Back From Beijing An interview with kayaker Richard Dober, DC Richard Dober, DC, and his paddling partner Andrew Willows in Beijing. “T hey’re both about determination and the will to be better than yourself,” says 27-year- old chiropractor and Olympic kayak athlete, Richard Dober Jr., when asked how high-end sports competition relates to being a DC. Dober, recently returned from the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and a graduate of the chiro- practic program at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR), will now begin to work at organizing his career. He is a member of a chiropractic family – his sister will also soon be graduating from the UQTR chiropractic program and his father, Dr. Richard Dober Sr., has been in practice for several years. Having grown up in this environment, he has developed a passion for working in healthcare and feels it is the best way he can give back to a society from which, he acknowledges, he has received so much. “It is my responsibility to give back,” he tells Canadian Chiropractor, “and I think being a chiropractor is the best way for me to do that.” But the Dober family was also a competitive paddling family and, through this, Dober developed his own history as an accomplished kayak athlete. THE CANOE CULTURE OF TROIS-RIVIÈRES Richard Dober Jr. grew up at a time when marathon canoeing was gaining popularity in Can- ada. The sport had gathered a following in the United States and was adopted with some enthusiasm by the Québec region which became the city of Trois-Rivières. Dober’s parents be- came avid paddlers who competed in C-2 canoe races with a degree of success. At two years old, Dober could be found in the canoe seat while his parents paddled, and began paddling, himself, at the age of six years old. 26 • CANADIAN CHIROPRACTOR | OCTOBER 2008 www.canadianchiropractor.ca feature
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