Treating DCs Make Presence Felt at Commonwealth Games in Victoria

By Editorial Staff

Dr. Robert Willson of Barrie, Ontario, was Chef de Mission for the FISC delegation. Dr. Willson treated athletes from Sierra Leone.

The 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada can be looked back on as the most successful ever for treating chiropractors.

There were 13 DCs from the Federation Internationale de Chiropratique Sportive (FICS) who had official authority to treat athletes during the event. By comparison, there was only one such DC at the 1986 Commonwealth Games, and four at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland. Further, this was the first time DCs were involved with the official host medical team. Six Canadian DCs (all from Victoria) were on the Canadian medical team: Drs. Mike Buna; Mike Murray; Jack Chin; Jeff Tancock; Jim Elder; and chief chiropractor Wayne Walker.

(l-r): Some of the international contingent of DCs who had official status to treat at the Commonwealth Games: Athol McLean; Robert Willson; Howard O'Meara; Larry Bell; Noel Patterson; Clive Hill; Mike Murray.

Among the treating DCs not pictured were: Don Oyao; John Welsh; Baiju Khanchandani; Wilbur Kelsick; Victoria Vodon; and Frank Savaterre.

Chiropractic was given official recognition in the medical literature handed out to the athletes and all of the DCs were kept busy treating athletes. The FICS hopes to send a large contingent of treating DCs to Zimbabwe for the All-African Games in Sept. 1995, a good training ground for the DCs looking to treat the Olympic athletes in Atlanta in 1996. FICS expects to have as many as 40 DCs officially accredited with teams for the Atlanta games, and predicts to double the number of treating DCs at the next Commonwealth Games (Malaysia, 1998).