Episode 134: Lily Chiu: Nobody Starts At The Olympics

Does working in elite sport as a massage therapist sound glamourous to you? What if you had the opportunity to travel to the Olympics, Paralympics, Commonwealth Games or other major international sporting events? Is that part of your career dream?

The accreditation. The team uniform. The photographs. The opportunity to work alongside some of the best athletes in the world.

What often gets overlooked is the journey.

When I sat down with Lily Chiu at the 2026 Massage & Myotherapy Australia National Conference in Geelong, what emerged was not a story about a single lucky break. It was a story about curiosity, mentorship, volunteering, professional relationships and decades of showing up. As Lily put it, nobody taps you on the shoulder and sends you straight to the Olympics.

The Career Found Her

Lily never planned to become a massage therapist.

She had always been interested in health and originally hoped to pursue nursing. When that didn’t work out, she followed advice and entered an accounting career instead.

“Accounting was fine, but it wasn’t really my passion.”

The turning point came during a year spent backpacking through Europe. Her travelling companion struggled with carrying a backpack and would often stop with sore shoulders and headaches. Lily would use the massage skills she already knew to help. As they travelled, her friend became an enthusiastic advocate.

“She would sing my praises as we went to backpackers hostels.”

Eventually someone suggested she should look at massage professionally.

“The career found me.”

Back in Australia, Lily sought advice from her chiropractor. His massage therapist, who happened to be his mother, pointed her towards a training school. Lily enrolled and completed her studies.

At that stage, her ambitions were relatively straightforward.

“I thought I was going to work in a clinical environment.”

She imagined herself working alongside chiropractors and other allied health professionals. That seemed like a satisfying and worthwhile career path. It was only later that she began to realise there might be other possibilities available to her.

Discovering Another Avenue

In the years before Massage & Myotherapy Australia existed in its current form, practitioners would attend regional meetings and professional development events. One of the guest speakers at those meetings was sports massage therapist Rob Granter, who had recently returned from the Atlanta Olympics.

Listening to him speak opened up a possibility Lily had never seriously considered.

“I thought, there’s another avenue that I could look into.” Working in elite sport as a massage therapist.

The Sydney Olympics were on the horizon and there was a growing sense of excitement throughout Australian sport. Curious about what it might take to work at that level, Lily approached Rob after his presentation.

His advice was practical.

“He said you have to be treating at least 30 people a week.”

For Lily, that became a target. She moved through a series of clinical environments, beginning with a chiropractic clinic, then a medical clinic, before approaching a physiotherapist and asking whether they had a room available.

“It was a slow start.”

But it was a start.

Lily had given herself five years to reach Olympic Park Sports Medicine Centre. Instead, the opportunity arrived after three. A position became available while a therapist was on maternity leave and, through networking and professional relationships, Lily heard about it and put herself forward.

What she expected would be a temporary position became something much bigger.

Nearly thirty years later, she is still there.

Finding Sport

One of the surprising aspects of Lily’s story is that she did not come from an elite sporting background herself.

“I was not very good at it. I was not very gifted.”

As a child she participated in calisthenics and enjoyed school sport, but she laughs about receiving ribbons more for participation than athletic excellence. She describes herself as someone who always turned up, always participated and always tried hard, even if she was never the most naturally gifted athlete in the group.

Sport, however, remained a significant part of her life. Her family watched a lot of tennis because it was something everyone could enjoy together. She also followed wrestling and football, and over time began noticing the people working behind the scenes.

One of those people was physiotherapist Mary Toomey, who was working in professional football at a time when female practitioners were far less common in those environments.

“I thought, girls can do it.”

That simple observation shifted something. Seeing another woman succeed in elite sport removed a barrier and made the possibility feel real.

The Power of Volunteering

The next chapter of Lily’s story began with volunteering.

A colleague of her sister’s was involved in kayaking and asked whether Lily would like to help at the Murray Marathon. The athletes were sponsored by Cadbury.

“So we had six eskies full of chocolate. That was how we got paid.”

The payment may have been unconventional, but the experience proved to be influential. More than anything, Lily discovered that she enjoyed being part of the support crew. She wasn’t drawn to the spotlight. She enjoyed helping behind the scenes, setting up tents, organising equipment, supporting athletes and contributing wherever she was needed.

“I really liked the fun in being in the background, helping out, setting up the tents, getting the food and doing the work.”

That idea of simply doing the work became a recurring theme throughout her career. Long before Olympic campaigns and professional sporting clubs, Lily had discovered that she enjoyed being part of a team working towards a shared goal.

