CU Sports Medicine and Performance Center hopes for healthier, happier community

It used to be that top-tier sports medicine and facilities were available only to elite athletes. But thanks in part to a partnership with Boulder Community Health and the CU School of Medicine, the CU Sports Medicine and Performance Center at CU Boulder is available to athletes of all levels — whether they consider themselves athletes or not.

Opened in August 2015, the center caters to an ever-increasing population of people embracing an active lifestyle — everyone from world-class athletes looking to improve their performance before the Olympics, to recreational athletes who simply want to complete their first race. Even those simply looking to improve their health look to the center for health and wellness programs, educational programming and fitness classes, which include everything from cooking seminars to weekly cycling and Pilates classes.

The swim flume adds another dimension and instant feedback to swim training.

Photo Credit: CU Sports Medicine and Performance Center

While developing the center, the team did their due diligence. Iñigo San Millán, M.D., sports performance director, visited several world-class facilities — including some in London, San Francisco and Minneapolis — to learn from the best; much of that has been incorporated into the center. What makes the center special is its ability to offer a complete spectrum of sports performance, medicine, physical therapy, advanced imaging, and health and wellness programs on-site.

“It’s part of being a very comprehensive center,” San Millán said. “As you know, most other places you have to go one place for your MRI, and then run across town to drop off the results, and then go someplace else to receive treatment. Here, many of those things can be accomplished with just one or two visits — and all under the same roof.”

Every member of the team — from athletic trainers and physical therapists to surgeons and imaging specialists — works together to ensure optimal treatment and results.

While the center works closely with doctors and specialists from throughout the CU system, including those with CU Denver and CU Anschutz Medical Campus, San Millán has provided ideas and support to the development of the UCCS Sports Medicine and Performance Center, which is expected to open in spring 2017. This new facility will bolster CU’s expertise in sports medicine and allow the university to further support Coloradans throughout the state.

A client receives a cycling biomechanic consultation

CU Sports Medicine and Performance Center

Making that level of integrated care available to everyone is central to the center’s mission, but its community involvement does not end at accessibility.

“We’re really trying to tie into the community so that we’re looked at not only as an entity of CU, but as an example of CU’s outreach to the entire Front Range community, the nation and the world,” San Millán said.

As part of that outreach, the center involves itself in high school athletics. Eric Medved, center executive director, agrees with San Millán that being a resource for the community is integral to the center.

“The Boulder Center for Sports Medicine was always very involved in schools, so when we began working together, we kept that commitment,” Medved said.  “We have somebody on-site at most Boulder Valley School District high schools, so if somebody gets injured on the field, we can begin treating them there immediately.”

The center offers the highest level of physical therapy available

CU Sports Medicine and Performance Center

In addition to direct outreach in Boulder Valley schools and the weekly cycling and Pilates classes hosted on the CU Boulder campus, the center works with local bike shops, running stores and more to deliver seminars and lectures on topics of interest to patients and the community. 

San Millán and the entire staff are dedicated to establishing the center as a resource for the community; supporting the health, wellbeing and goals of everyone they work with, with world-class services.