There were quite a few of those. I can’t be specific as to what events they were in, but there was one young athlete that came in with a bursitis at the ischial tuberosity [the part of the pelvis on which a person sits]. They were having a hard time flexing the hip and that was a very important component of what they needed to do. And so a large amount of soft tissue work, manipulation, and stretching were all performed on the athlete, and the athlete did quite well. They were very happy. It was similar to what I said earlier about the hamstring; there was minimal tear to the muscle, and treatment involved getting in and doing the soft tissue work and combining that with manipulation of the pelvis, making sure they were moving correctly. And this athlete did okay after that. We worked on quite a few medalists.

I assume it took a number of years for you to work your way up to your current position as Medical Director of the Performance Services Division. As far as I know, you are the first chiropractor to hold that position.

Yes, that’s true.

How did you first become involved with Olympic athletes, either for their training or for the Games themselves? I read that you were at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.

In 1988, I came out to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and started working with USA Weightlifting and by 1989 I was traveling as a team physician with them. I went to the 1989 World Championships in Greece with USA Weightlifting. I was in private practice at the time, in Grover Beach, California. I would come out here and spend several weeks a year working with USA Weightlifting. In 1992, USA Weightlifting nominated me to be on the International Medical Committee for the International Weightlifting Federation, which I was on until 1996. At that point, I decided not to maintain that position. It was a lot of travel and my daughter was born in ’96. I wanted to be at home more.

In ’97, I took over as Medical Director for USA Weightlifting and I maintained that position until I came here. I had developed a multidisciplinary setup with USA Weightlifting for their medical team. We had orthopedic surgeons, family practice, chiropractors, physical therapists and athletic trainers, all working very closely together. And the USOC liked that model.

In your role at the USOC, how is collaboration fostered among members of different health professions?

It’s demanded.

If you want to be on the team, you have to be a team player.

Yes. We don’t care if you’re an orthopedic surgeon, a chiropractor or a massage therapist. There’d better be collaboration. There’d better be, “This is what I’m feeling,” or “This is the positive test I’ve come up with,” or “I think this is a subclinical situation.” Everybody needs to be getting along because we’re working towards the goal of taking care of the athlete. So egos have to be checked at the door.

In what ways have you found treating top athletes to be different from working with patients in a general practice?

Top athletes want to get better, almost too soon. With a good portion of them, if we told them to go over and stand on their head in the corner for half an hour, they would do that if they thought they would get back in the game quicker, or that it would make them run faster or jump higher. It’s almost in your treatment plan, kind of developing a ‘soft’ treatment plan where you recognize that there are people that you have to hold back.