Jennifer Le Grand had never worked in sports medicine before she became the chief pharmacist at the Olympic Village this Summer.

By sheer good fortune she works at the Bichat Claude-Bernard hospital in the 18^th arrondissement of Paris, a university hospital close to where the Olympic Village was situated in 2024, and that’s why they “asked me to be involved in the project”.

Having only ever worked in hospital pharmacy and never a sporting arena, she says “it was a big challenge for me - and my team", not least because she would be treating some of the finest physical specimens of human beings on the planet, at a time when they needed to be in peak physical condition. And easing the symptoms of a heavy cold could mean the difference between gold and silver.

She led a team of twenty-five paid pharmacists who descended on the Olympic Village from hospitals in Paris, and five different pharmacies. Another 19-strong clutch of volunteers, a fairly even split between pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, came from hospitals and community pharmacies.

The volunteers hailed from France mainly, but also from the UK and Turkey. And Le Grand says the atmosphere was busy.  The pharmacy in the Olympic Village polyclinic started preparations at the end of June, a few weeks before the Olympic Village opened on July 17, and nine days before the Olympic Games began. 

Read more: What's behind the counter at the Olympic Games?

“At the beginning I worked every day, because it was a big challenge, and we had to be ready for the opening of the polyclinic. But after we opened it was easier for me to have some days off - although every day I thought about the Olympics! It was difficult for me to think about anything else. The first few months of 2024 were busy preparing, but by July it was very exciting.” 

 Le Grand said it was a “big challenge” getting the polyclinic ready. “There was something like 80 different drugs, morphine, ketamine, adrenaline, some real emergency medicines. We were first in the polyclinic because we had to organise the drugs and medical devices. We had to prepare emergency bags with medicines for the medical station in each venue, and there were 83 emergency bags and 61 medical stations, so the preparation was very busy.” 

Doing the splits 

The polyclinic pharmacy was open from 7am to 11pm every day, and the hours would be split between two shifts from 7am-3pm, and 3pm-11pm. 

Le Grand’s pharmacy team stayed in the polyclinic as opposed to the venues, and at the beginning and the end of the day, the mission was “prepare another bag of medicine” either for the polyclinic or for the medical stations at venues. 

Athletes would come to pick up prescriptions at all hours depending on what time their events were. The most popular meds included antibiotics, painkillers, anti-inflammatories, anti-allergies, dermatological and ophthalmological meds, gastrointestinal treatments, medication for sleep disorders and cardiovascular medication. 

“Morphine and ketamine were available in emergency bags but were used very little," she says. "Morphine is an analgesic that is rarely used by athletes because it is a prohibited drug in competition. Ketamine is used as an anaesthetic.” 

Any drugs that weren’t used were donated to humanitarian initiatives.  

"Some examples, for cardiovascular conditions simvastatine, sleep disorders Zopiclone, pain and inflammation doliprane, ketoprofene, anti allergic Cetirizine, ophthalmological medicines included carmellose and tobramycine eyes drops”.

“There was a very big pressure at the start because we wanted to succeed in this international challenge,” she says. “What was very different was the patients. They are athletes and very strong, but what was different is that in France, when you are a hospital pharmacist, you don’t see patients all the time. Here it was very intensive over a short time, so it was like a blend of hospital and community pharmacy.”

The French, USA, and GB delegations didn’t use the polyclinic too much because their doctors already had “a lot of medicine” prepared. But she says the team saw a “lot of delegations from Africa and Asia, but every delegation were nice with the volunteers and staff at the polyclinic.” 

Le Grand recognised some famous athletes who “came into the pharmacy and it was very cool”. Most of the athletes were very “grateful”. And she says after the athletes had used the pharmacy, they would come back for “another consultation and say ‘hello, how are you, I have a cake for you because you are very kind with us’. The atmosphere was very happy and peaceful.” 

Read more: A sporting chance: how to get a pharmacist job at the Olympics 

The polyclinic closed for the athletes and delegates on September 10, just after the Paralympic Games ended on September 8. It was shut down and cleared away by September 13, only a few days later.

Asked whether she would do it again, Le Grand says: “Yes, why not! I need some rest, but it was a very good human and professional experience for me and my team. And it was very interesting to discover sports medicines that I didn’t already know before.”