Michael Phelps’s Rio Cupping Marks: Champion’s Quick Recovery Story

Three years ago, Sarasota-Bradenton won a bid to host a series of modern pentathlon World Cup competitions. And the YMCA in palmer ranch area right across the street from my clinic hosted the fencing part of modern pentathlon. In the morning of Feb 18th, 2015, while I was volunteering at the YMCA, a Chinese coach ran out from the competition stadium in a hurry, and asked for emergency help. It turned out that he was the chief-coach for the national modern pentathlon team from China. He looked very worried, because the best athlete in his team Miss Chen Qian, who the world champion in modern pentathlon at the World Cup in 2009, injured her Calf muscle (Gastrocnemius strain) during the fencing competition. She walked out of the stadium limping. Obviously she was enduring a lot of pain. Her coach obviously was very concerned, because after two hours, they were supposed to arrive at the Nathan Benderson Park to continue the rest of competition. How she would perform in afternoon competition would decide whether or not she can enter the final, and her performance would greatly influence whether she could earn her entrance ticket to Rio Olympics.

It was obviously a very challenging case. She could barely walk at that time, not to mention participate in a World Cup competition. I did an emergency acupuncture treatment on site for her, within several minutes, most of her pain was gone. She finished her afternoon competition and entered into final successfully.

She came to my clinic for a couple more treatment including cupping and acupuncture before she went back to China. And last summer, when I got in touch with her coach in Beijing, I was informed that Miss Chen Qian won the second place at the GermanWorld Cup stop. And this year, she went to Rio Olympics and won the 4th place. Congratulations to this young lady. I am so proud of her.

Acute injury are very common among young athletes/dancers. In my clinic, we treat a lot of such cases. There are several video testimonials at my website from young ballet dancers, you can check them out if you are interested.

Regarding acute injury, we also have another interesting story about a super talented young ballet dancer in Sarasota, to see how acupuncture helped his foot pain, please click here to read his story.