Sports Chiropractic - Olympics

Olympics

Chiropractic sports medicine specialists first began treating Olympic athletes at the Olympic Games in Mexico City, in 1968, when Dr. Leroy Perry arranged a relationship with the Aruba team. The first official appointment of a chiropractor to the US team began with the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York, United States, when Dr. George Goodheart's name was given to Irving Dardik, MD, then chairman of the USOC Sports Medicine Committee by Dr. Stephen J. Press. Subsequently a program was developed to screen Chiropractic Doctors at the USOTC in Colo. Spngs., CO. And, at each subsequent games chiropractors were included with the US team, and other national teams as well. In the 2008 Games in Beijing, the US team sent four chiropractors, and, in another US first, i.e., they appointed Dr. Mike Reed, DC medical director of the US team. As part of a demonstration project under the aegis of the IOC for the first time in Olympic history, chiropractic care will be fully integrated and in treating athletes in the polyclinic in 2010 at the Winter Olympics games in Vancouver.

Outside of the United States, Life University has developed relationships with the Costa Rican, Guatemalan, and Honduran Olympic Committees. Dr. John Downes of Life University participated in the Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 Olympic Games as Costa Rica's Chiropractor. In 2000, Life University opened a 4500 sq. ft. Chiropractic Clinic in the Costa Rican Olympic Committee Compound under the supervision of Dr. Trace Palmer with the focus of supporting the country's athletic federations.