World-class Diver Plunges into Acupuncture

  From Correspondent John Zarrella

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A year ago, the Olympics were the furthest thing from Kent Ferguson's mind. He was too consumed with near-constant pain to think of much else.

You would never know that, though, from watching him dive today. Ferguson, a six-time national diving champion, is again doing what he didn't think possible a year ago. And he makes it look easy.

"I feel like a kid again, so at the age of 33, I'm out there diving with these 20-year-olds," he said.

Ferguson credits his rejuvenation to his acupuncturist, Dr. Patsy Dreyer. Ferguson isn't the kind of person who dives head-first into anything but water. But by 1995, he was desperate. "I couldn't live day to day and be pain-free, let alone dive," he said.

Ferguson placed fifth in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. He placed second in the 1986 and 1990 Goodwill Games, and was confident that the Atlanta Olympics would bring a medal. Yet after three years of increasingly regular back pain -- "the worst pain that I've ever had in my life," he said -- doctors examined him and found a herniated disk.

They recommended radical treatment, and told him to lay off practice or forget about Atlanta. Ferguson, unwilling to accept those measures, went to see Dreyer instead.

"I use acupuncture to help to reduce pain, to help to reduce the inflammation, and in addition to that it reduces muscle spasms. When I can get those combinations to happen at the same time, then that allows me to do my chiropractic adjustments more easily," Dreyer said.

After a year of twice-a-week sessions with tiny needles, Ferguson says he feels great, and that his workouts are pain-free. He even credits Dreyer with improving his technique by videotaping and photographing his posture, then using adjustments and acupuncture to straighten him out.

Dreyer said in a recent videotape she saw that his knee was off-center, his pelvis was off, and his leg was pointing out. "There's no way he can get off the end of the board straight," she said.

While Ferguson must still make the team, the world-class athlete believes that his acupuncturist and her unique approach will be his springboard to an Olympic medal.