In this issue of Health Insights Today, we explore the increasingly high-profile role of chiropractors who work with world-class athletes. It’s a dramatic tale and a source of deep satisfaction for those of us who have personally experienced the benefits of chiropractic care. But it’s also a reflection and an outgrowth of a deeper story, less in the limelight but no less important, that is lived out daily across the nation by chiropractors serving as team physicians and consultants for colleges, high schools, and amateur athletics (Little League baseball, Pop Warner football, beach volleyball, etc.) for people of all ages.

Miami Dolphins, Beijing Olympics

For this issue, I had the great pleasure of interviewing two sports chiropractic pioneers, Drs. Tom Hyde and Michael Reed. Hyde was among the first chiropractors to serve in an official capacity with a National Football League team, the Miami Dolphins. Now in his 60s, he is a revered teacher and mentor, and author of the premier textbook on sports chiropractic, Conservative Management of Sports Injuries.

I spoke with Dr. Reed soon after he returned from the Beijing Olympics, where he was one of four chiropractors on the U.S. sports medicine team. That alone would be a milestone achievement in any professional’s life. But Reed went to Beijing in another role as well, as Medical Director of the Performance Services Division of the United States Olympic Committee. He is the first chiropractor to hold such a position, at which he works year-round at the USOC Training Center in Colorado Springs. As Dr. Reed explains in his Health Insights Today interview, one of the key reasons he was hired by the USOC in 2007 was to shepherd the development and implementation of a new sports medicine model for the USOC, with the goal of seamlessly integrating all aspects of sports medicine.

Opportunities for a Recent Graduate and a Current Student

This issue also includes an interview with one of my former Cleveland Chiropractic College students. T.J. Hackler is a chiropractor in his first year of practice, whose single-minded focus on developing the skills needed to work with top athletes has already brought him some of the opportunities of which he has dreamed. Though his contracts with a university track and field team and a professional football team do not allow him to mention the teams by name, in our interview Dr. Hackler was able, with appropriate confidentiality, to share some of his experiences with these world-class athletes. In 2002, I co-authored an article¹ on chiropractors working with teams in the National Football League. In the years since then, chiropractic participation has expanded and deepened, so that chiropractic services are now available to players on all NFL teams.

One of our current students, chiropractic intern Ben Gottsche, has been treating U.S. Olympic gymnast Ivana Hong at our college’s outpatient clinic. We have a photoessay showing his work with Ms. Hong. As you will see, her smile lights up the room.

Also in This Issue

As we were readying all of these articles to send to our editorial board for review, I received the latest copy of ACA News, a monthly publication of the American Chiropractic Association. It included a very informative article, “Sports Injuries in Young Athletes,” by Nataliya Schetchikova, PhD. ACA has graciously given us permission to reprint the entire article as part of this sports chiropractic special issue.