Ok, ok, I’ve been awfully busy, and yes, somewhat lazy, since I got back from my Lake Placid trip. I’m finally now just taking a couple moments to pen this about some of my experiences there!
First off, wow! Living at the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center, working there on the athletes, and seeing what these guys do to prepare for their sport’s season and upcoming Olympics is quite impressive. We’ve all heard of the amount of dedication and training that these folks go through to achieve their Olympic goals, but to actually see it in person is a whole different thing.
I worked mainly at the Medical Clinic there. I did what you’d expect me to do, provide sports chiropractic care to the athletes! I worked on a gold medal winner, a silver medal winner, and all the way down to folks who are training hard to make their first Olympic games. I primarily worked on members of the US Bobsled Team, the US Luge team, and some members of the US Ski Team.
The Training Center itself is a big massive complex with weight and fitness rooms, a large cafeteria, other sport specific training rooms, a gymnasium, and it’s all attached to a massive 90+ room hotel where the athletes live. These folks eat, sleep, and breathe for the Olympics.
That’s why it’s imperative for them to be in tip top shape health-wise. Working in conjunction with the head ATC, the D.O. on staff, and the lead Orthopedic was a great experience and I did learn a lot from those guys when it comes to taking care of elite level athletes.
Working there on them really raised my level of understanding of working on athletes. I feel even more confident now that I can help any athlete, at any level, with their ailments and performance.
Now that I’m “in the system”, I do have an opportunity to work with them again there and hopefully gain even more of their trust. My goal is to get accepted to be part of the medical staff and be one of the Team USA Chiropractors that goes to the next Winter Olympics in 2018! I’ve taken the first major step and hope to continue down that path.
Lastly, no trip to Lake Placid would be complete without the requisite stop to the Arena where the 1980 Miracle on Ice happened. It was quite the surreal experience, not to mention how exciting it was! It’s a definite goose bump starter being there. And yes, I may have snuck out onto the ice a bit just to say that I was on that ice!
Thanks to you all who helped make this happen, my patients here who tolerated me not being in the office for 2 weeks, and to you who are reading this!
-- Dr. Brent Shealer – Monroeville, Penn Hills, Pittsburgh Chiropractor