I am a chiropractor working in Cardiff, Wales in my own clinics (www.c3chiropractic.co.uk). I previously trained as a sports physiotherapist in Germany. Like so many of us, I followed the chiropractic path after being a satisfied chiropractic patient myself. I was so impressed with the chiropractic care in Munich I received that I began working with the chiropractor. After a year I decided to study at Anglo-European College of Chiropractic in Bournemouth, UK, where I qualified as a chiropractor in 1996.
I have recently returned from the ECU Conference in Amsterdam defining moment in my career. At the Conference I met many old friends including Dr Hussein Elsangak, originally from Egypt but now from the USA, who introduced me to Dr John Downes of Life University, a member of the FICS Executive Council. He invited me as an observer to the FICS Executive Council meeting.
It was my pleasure to meet the different representatives from all continents around the world, who showed a great passion and vision for the future of sports chiropractic. I want to express my thanks to them as they allowed me to participate in their discussions.
I have been selected for the medical team as a chiropractor at the London Olympics. The chiropractors are all volunteers and had to undergo a selection interview, orientation training, role specific training and venue training. All the volunteers at the Olympics come from different disciplines. Success in sports chiropractic depends on a multidisciplinary team effort. It demands that one has good interdisciplinary communication skills and that one is aware of the limits of one’s own expertise.
What I have learned so far in my Olympic journey is that one has to have a goal in common with the others, acting together as a unit, yet keep one’s identity. This principle can be applied within the whole chiropractic community to eradicate the splinter groups (straights, mixers, philosophy driven, or evidence based) and create a united profession, “The company before the destination,” to use an old Egyptian saying from my friend Dr Elsangak.
Rainer Wieser MSc,BSc (Chiro), ICSSD, Dip, Physiotherapy