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."
A Moment of Silence for Dr. Leon Chaitow (1937 – 2018)
After months of declining health, Dr. Leon Chaitow – clinician, prolific author and teacher – passed away on Sept. 20, 2018 at the age of 80.
A 1960 graduate of the British College of Osteopathic Medicine, Dr. Chaitow authored or edited more than 70 books including Palpation and Assessment in Manual Therapy; Positional Release Techniques; Soft-Tissue Manipulation; and Fascia: The Tensional Network of the Human Body. He also lectured for decades at chiropractic, massage, osteopathy, physiotherapy and naturopathic schools in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Australia, and served as a senior lecturer at the University of Westminster in London.
Dr. Chaitow was the first naturopath / osteopath appointed as a consultant by the U.K. government to a medical practice. In 2005, he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the university for "services to Complementary and Osteopathic medicine." He continued to teach and practice part-time in London until late last year.
Even in failing health, Dr. Chaitow was able to complete Fascial Dysfunction 2e, his final book, currently pending release by Handspring Publishers. He also made arrangements for editorial succession of the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies (JBMT), of which he was the founding editor-in-chief. Jerrilyn Cambron, DC, PhD, has been named acting editor-in-chief and will be supported by a team of associate editors.
Dr. Chaitow's website remains active and will be managed by his daughter, Dr. Sasha Chaitow. In a post to site visitors in the days following her father's passing, she stated (excerpted):
For those of you who knew him well, please know that, in the words of Dylan Thomas, Leon raged like few against the dying of the light and did not go gentle into that good night. His legacy lives on in his many books and articles, in the students he taught, in the patients he treated, and in the family to whom he was a most beloved husband and father whose loss will never fade. The greatest way to honour him is to continue to carry that torch."
To learn more, please visit www.leonchaitow.com.