March 2005

US Olympic Committee elects chiropractor to council

Jennifer Eames, DC, has been elected to the US Olympic Committee's Athlete Advisory Council (AAC) as one of the representatives for the sport of team handball. She is believed to be the first chiropractor elected to the council, the "voice" of Olympic and elite athletes in America.

The AAC has representatives from each USOC‑recognized sport, and elected members must be former Pan‑American Games, Olympic Games, or Paralympic Games athletes from the United States. Dr. Eames took a quarter off during chiropractic school to compete for the US in the 1999 Pan‑American Games as the starting goalkeeper in the sport of team handball.

"As much as it was a difficult decision at the time to suspend my chiropractic education, the experience I had representing the United States at the Pan‑American Games is irreplaceable," Eames says. "I now look forward to representing those athletes during a time of great change for the USOC."

The USOC Athlete Advisory Council largely tackles issues of athletes' rights, such as drug testing procedures, representation within the USOC as a whole, and access to health care on and off the playing field. The AAC is the avenue for American elite athletes to have a voice in their national governing body's policies and practices.

Earlier in 2004, Eames was elected to the executive committee of the board of directors of US Lacrosse, the national governing body for that sport. She is now the head of the nominating committee to the board of directors for the non‑profit organization, which has an annual budget of nine million dollars. In 2003, Eames had been honored as US Lacrosse's "Director of the Year." She is also a member of the strategic planning committee for the International Federation of Women's Lacrosse Associations, the international governing body for that sport. Additionally, she is a nationally rated women's lacrosse umpire, working games up to the NCAA Division I level.

"With all that sports has given me ‑‑ starting with playing Little League baseball as the only girl on my team ‑‑ I truly believe in giving back as much as I can," explains Eames. "I am thrilled I have found roles that both challenge me as an individual and allow me to give back to the next generation of athletes in the US."

Prior to chiropractic college, Eames attended the University of North Carolina (UNC) on its prestigious Morehead Scholarship, the highest academic grant given by that university. While at UNC, she was a member of four NCAA champion soccer teams, and played alongside soccer greats such as Kristine Lilly and Mia Hamm.

Eames is in private practice in Marion, Massachusetts. She was a cum laude graduate of Sherman College in Spartanburg, SC in 2002, and received awards for both exceptional service and as the top clinician in her class. She is also a coauthor with Tim Guest, DC of published original research on the effect of chiropractic care on athletic performance.

"As someone who deeply believes in service to others, practicing in my hometown has been wonderful. There is nothing more rewarding than contributing to the best health of a former teacher who shaped my life, or the child of someone I was friends with in elementary school," says Eames. "While I have been given the opportunity to serve elite athletes throughout the country in my volunteer roles, it is equally rewarding to take care of people I care about through chiropractic."