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James Parker says it was an injury during a long and fruitful athletic career, which included a trip to the Olympics, that has brought him back to the Wasatch Front and a chiropractic practice.

Parker has joined a clinic in Syracuse in Davis County, where the former hammer thrower grew up.

Parker graduated in 1994 from Layton's Northridge High School, where he was a track and football athlete, earning all-state honors and recognition as a Gatorade All-American in 1994. He won the state championship in the shot put his junior and senior year, and the discus as a senior.

In high school, he also learned the hammer throw, an event he added while on a track scholarship at Utah State University, where he was a nine-time All American.

"I did shot, discus and hammer, but my forte was the hammer," Parker said.

He graduated from USU in 2001 with a bachelor's in exercise science. He joined the Air Force, which has a program to train athletes.

Parker made the 2004 U.S. Olympic team and competed in Greece in the hammer throw. During his six-year Air Force stint, he also was the three-time U.S. champion in the hammer.

It was an experience as an athlete that led him to his post-competition profession.

"When I was in college I had a back injury that other treatments failed [to alleviate], and [chiropractic treatment] was the only thing that helped me come around," he said. "So ever since that time it's always been fascinating to me."

Parker attended the University of Western States in Portland, Ore., and earned a doctorate in chiropractic practice, a four-year, board-certified degree.

At its basic level, chiropractic is "about alignment and making sure the spine is moving freely through the ranges of motion it is designed to move through," Parker said. "If there is a misalignment, correcting that can actually influence the effect of the nervous system on the body."

After graduating in September, Parker returned to Utah to learn from Craig Buhler, who was the longtime chiropractor for the Utah Jazz. Parker joined the Rawlin Chiropractic clinic of Eric Rawlin, who had learned from Buhler.

"Dr. Buhler's a mentor of mine," said Parker. "Right now he's training me for the next year."

Parker said his practice is for anyone with injury-related physical complaints.

"Athletes respond very well, but this work can help anyone," he said.