Editor’s Note: Jeff Solomon, DC, one of two team chiropractors for the 2006 Winter Olympics, sent Chiropractic Economics an update from Torino, Italy. Solomon was also a featured Success Profile in Chiropractic Economics magazine’s June 2005 issue.

SATURDAY, FEB. 18, 2006

It’s now two weeks into my adventure here in the Italy. It’s been snowing for the past three days. Everything everywhere is all-white except the streets and walkways which are pretty muddy. Some construction here in the athletes’ village has never been finished.

Strangely enough, sometimes it appears that there have been three or more architects who never talked to each other when designing the plans for the creation of the facilities. The venues where the competition takes place are fairly well completed, but unfortunately the spectators who come to watch have been much fewer than expected.

The food is still not what was expected. Everybody back home stated you can’t get any bad food in Italy. Wow, were they wrong! Actually, there have been some minor improvements in the cafeteria, such as more than one variety of breakfast cereal which now includes granola, more vegetable varieties for the salads, and ice cream bars to improve the poor desert options previously available.

I’m planning to get out of the village sometime this week to eat at a real Italian restaurant where hopefully the food would be of the quality that was expected.

Work here in the clinic has been on and off, depending on the training times and competition events. We had a few days when things were rough for the athletes. Luge were rolling over, and downhill skiers took some hard falls. We had two athletes airlifted to the Torino hospital emergency room and after MRIs and some stitches, fortunately, everyone is OK.

A few other athletes with less-than-urgent needs found their way to our clinic, where again with some expert stitch work from our chief medical officer, Dr. Jim Stirling, and support from the rest of the medical staff, everybody seems to be responding well.

The most interesting group of athletes with the most personality and lots of testosterone (both men and women), are the bobsledders. They keep me the busiest. They are the biggest and strongest of winter athletes with characters to match. Interestingly, one of them will retire after these games and would like to be a chiropractor; his name is Billy Schuffenhauer; he won a silver medal in the last games in Salt Lake City. I look forward to see him on the podium again.

As far as competition productivity, team USA is doing less than expected so far. You just never know what’s going to happen at the Olympics. Some people come out of nowhere with great performances, such as Ted Ligity, alpine combined skier, and Shaun White (The Flying Tomato), half pipe snowboarder.

Some athletes with high expectations seem to never show up, such as Bode Miller, alpine skier, and Jeremy Bloom, freestyle skier. One overconfident athlete hot-dogged herself out of an easy gold to a very fortunate silver — snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis. Then there are the unfortunate mishaps that keep us working hard in the clinic to bring athletes back to peak performance, such as Lindsey Kildow, alpine skier, who was airlifted after her frightening fall.

We have high hopes for her; you never know what will happen. With just eight days left we have a lot of work to do to bring our medal count up.

I will personally try to get out and see a couple of events, but as the only chiropractor in the Sestriere Village, it is hard to escape.

Another thing I would love with all the snow around is to get in some ski and snowboard activity, but I am sure that will not be until next winter.

Then, I will get some vacation time with the family to enjoy the snow somewhere in the states — feeling really cool all dressed up in the nice USA Olympic team garments I now have. No doubt they will last this Miami boy a lifetime with great memories.

I hope everyone is enjoying the games, keep healthy,
- Jeff
Go USA!!!

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2006

It’s the final day. My bags are packed, and I’m ready to go. I can’t believe my time at the Olympics is over already. Time has sped by so quickly. There have been so many new people who have become a part of my life over the past three and a half weeks.

The athletes, who are the reason why I am here; the medical staff — my fellow teammates, who are here to support the athletes in achieving their hopes to have the performance of a lifetime; and, administrative staff — nameless and faceless people who put it all together so the Olympic games work for everyone here in Torino and back home in America.

I have watched some individual athletes with the greatest of personal expectations, as well as high expectations from others who have failed to perform to their standard. I have seen other unknowns who had merely the goal of achieving their best performances, and that no one else would believe in, make great claims to fame.

Most important, I have participated in a part of life with many people who have dedicated every ounce of their being for the chance to participate in the most respected of human competitions around the world — The Olympics. The Olympics are also known as a time of truce and peace. I have personally experienced and have had the opportunity to observe people from all over the world get together in competition while maintaining friendship; and regardless of the outcome of any event by any athlete, they were all always smiling because they were so proud to have the opportunity to participate.

Overall, the United States has had its best winter Olympic experience outside of our home turf advantage and second only to that of Salt Lake City in 2002 where we won 34 medals. This time, outside of the United States, we have proudly won a combination of 25 gold, silver, and bronze medals that where achieved by a combination of individual athletes and athletic teams.

Our top performances came on snowboards with Shaun (the Flying Tomato) White, Hanah Teter, Seth Westcott, Lindsay Jacobellis, Daniel Kass, Gretchen Bleiler, and Rosey Fletcher. Our skaters also did very well in long track, short track, and figure skating with top performances from Chad Hedrick, Joey Cheek, Shani Davis, Apolo Anton Ohno, Sasha Cohen, and the pair of Ben Agosto and Tanith Belbin. Team wise we did well with women’s ice hockey, men’s 5000 short track skating, and for a first time ever we medaled in men’s curling.

The traditional Alpine sports (downhill, cross country, moguls, aerials, and ski jumping), and the sliding sports (skeleton, luge, and bobsled) did not perform as well as we would have liked except for a gold in the men’s alpine combined for Ted Ligity and a gold for women’s giant slalom for Julia Mancuso, as well as a silver for our women’s bobsled team of Shauna Rohbock and Valerie Fleming.

Toby Dawson also did well on the bumps (moguls skiing). Fortunately, there were a number of personal best performances that did not receive medals. Some of these athletes will retire and we can hope that in four years some will return again stepping onto the podium for hardware in Vancouver 2010.

During my time here, I had the opportunity of escaping for a little while and watching luge, bobsled, super giant downhill, and aerials (most impressive!). Yesterday, I was able to ski a couple of hours as things have slowed down and most athletes are done with competition. The slopes out here are huge and never-ending (just incredible!).

Last night, I had the good fortune to participate in the closing ceremonies and walking with Team USA into the Olympic Stadium — I know some of you saw me. I have never experienced so much love in one place at one time in my life. The sounds, the colors, the performances, and the fanfare could never be served justly by the television or print media. You had to be there — it was incredible!

Here in Italy, while the village facilities may not have been complete, the food may not have been the best, and the weather was snowy and cold — the warmth and the hospitality that the Italian people have shown has been tremendously inspiring. They are a very proud people.

When I return to the good old U.S.A. tomorrow, I will be bringing home many memories that will last me lifetime. From now on, I will wake up every morning for the rest of my life realizing that in some way I was an Olympian. I will have stories to tell, and photographs and paraphernalia that I have collected that I look forward to sharing with all of you.

I will be bringing back one of the Olympic torches (#101) that was used in the relay to light the torch here in Torino. Everyday that I see the torch mounted on a mantel in my home, I will be inspired to achieve greatness in my life and my family’s life from here on and forever. And, God willing, someday again in the future I will have the opportunity to return for another Olympic experience.

With all my love to all my friends and family,
- Jeff