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."
Central America and the Caribbean
A delegation from Life has recently returned from the Central American and Caribbean Medical and Sport Applied Sciences Congress in Maracaibo, Venezuela, which was attended by 250 participants from 32 countries. The Life delegates, Dr. Rodney Handly Jr., Miguel Hastings, liaison to LAW, and Gerardo Cuzza, MD, of the Costa Rican Olympic team, presented a proposal to make chiropractic an official part of the XVIII South American and Caribbean Sport Games.
"We went there to introduce and confirm which teams want chiropractic care for their althletes at the Central American and Caribbean games," explained Dr. Handly.
"The Cubans in particular were very interested in chiropractic," noted Mr. Hastings. "They said chiropractic could revolutionaize the way they look at sports injuries, and could become a central part of overall health care in Cuba."
Life's president and founder, Sid Williams, DC, believes this is a "great opportunity to provide 'mobile units' to reach all the people of Cuba." Mobile units transport DCs, nurse practitioners, and other health care professionals into remote areas. Dr. Williams is ready to order the first of a projected 20 such self-contained traveling units. Inside the vehicles will be living quarters, x-ray equipment, examining rooms, and other equipment needed to provide quality chiropractic care.
From Asia to Africa, and from Central and South America to the Caribbean, LAW has a vision that encompasses more than chiropractic care and education: Dr. Medhat Alattar, director of Life's international department, explains: "Life international will be a new nonprofit organization which will focus on the entire spectrum of problems facing people. Those problems, Dr. Alattar specifies, include "clean water, food, shelter, and health care."