Sports Physician - Athlete 1972
1972
At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, for the first time the modern pentathlon was on the program for women, British Stephanie Cook (1972-) won the event after making up 49 seconds behind Emily deRiel (1974-) in the final 3,000m cross country. At 250 meters from the finish she also ran past her American competitor and training buddy. She started her sports career with rowing competitions, but because of a broken wrist she switched to the modern pentathlon while studying Medicine at Lincoln College Oxford. In 1998 she won the silver medal at the World Cup and the bronze medal in the team competition. The following year, she again took home the silver medal, but the British team was the best in the team standings. A year after the Olympic title, she was also crowned European champion and world champion after which she ended her sporting career. She settled as a general practitioner but was also asked to be a motivational speaker at British Airways, Natwest Bank and Walkers.
1972
American Darcie Dohnal (1972-) started speed skating at the age of 10. At the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, she won the silver medal with the relay team on the 3,000m short track. During the University Winter Games of the following year, she won the bronze medal. Her sports career was short-lived as she wanted to fully focus on her Medicine studies, which she started at L'Université Memorial de Terre-Neuve after completing her Biology degree. After graduating, she first settled as a family physician in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and then moved to Plainwell, Michigan.
1972
Gwyn Jones (1972-) played rugby for Cardiff Medicals RFC and was selected 13 times for the Welch national team, including five times as captain. In 1997 he was hit on the spine during the game against Swansea, paralyzed from the chest down. After surgery and a very intensive rehabilitation, where he learned to stand and walk again, he recovered. He graduated from Cardiff Medical School and settled as a general practitioner in Cardiff.
1972
American baseball player Jeff Laubenthal (1972-) played 133 games as an outfielder and designated hitter for the Alabama Crimson Tide. He finished his sporting career with nine home runs, fourteen doubles, 56 RBI and 88 total hits. After graduating in Medicine from the University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical School in 1997, he settled as a general practitioner and sports physician at Tuscaloosa's West Alabama Family Practice Center. In 2001, he joined the Department of Sports Medicine at the University of Alabama Athletic, where he developed specific programs for the Alabama baseball team and became a team doctor for the University baseball team.
1972
Paula List (1972-) won with the Dutch sitting volleyball team the silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She also earned a selection for the 2012 London Olympics. In 2001 she lost her left leg in a motorcycle accident. After graduating she specialized in Geriatrics in Amsterdam.
1972
Steven Reyskens (1972-) became Belgian taekwondo champion poomse synchronous in 1995. He also played water polo and defended the goal of the Hasselt ZS, the Leuven Swimming Club and the University team of KU Leuven. In 1998 he graduated from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and specialized in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, after which he started a practice in Hasselt. In 2000 he was one of the physicians who accompanied the Belgian Paralympians in Sydney.
1972
American Greg Strock (1972-) was a junior teammate of Lance Armstrong (1971-). In 2000 he accused his former Danish trainer René Wenzel (1960-) who had administered doping to him ten years earlier. The systematic administration of cortisone, among others, had completely destroyed Strock's immune system. The former rider, then a medical student at the University of Indiana Medical School, stated in an interview that he had no reason to believe that his teammates at the time were not undergoing the same treatment. He also saw a direct relationship with Armstrong's disease:
"Medical studies have shown a correlation with testicular cancer."
He graduated as a medical doctor and specialized in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
1972
In a fall while skating, Dutch Evelyn van Leeuwen (1972-) suffered a spinal cord injury at the age of 18. She switched to wheelchair basketball and was selected three times for the Dutch Olympic team. In 1996 she won the silver medal at the Atlanta Olympics, four years later in Sydney she finished with the team fourth, in 2004 at the Athens Olympics seventh. Due to the birth of four daughters, she had to miss the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, but in 2016 she won the bronze medal at the Rio Olympics. After graduating, she settled as a general practitioner in Leiden. Later, when her fourth daughter was born, she switched to pediatrics.
1972
In 2003 Rudie Van Vuuren (1972-) represented Namibia at both the Cricket World Cup and the Rugby World Cup. In 1996 he graduated from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, after which he settled as a general practitioner in Windhoek Namibia. He became the personal physician of the President of Namibia Hage Geingob (1941-). In 2005 he and his wife Marlice bought the farm Ovuuyo farm, 42 km outside Windhoek, where they established their own animal sanctuary for the protection of neglected and sick animals.
