to Lisbon that left me somewhat indignant. I think that attitudes like “pushing into the queue” is not correct for people who are medicine students, and also citizens of a country that ought to be more organised and civilised.
Fortunately that was the only negative point I felt about the Olympics. The CODM deserves congratulations!
MA: Many of our readers will wonder about the role of the Medicine Olympics in the academic aspect.
Particularly for someone who is not a doctor, for medicine students who had a different type of experience at their time, or simply for people who are curious, what can you say about some possible influence that these days might have in the future of your academic path?
MGP: As Abel Salazar used to say: "A doctor who only knows about medicine doesn’t even know about medicine ".
First, before we are future doctors, we are people. We need a break in our study in order to breathe and get back to suffocating the following week.
Now you ask: "But could we do this without being in the context of the Faculty? Why the Olympics?" Because we are with our colleagues, namely with those who are now our friends, we share experiences, and we learn to live with them, given that the profession we have chosen is also dominated by mutual help.
The Olympics end up promoting a union among all of us, and often a development of our human component, which is increasingly lacking in the doctors in Portugal.
AM: It is true that this even is not directly linked to learning the contents we must know, to be honest.
Even so, I think that the Olympics have a fundamental role in the development of relationships among students at the FMUL (no irony meant) and that this is a positive component both in the motivation they have for the course and in the professional and affective contacts that are part of the life of a doctor who wants to get to know his colleagues.
MA: And finally, another very common question... When you got off the bus, back in Lisbon, after a long journey, and looking back over the last few days, what among your initial expectations had in fact come about and what were the feelings that might be transmitted to us?
MGP: Speaking for myself, I got off that bus with a great feeling of nostalgia.
It was a fantastic 4 days, spent in the best way possible, in the company of the future doctors of Portugal. My expectations were more than met! A lot of fun, a lot of psychological rest, a lot of union.
Few hours of sleep, a dreadful following week with a lot of work, but it was worth it!
I would do it all again! I’ll be there again next year!
AM: I have to admit I was positively surprised. The FMUL student community really showed it has extraordinary organisation and spirit.
The Olympics are a party that makes any student of this faculty proud, something we can boast about without any problem in talking to people from other courses.
To finish off, I would like to clearly express my desire to keep on participating in the best medicine party in Portugal, and may there be many more editions even better than this one that has just ended a few days ago!
Miguel Andrade
Institute of Introduction to Medicine
mandrade@fm.ul.pt
However, it is important to make a brief and concise summary of the subject so we do not catch anyone unawares.
The Medicine Olympics are a sports and cultural event that this year is completing its respectable XVII edition. In short, they are a moment of socialization and leisure, seen by the students of the Faculty of Medicine as one of the most important and esteemed events of the year.
In 1993 they started out as just a sports event held in the Lisbon University City Stadium, but as more and more future doctors from the University of Lisbon joined in they rapidly grew in dimension and quality.
This year the Medicine Olympics included the participation of 1,200 doctors and medicine students, and took place at the Balaia Golf Village Hotel, which specifically closed its doors in order to receive the FMUL between the 14th and 18th of April.
Besides the sports events, the social programme is made up of thematic parties organised in partnership with discos, radio stations and important brands, always in spaces provided only and particularly for this purpose, like a fully equipped 1,000 m2 tent with a stage and a sound and light system set up for the major names in the world of music.
Our curiosity about these magical and extraordinary days may be satisfied in a subtle manner, particularly through the first person testimony of two students for the first year of the Integrated Masters in Medicine.
Indeed, this journey from a distance has only been possible due to the goodwill of both of them and a Great help, not only from one of the members of the Students’ Committee – Rúben Miguel Malcata Nogueira – who did the special favour of contacting all our colleagues with my request for an “interview”, but also from the Students’ Association, particularly from Francisco Goiana Godinho Silva, who, besides an excellent introduction to the event, did me the great favour of providing indispensable help in the process of recruiting the interviewees.
Without further delay, I propose an excursion to the Medicine Olympics 2010, through the personal and non-transmittable testimony of the student Maria Guilhermina Batista de Loureiro Pereira and the student Afonso Maria da Silva Moreira.
Miguel Andrade: Before participating in the Medicine Olympics, what were your expectations and the ideas you had about the event, and what motivated you to enrol in it?
Maria Guilhermina Pereira: When people told us about the Olympics (mainly the older students), they said that it was, along with the Medicine Night, not to be missed as students at our faculty.
I didn’t know what it was, but I was soon told that it was a long weekend that brought together all the students at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon at a place relatively far from our area of study, with sports activities, with competitions between different years and with a lot of parties!
I spoke to other colleagues, and everyone liked the idea. What we thought was: “If it can’t be missed, then let’s go!”
Afonso Moreira: At the beginning one couldn’t say that my personal expectations were very high.
The concept of the Olympics was still shrouded within a mist of mystery… But I progressively discovered things about it and what it in fact involved. I have to say that only after what colleagues from higher years told me did I get high expectations, which led me to want to enrol.
Some people say: “On the Medicine course there are two things you mustn’t miss: The Medicine Night and the Olympics!”
MA: In the comments and hypothetical advice that the more advanced colleagues gave you, how did they describe what was going to happen, and how did they help you?
MGP: The more advanced colleagues described the event as being unmissable, as I said. Whenever anyone mentioned the Olympics, they always changed their tone of voice, and their mood changed immediately.
