By JIM HARDIN
CNHI
FATE — A Heath chiropractor played a role in the U.S. four-man bobsled team’s historic Olympic gold medal victory.
Dr. Tetsuya Hasegawa — also known as “Dr. T” — wasn’t a member of the American team that won the event for the first time since 1948.
He was a member of the medical team that helped the men stay healthy.
“My job was to make sure they stayed in shape and stayed as healthy as possible,” Hasegawa said Tuesday from Gonino Center for Healing, where he is a chiropractor.
He returned home from the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games Monday night and was back seeing patients in his office Tuesday morning. The office staff celebrated Hasegawa’s return to work with a banner and cake. They also wore red, white and blue beads throughout the day.
“I was very happy,” Hasegawa said of the American team’s victory, “but I don’t think it’s really hit yet.”
What has hit, he said, is knowing the level of hard work, commitment and sacrifices required over several years to eventually win the gold medal.
Hasegawa said the gold medal represents more than one race or one event.
“You’ve got to make sacrifices to get a gold medal,” he added. “You have to work to get there.”
Hasegawa also had to work to get to Vancouver.
His journey to the Olympics actually started in 2007 while he was in his final semester of chiropractic internship in California. A teacher asked if he would be interested in working with bobsled teams that were competing for the right to participate in the world championship. He agreed to help.
Apparently he got good reviews for his work, Hasegawa said, because he was invited back for other bobsled medical team opportunities.
“I guess the biggest challenge was making sure they had everything that was needed,” Hasegawa said.
That didn’t mean they just had to have only their sled ready. He said they also had to be ready physically and psychologically.
“Everything had to be set for them to go out and get the most out of their performance,” he said.
Has he ridden on a bobsled?
“Once,” he said. “I’m a chiropractor, not a bobsledder.”
Hasegawa was born in Fujinomiya, Japan.
He graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor’s degree in health and sports sciences. He later earned a master’s degree in health promotion from the University of Mississippi. He earned a doctor of chiropractic degree in 2007 from Southern California University of Health Sciences.
Hasegawa is a certified athletic trainer and serves as volunteer chiropractor for Rockwall-Heath High School athletic teams.
