Going for Gold

Perry Williams, D.C., CCSP, DABSP Shares His Experience as Part of the U.S. Olympic Team

Perry Williams, D.C., CCSP, DABSP (Main, ’96) was part of the U.S. Olympic sports medicine team for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the 2018 Paralympic Games in Peyong-Chang, South Korea; and was named the Sports Chiropractor of the Year in 2017 by the American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians.

“It’s a cool moment when they call you to be a part of the Olympic games,” said Williams. “Someone who puts together teams of the highest caliber thinks that you’re at this level, and that your ability can help them win.”

Even after these amazing experiences, Williams says that the proudest moments in his career are when he can help everyday people get back to physical health and what they’re passionate about. Williams has been in private practice for 24 years, and now handles a lot of specialty cases.

“These are patients who have tried everything else and no one could help them. Oftentimes surgeons will refer patients to me when surgeries had failed,” said Williams. “It’s the woman who couldn’t drive and couldn’t bowl when she was on the bowling team because she lost mobility in her arm and it was misdiagnosed as a stroke. Or the woman who had impaired vision due to a nerve in her eye and I was able to help her through chiropractic. Those are my proudest moments.”

He also sees exciting change for the future of the profession as chiropractic becomes better understood within the larger health-care community.

“When I started there was very little integration with other health-care fields. Now I have orthopedic surgeons who refer patients, and I have many patients from the medical field including surgeons and orthopedists.”