Rio 2016: Sally Pearson back on track for gold with help of German doctor Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt
HE is a world-renowned German doctor who works with some of the world’s top athletes and could be Sally Pearson’s secret weapon.
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HE is a world-renowned German doctor who counts Usain Bolt, Ronaldo, Bono and even Luciano Pavarotti among his contented clients.
And now Sally Pearson is hoping the touch of the man known as ‘Healing Hans’ — Munich-based Dr Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt — can be her secret weapon as well on a so-far rocky road to Rio.
With just over 100 days to go before she defends her 2012 Olympic gold medal, Pearson leapt her first hurdles last week following an horrific run of injury and setbacks.
The champion Australian athlete broke her wrist badly in a race fall last June but after surgery, a long rehab and a return to running, her comeback was further delayed by a painful achilles tendon injury.
Each attempt to step up her Rio preparation would end in a worrying flare-up and no solid idea if it would repair in time.
“It was actually a bigger issue than the wrist, to be honest,” Pearson said.
In March, Pearson booked a flight to Germany and an appointment with Müller-Wohlfahrt.
She’d had known about him for some time. In the world of elite sport — particularly athletics — it was hard not to.
In Europe, the fame of Müller-Wohlfahrt began with his role as doctor of soccer side Bayern Munich from 1976-2015 but it exploded with his apparent miracle work on the muscles of top runners, footballers, golfers and assorted athletes from all over the world.
Müller-Wohlfahrt has treated Bolt since he was 16 — and still does four times a year — and a quick run through Google spits out a roll call of other loyal champions: Michael Jordan, Boris Becker, Andy Murray, Cristiano Ronaldo, Jürgen Klinsmann, Jose-Maria Olazabal, Maurice Greene, Michael Ballack, Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard, Rio Ferdinand, Linford Christie, Kelly Holmes, Diego Maradona, Katarina Witt. Even Bono and Pavarotti have turned to ‘Healing Hans’.
“He is very famous, not that you’d know it when you go to see him,” Pearson said.
“The only thing he had in his little office were some boxing gloves from someone — I don’t know who — and a pair of Usain Bolt’s spikes. They were on a bookshelf and if you didn’t turn around you would never have noticed them.
“I have known about him for a really long time ... I wasn’t too sure about the need. But all the other international athletes go and see him, and when I was in there, there were two or three other track and field athletes in there as well.
“Usain Bolt sees him four times a year just because he is so good and just to make sure his body is ready to go.
“I never really believed how good he was until I went and saw him. He blew my physio’s mind away.”
Pearson went to Munich in early March and spent five days being treated. The focus was on the damaged muscle but like any athlete, the reputation and brash confidence of Müller-Wohlfahrt did wonders for Pearson’s mind as well.
“He is such a character and he makes you feel so comfortable with what he is doing,” she said.
“He is so matter-of-fact, like ‘this is what’s going to happen and this is how you are going to feel and this is how you are going to come back’.
“I asked him ‘when do you think I can start hurdling again?’. He just goes: ‘Oh, 10 days.’
“You’re like really? You question it but then that 10 days came and I was like, ‘You know what, I probably could do this’.”
She didn’t, in the end. Pearson waited for a few more weeks to start leaping “just because we had the time”.
“But it felt right, and everything he said has happened,” she said. “It is really exciting to know that this is really working for me.”
The methods of Müller-Wohlfahrt aren’t without controversy, it must be said.
He injects directly into damaged muscles and tendons with treatments he says are all natural and “homoeopathic”.
Reports say products like Hyalart, extracted from the crest of cockerels, and Actovegin, derived from calves’ blood, are among them.
Some profiles have even questioned if he is a bona fide genius or A-grade quack. But Pearson said she never had doubts about Müller-Wohlfahrt’s credibility and is assured all the substances he uses in treatment are above board.
”I never thought anything like that. I know what he does and I knew what he did and what he uses. I knew that wasn’t ever going to be a problem,” Pearson said.
”He gives you a whole list of everything he has done to you and so there was no problem at all.
”The stuff that I had in Australia was exactly the same but this was just more aggressive and a different technique of doing it. A technique that I don’t know if its been done here before. Certainly all the doctors I have spoken to have never done that.
”It is the only thing that has worked for me. ”
Not too long ago Pearson was injured and wondering if she’d be able to mount an Olympic defence.
‘Healing Hans’ has changed all that. She is now back to her old self, almost, and is aiming for a Rio rumble.
“I am still blown away by it to be honest.”
Originally published as Rio 2016: Sally Pearson back on track for gold with help of German doctor Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt
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