Testing for banned substances

Brian Ahrens is director of the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory, the largest World Anti-Doping Agency–accredited sports drug–testing facility in the world. He oversees more than 30 scientists who analyze some 35,000 specimens per year for traces of banned substances intended to give athletes an unfair competitive edge. Founded in 1982 to test athletes competing in the 1984 Olympic Games, the UCLA facility was the first U.S. laboratory accredited by the International Olympic Committee.

 

Coping with sports injuries 

A specialist in adolescent and adult sports medicine, Dr. Joshua Goldman  holds medical credentials in sports medicine, family medicine and orthopaedics. He can address numerous topics, including training, performance and athletic injuries. Goldman has served as team physician for the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, and is a team physician for the UCLA men's soccer and women’s softball teams. 

 

Focusing on female athletes

Female athletes are more susceptible to certain types of injuries and conditions than their male counterparts. Dr. Aurelia Nattiv, an expert in women’s sports medicine and director of the UCLA Osteoporosis Center, studies conditions affecting the female athlete, including eating disorders and osteoporosis-related stress fractures.  She has extensive experience treating elite athletes as a team physician for the UCLA Department of Intercollegiate Athletics for more than 20 years, and serving as a consultant to the U.S. Olympic Committee.

 

High-speed sports and injuries

Skiers, snowboarders and skaters – and let’s not forget hockey players -- can sustain serious musculoskeletal injuries when they fall at ultra-fast speeds. Dr. Kristofer Jones is a UCLA orthopaedic surgeon who specializes in treating sports-related injuries of the knee, hip and shoulder, and, as a former intercollegiate athlete, understands the demands and concerns faced by Olympic-level athletes in all sports. Currently, he is a team physician for UCLA Athletics and an assistant team physician for the Los Angeles Lakers.

 

Protecting the brain from injury

Brain injuries can occur in almost any sport. Dr. Meeryo Choe, associate director of the UCLA Steve Tisch BrainSPORT Program, has combined her personal interest in sports with her professional interest in the developing brain. Her clinical and research interests include post-traumatic headache/migraine, gender differences in outcome after concussion, and disorder of the autonomic nervous system. She is an advisor for the Women’s World Boxing Council and an expert on brain injuries related to equestrian, swimming and diving events.

 

Contacts: Elaine Schmidt, [email protected], (310) 267-8323 or Simi Singer, [email protected], (310) 319-4349

 

 

 

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