As for the advice they gave us, this was basically for us to take advantage of the 4 days, as our holidays are spent studying and at the Olympics we put everything aside and they are real holidays (although only 4 days)!
AM: Despite always reminding us that the Olympics were coming, our colleagues were always a little evasive on more concrete questions about what happened at this event, without doubt, a way of creating even more curiosity and expectation. However, about the more functional aspects of the organisation in general our colleagues were well informed and were able to give rather useful practical advice.
MA: Now concentrating on the experience itself… Is it true that one sleeps very little and that these are “crazy” and “exhausting” days? In short, what is your routine and what happened this year in terms of activities?
MGP: That all depends on the people, as is obvious. There are some who sleep a lot and others who want to enjoy all the activities or just take advantage of the day to the utmost!
The fact is that if we want to sleep we have our own homes! And yes, one sleeps very little!
These are days with lots of parties, lots of union!
The routine is to get up and go to meet the rest of the people, participate in the sports activities (for those who want to defend their year, of course!), and at night we have the thematic parties, which for those with most stamina last until the morning!
AM: That’s an interesting point about the Olympics… They might be like this, but they don’t have to be!
It’s an event that can be enjoyed in many different ways. The party never stops, there is always something to do, and it’s up to the participants to decide how to go about it.
There are cultural quizzes and many sports activities to choose from, like basketball, football, handball or paintball.
In my particular case I tried to enjoy every moment to the maximum, which obviously led me to cut down on sleep. Amazingly, perhaps because of the atmosphere one feels in the Olympics, I never felt exhausted. Only when I got on the bus back to Lisbon!
MA: What were your best memories? The ones that will surely last?
MGP: The social aspect in an environment away from the study environment is without doubt an advantage. We are used to socializing in the Faculty, but at the Olympics it is different.
We understand that our relationships are not only about Medicine. There is more beyond this.
The time we spent with our friends will be the best memories we will take with us, without doubt.
AM: During these Olympics I felt that on the one hand I met many people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise, and on the other hand I strengthened friendships that wouldn’t have so easily been developed during the period of classes in the faculty.
The moments I shared with these people, namely the last ones, will without any doubt be something I will remember for many, many years.
MA: Did any episode worthy of being told to your grandchildren happen?
MGP: Any specific episode? I think all the four days deserve to be remembered!
AM: Obviously! Among those that will only be told to our grandchildren, the episode “seven boys stuck in a lift for forty minutes”, which is famous among the 1st year community, will be at the top of the list!
MA: No doubt there were some less positive things to comment on, something that needs to be corrected, some important point that the future organisations should avoid. What can you tell us about this?
MGP: Personally I think the organisation was impeccable.
We have a great Students’ Association that organised a magnificent long weekend.
There are, and always will be, the excesses that some people commit… And sometimes these excesses cause serious harm. I think this has nothing to do with the organisation. It has to do with us. We, as medicine students, must be responsible and be aware of our actions. Sometimes our actions go too far, which means that others are harmed for things for which they are not to blame.
AM: I can’t blame the organisation for this fact, but I was faced with a situation when getting on the bus back to Lisbon that left me somewhat indignant. I think that attitudes like “pushing into the queue” is not correct for people who are medicine students, and also citizens of a country that ought to be more organised and civilised.
Fortunately that was the only negative point I felt about the Olympics. The CODM deserves congratulations!
MA: Many of our readers will wonder about the role of the Medicine Olympics in the academic aspect.
Particularly for someone who is not a doctor, for medicine students who had a different type of experience at their time, or simply for people who are curious, what can you say about some possible influence that these days might have in the future of your academic path?
MGP: As Abel Salazar used to say: "A doctor who only knows about medicine doesn’t even know about medicine ".
First, before we are future doctors, we are people. We need a break in our study in order to breathe and get back to suffocating the following week.
Now you ask: "But could we do this without being in the context of the Faculty? Why the Olympics?" Because we are with our colleagues, namely with those who are now our friends, we share experiences, and we learn to live with them, given that the profession we have chosen is also dominated by mutual help.
The Olympics end up promoting a union among all of us, and often a development of our human component, which is increasingly lacking in the doctors in Portugal.
AM: It is true that this even is not directly linked to learning the contents we must know, to be honest.
Even so, I think that the Olympics have a fundamental role in the development of relationships among students at the FMUL (no irony meant) and that this is a positive component both in the motivation they have for the course and in the professional and affective contacts that are part of the life of a doctor who wants to get to know his colleagues.
MA: And finally, another very common question... When you got off the bus, back in Lisbon, after a long journey, and looking back over the last few days, what among your initial expectations had in fact come about and what were the feelings that might be transmitted to us?
MGP: Speaking for myself, I got off that bus with a great feeling of nostalgia.
It was a fantastic 4 days, spent in the best way possible, in the company of the future doctors of Portugal. My expectations were more than met! A lot of fun, a lot of psychological rest, a lot of union.
Few hours of sleep, a dreadful following week with a lot of work, but it was worth it!
I would do it all again! I’ll be there again next year!
AM: I have to admit I was positively surprised. The FMUL student community really showed it has extraordinary organisation and spirit.
The Olympics are a party that makes any student of this faculty proud, something we can boast about without any problem in talking to people from other courses.
To finish off, I would like to clearly express my desire to keep on participating in the best medicine party in Portugal, and may there be many more editions even better than this one that has just ended a few days ago!
Miguel Andrade
Institute of Introduction to Medicine
mandrade@fm.ul.pt