Dr. Sadri Joins Elite Sports Chiropractors for the XVI Pan American Games

In October of 2011, Decatur & Johns Creek chiropractor, Dr. Hamid Sadri accompanied over 6000 athletes to Mexico to participate in the XVI Pan Am Games.

The Pan American Games, commonly referred to as the “Pan Am Games”, are multinational, multisport events that are held every four years in various countries in the American continents. They are regulated by the National Olympic Committees (NOC) in each respective country such as the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) here in the USA. These games are the second largest international sporting event in the world with summer Olympics being the largest. They are Olympic qualifier competitions and are attended by national champions, past Olympians as well as future Olympic hopefuls. The Pan Am games have been held in the Americas since 1951 with the most recent being hosted in Guadalajara, Mexico from October 14-30, 2011.

At the 2011 Pan Am Games (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Pan_American_Games), there were more than 6000 thousand athletes from 42 nations who competed in 36 sports ranging from soccer, swimming, wrestling, triathlons, tennis and various forms of martial arts to archery, volleyball, weight lifting, modern pentathlon, boxing, basketball, baseball, gymnastics and many more. United States, as it historically and consistently has done in the past, had the largest medal count at these games (92 Gold, 79 Silver and 66 Bronze). This was the third time Mexico hosted these games and the next series are scheduled to be held in Toronto, Canada.

Sports Chiropractic & the 2011 Pan Am Games

The team of chiropractors selected marked a historic landmark for the profession. This was the first time in the history of the Pan Am games that chiropractic services were fully included in the sports medicine team and offered and made available to all athletes both in the polyclinic as well as individual competition venues. From all the doctors who had applied from around the world (16 countries), there were a total of 44 sports chiropractors who were selected to participate as medical staff members for the 2011 Pan Am games. More than 1900 athletes from 40 different countries received Chiropractic treatments during these games. Reportedly, the chiropractic department saw and treated more athletes than any other department in the polyclinic.
The selection process of the interested doctors of chiropractic who had submitted their applications, as explained by Dr. Tim Ray (Chair of the International Federation of Sports Chiropractic Games Commission), required 3 main categories that had to be met by the applicant Chiropractors and it was as follows:

1. The degree, and extent and continuation of post-graduate sports chiropractic education of the applicant.
2. The history of current and ongoing on-field experience as a sports chiropractor at local, national and international levels.
3. One’s membership and past participation with local, national and international sports chiropractic organizations as a member and volunteer in giving back to his or her DC profession and specialty through activity and involvement.

Dr. Ray further explains the details of the selection process of the individual chiropractors and says that,

“…we want to provide the highest level of care to the athletes. To ensure this, we select an “A” team of highly-trained sports chiropractors for the job.”

“…Information from these applications was blinded as to race, nationality, gender, origin of education and professional association. Several games commission members were asked to score all the applicants on a 0-100 possible score without knowledge of the results of the other individual scores. A separate commission member then averaged the scores for each applicant. A ranking list then was developed and it was from this list that the initial team of DC’s was selected.”
Based upon the feedback received from the athletes, coaches and the Commission on Pan American Games, Dr. Ray says that this team of sports chiropractors “took home the gold in these games.”