For Immediate Release

July 7th, 2009
Port Moody BC

Dr. Gary Barone has practised in Port Moody's NewPort Village for 9 years.  He will also be the only Canadian among 35 volunteer chiropractors treating athletes at the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, from July 16 to 26.

Dr. Tim Ray, Chair of the FICS (Federation Internationale Chiropratique du Sport) calls these World Games “an historic trip.  In so many ways they will be making the steps through previously closed doors for sports chiropractic, by stepping into a country, a culture, a system of health care largely unfamiliar with chiropractic.”

The World Games is the largest and most important international games after the Olympics, and is organized under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee.  

The World Games occurs one year after the Summer Olympics, and features over 30 sports awaiting inclusion in the Olympics.  This year, 3236 athletes from 90 countries will be participating in sports including softball, sumo wrestling, archery and rugby sevens. 

Judging from the 2005 World Games in Duisberg, Germany, the chiropractic team will likely treat up to 200 athletes per day in a multi-disciplinary setting.   For Dr. Barone, this will be the largest world-class event for which he has served in a professional capacity.   The largest to date was the 2008 Subaru Ironman Canada, in Penticton, which had 2200 athletes.

“The greatest thing about sport is that it inspires us to be the best that we can be” says Dr. Barone.  “When you think about it, that is really what health and wellness is all about.”