He may be one of the invisible cogs in Bermuda’s Pan-Am Games machinery but massage therapist Richard Johnson is performing a pivotal role ensuring athletes are physically prepared for events.

One of the numerous apartments blocks in the Pan-Am Village Bermuda shares with delegates from Peru and host nation Brazil is inhabited by Johnson.

In the adjacent room are two hired massage tables where his magic healing hands unknot tight muscles and relax performers after gruelling training sessions and events.

Most of his work occurs either post-event or a number of days beforehand so not to disturb the delicate, complex make up of an athletes body on the eve of a crucial competition.

“When you’re close to an event you can’t do much as it would affect an athlete’s performance,” explains Johnson who hails from England.

“If an athlete needs a massage they come and tell me, or their coach comes and informs me.

“I go to the training grounds with athletes where their final preparations takes place. After an event I may give an athlete a rub-down, but you can’t do anything close to an event — it can mess up their performances as their body may get too lethargic.”

Johnson, who is vice-president of the Bermuda Massage Therapy Association, was part of the Island’s backroom team at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, while president Glenn Robinson attended the Island Games in Rhodes recently.

And although sports massage therapy is a recent phenomenon in the athletics world, he believes it is growing in importance especially at major competitions.

“Massage therapists have only been coming to Games for a few years, and people are starting to realise the important role we can play,” he added.

“I go to most of the Pan-Am events if I can I attend most of the training sessions. Those athletes not based at the village often call in to see me, as Flora Duffy did, to receive a massage.

“It’s also good for me to meet those athletes based at schools in the USA or UK.

“Most are already used to massage therapists, physiotherapists and doctors so they know what it’s all about.

“Some I know from previous meets and it’s important I get to know the others as there’s also a psychological side to what we do in terms of knowing what suits each athlete.”