When sports chiropractors first appeared at the Olympic Games in the 1980s, it was alongside individual athletes who had experienced the benefits of chiropractic care in their training and recovery processes at home. Fast forward to Paris 2024, where chiropractic care was available in the polyclinic for all athletes, and the attitude has now evolved to recognize that “every athlete deserves access to sports chiropractic."
FSCO Announces Name Change, Extends Reach Internationally
The Board of Directors of the Federation of Straight Chiropractors and Organizations (FSCO) recently voted to extend their efforts to support straight chiropractors around the world. This is significant because FSCO is currently the only national organization to promote the location, analysis, and correction of vertebral subluxation as a sole rationale for chiropractic care and as a singular practice objective. The decision will make them the only international or national organization of its kind.
Concurrently, the board and by an overwhelming majority, the membership, voted to change the name of the organization to the International Federation of Chiropractors and Organizations (IFCO) to better represent their commitment to chiropractic and chiropractors around the world.
"Our mission and our core values are exactly the same," said FSCO President Shane Walker, DC. "We are still committed to the mission of correcting vertebral subluxations and continue to maintain that the objective of the chiropractic profession is to detect and correct vertebral subluxations because they interfere with the expression of the innate intelligence of the body."
He added, "The decision to expand our efforts was made after several chiropractic organizations overseas approached us to represent them. We sense the growing need abroad and are committed to ensuring that chiropractors around the world who want to practice in this model have representation.
When asked why the organization had decided to remove the term straight from the name after all these years, Chairman of the Board Bill Decken, DC, said, "The Board and I agree that in countries where chiropractic does not yet exist, or has a limited foothold, it is prudent to position and define chiropractic as we know it to be without the use of the adjective straight in our name, especially since many in our profession are beginning to attempt to add adjectives of their own such as Chiropractic Medicine.
"As the chiropractic profession moves more and more into medicine with broader scopes of practice and the addition of drugs and even minor surgery, it has become increasingly important to not only protect chiropractic here in the states but to ensure that there is a presence abroad to make vertebral subluxation correction available to people of all ages around the world."
FSCO has recently been actively involved in a variety of situations both in the states and abroad that have threatened to further the medicalization of the chiropractic profession. Chairman Decken noted:
"We have taken stands in the attacks on chiropractic practice and terminology that are taking place in New Mexico, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Illinois, and South Carolina, as well as in England, Europe and Australia. In every case, the voice of the FCSO was an important and vital contribution to the positive outcome of these situations. We look forward to continuing to be the voice of straight chiropractic in the United States and now around the world for a long time to come."
Source: International Federation of Chiropractors and Organizations