Dr. Terry Schroeder in
“coaching mode.” |
USA Men’s National Water Polo Team Head Coach
and four-time Olympian Terry Schroeder, D.C.,
West ’86, has been selected as a finalist for the U.S.
Olympic Hall of Fame.
“It is a huge honor to be nominated as a finalist,”
says Dr. Schroeder, who in his Olympic coaching
debut guided the U.S. men’s water polo team to the
gold-medal game in the 2008 Summer Olympics in
Beijing, China. “Wow! To be included with this outstanding
group of fellow Olympians is amazing.”
The public had an opportunity to vote for their preferred
candidates and teams by visiting a dedicated
voting portal at TeamUSA.org. (Editor’s note: At press
time, public voting had closed, but the winners had not
yet been announced.)
Following the close of public voting, those votes
are being added to the vote totals of Olympians,
Paralympians and U.S. Olympic family members
to determine the six Olympians, one Paralympian and
one team that will make up the 2012 class. The U.S.
Olympic Hall of Fame Class of 2012 will be announced
in May and inducted on July 12 during a special
ceremony at the Harris Theater in Chicago, Ill.
Dr. Schroeder—a member of four U.S. Olympic
water polo teams, including two that won silver
medals—was hailed as “The Consummate Olympian”
in a Sports Illustrated feature story published prior
to the ’92 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. The
article was equally noteworthy for including a photo
of Dr. Schroeder with other D.C.s in the extended
Schroeder family (which includes more than 70
chiropractors) standing adjacent to the foam Palmer
Spine on the campus of Pepperdine University, where
Dr. Schroeder played and coached.
A three-time captain of the
men’s Olympic water polo
team, Dr. Schroeder carried
the U.S. flag at the closing
ceremonies of the ’88 Summer
Olympics in Seoul, Korea.
He also was the model for
the male torso statue that was
sculpted for the ’84 Summer
Olympics in Los Angeles, and
which still stands outside the
Los Angeles Coliseum.
Twenty years passed between the U.S. men’s silvermedal
performance in the 1988 Summer Olympics
in Seoul, Korea (of which Dr. Schroeder was team
captain) and their amazing silver-medal finish in
the 2008 Summer Olympics in China (of which Dr.
Schroeder was the coach). He’s confident about the
team’s chances of a return to the medal podium at the
2012 Games in London; the water polo tournament
takes place from July 29 to Aug. 12.
“We are in the hunt for a gold medal and are one of
eight teams that have a real chance of winning,” says
Dr. Schroeder, who practices at Schroeder Center for
Healthy Living in Thousand Oaks, Calif., and also is
a spokesperson for the Foundation for Chiropractic
Progress. “All of these teams are separated by a goal,
and it will come down to who is the most prepared
and who is peaking at the right time.”
“I like our chances. With Merrill Moses (who is tentatively
scheduled to enter the West Campus program
in Fall 2012) in the cage for us, we should be strong
defensively. A hot goaltender can take you all the way
to the top. It should be a fun and exciting time, and I
am looking forward to the Games.”