Soon after, another opportunity arose through a friend who was involved in the Herald Sun Tour cycling race. A team needed a massage therapist and Lily put her hand up. She ended up completing twelve tours.

The experience taught her that working with athletes involved much more than treatment. Cyclists crash. Injuries happen. First aid skills matter. At the time she carried bandages, dressings and antiseptic, and found herself helping manage injuries alongside her massage work.

“You also have to be multi-skilled.”

That lesson would remain relevant throughout her career.

Relationships Open Doors

Throughout our conversation, one theme kept reappearing: people.

The first major gateway into Olympic Park Sports Medicine Centre came through volunteering at a state swimming competition. Joe Yeoman, who worked with the Australian swim team, was looking for volunteers.

Lily put her hand up.

There she met people such as Dave Davis and Maria de Michelle. At the time they were simply professional connections made through a volunteer opportunity. Looking back, they became pivotal figures in her career.

Maria later invited Lily to work with Paralympic cycling. Together they travelled through Italy and attended the Athens Paralympics. Dave Davis helped create the pathway into Olympic Park.

As Lily’s career progressed, the same pattern repeated itself. She worked in professional sport, including Richmond, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Essendon and Melbourne Storm, before becoming involved with tennis, where she is now celebrating her twentieth year working at the Australian Open. Each environment introduced new colleagues, new challenges and new opportunities.

“In the sporting industry, everyone knows each other.”

Her point wasn’t that success comes from networking alone. Rather, people remember how you work. They remember whether you contribute, whether you’re professional and whether you can be relied upon. Over time, those impressions become your reputation.

Lily described reconnecting with colleagues from Athens at the Paris Paralympics more than twenty years later. Those same relationships would later contribute to opportunities within para-athletics. What began as introductions became long-term professional relationships that continued opening doors decades later.

What Elite Sport Really Looks Like

Many therapists imagine international sport as glamorous.

Lily’s description was refreshingly honest.

“It’s not glamorous.”

At a recent athletics event in Darwin, the treatment team worked under marquees with massage tables positioned on a slope. It was hot, humid and physically demanding. The reality of high-performance sport often has more to do with logistics than prestige.

A typical day may begin with a medical meeting discussing every athlete on the team and any current concerns. From there, the team moves to the venue, unloading equipment, setting up treatment areas and preparing athletes for competition. Throughout the day there may be recovery work, cooling strategies, sourcing ice, carrying equipment, helping sports scientists, assisting nutrition staff and doing whatever else is required to support the athletes.

One observation stood out.

“The thing in sport is understanding you don’t see anything.”

The public watches the competition. The support team watches the athletes.

“If you do, you’re looking at it on your phone.”

That was one of the first lessons Lily learned. The role is not about watching sport. The role is about helping athletes perform.

For athletes competing at the highest level, recovery is not a luxury. It is part of the process. As Lily described, athletes may have spent years preparing for a single competition. Supporting that effort, even in a small way, carries real responsibility.

Representing More Than Yourself

As our conversation drew to a close, I asked Lily what lessons therapists working in everyday practice could take from elite sport.

Her answer centred on professionalism.

Working in high-performance sport means understanding your role and respecting the roles of others. It means knowing when to refer, when to collaborate and when another professional is better placed to help. It means contributing to a wider team rather than seeing yourself as the centre of the process.

Most importantly, it means recognising that your behaviour reflects on the profession itself.

“Know that you’re representing a profession, not just yourself.”

That principle applies whether you’re working at an Olympic Games or in a suburban clinic.

Lily also shared one final observation that felt universally relevant. Sometimes athletes do not need conversation. They do not need advice. They do not need stories.

“They don’t need to hear your story.”

After training, competition, media commitments, coaches and family expectations, the treatment table may be one of the few quiet places available to them. Learning to read the room matters. Knowing when to speak matters. Knowing when not to speak matters too.

The Long Road

Listening to Lily describe her career, it became clear that nobody starts at the Olympics.

The pathway is built through years of clinical practice, volunteering, mentorship, professional development and relationships. It is built by putting your hand up, helping others and consistently doing good work. It is built through opportunities that often seem small at the time but become significant in hindsight.

Perhaps that is the most encouraging lesson from Lily’s story.

The qualities that helped her build a career in elite sport are not exclusive to elite sport. They are the same qualities that help therapists build meaningful careers anywhere: curiosity, professionalism, humility, generosity and a willingness to contribute.

The destination may be impressive.

But the story is really about the journey.