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Ebonie is a clinical researcher and her work has made her one of the leaders in the management of tendon injuries in the world. What people may not know is that she is also a sports physiotherapist who has worked for the Australian (AIS) and Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) and has serviced team Australia at multiple Commonwealth, Winter Olympic, Summer Olympic and Paralympic games. Ebonie has also worked in the performing arts with the Australian Ballet as well as spending 18 months touring with Disney’s Lion King stage production. In this conversation we take a rare deep dive into her personal and professional journey of how she's become one of the go to people for many of the worlds high performance teams when it comes to the treatment of tendons. 

Highlights from the episode…

• What motivated Ebonie to pursue a career in sport after initially not being accepted to do physio at university.
• Having spent now over 15 years with the VIS, Ebonie describes what qualities they look for when hiring an exceptional practitioner.
• It’s not exercise prescription, massage, injury assessment that physios are most skilled in…its “physio CSI".
• We discuss the art of listening and the power of words. Why this is fundamental in athlete care.
• After several failed attempts to secure a role at the AIS. How Ebonie finally got a job with the AIS and what it was like to be mentored by some of Australia’s pioneers in sports medicine.
• We discuss volunteering and the challenge of not getting paid and how one can obtain experience and skills that others may not get when willing to do work for less.
• Although a well established leader in the field why Ebonie still volunteers and the benefits both her and the industry receive by her doing so.
• Ebonie provides an insight into her recent involvement in 2024 Paris Olympic Games including recruitment, HQ set up, day-to-day running, highlights etc.
• The power of developing your EQ (emotional intelligence) alongside your IQ when it comes to injury management.
• “If you listen hard enough your patient will tell you what’s wrong with them. If you really listen they will tell you how to fix them”.
• How Ebonie manages an acute tendon problem under the pressure, stress, time sensitivity and gravity of an athlete competing in an Olympic Games.
• “Tendons love load, what they hate is unmanageable load!”
• The biggest impact you have on your athletes symptoms is to get them to stop doing the provocative load…the problem is athletes are often mistaken what the provocative load is!
• How Ebonie has been able to stay at the pinnacle of sport while also being an incredible mother and partner.
• “Be evidence informed but not recipe driven”. The advantages and disadvantages of using research. 

People mentioned:

• Steve Hawkins: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-hawkins-06b195186/?originalSubdomain=au
• Peter Blanch: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3FHpOBIanMmbQRkx9YjkUx
• Sue Mayes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sue-mayes-am-19ab8861/
• Jill Cook: https://scholars.latrobe.edu.au/jlcook

Ebonie Rio contact details: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ebonie-rio-436474224/?originalSubdomain=au
• La Trobe University: https://scholars.latrobe.edu.au/erio

Host: Luis Resa

Contact me on:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luis-resa-a975196b/
• Email: [email protected]

Thanks for listening and please leave a review. If you would like more information on anything mentioned in this episode simply send me an email.