Tom Dolan, the Michigan swimmer who overcame exercise-induced asthma to capture a gold medal at this past summer's Olympiad, will speak tonight at a "Family Asthma Night" program at the Michigan Medical Center at 7:30 p.m.
The program titled "Exercise, Asthma, and Athletics" is sponsored by the American Lung Association, the Michigan Pediatric Pulmonary Section, and Rhone-Poulene Rorer Pharmaceuticals Inc. Other speakers at the program will include assistant Olympic and Michigan men's swimming coach Jon Urbanchek and Michigan pediatric asthma fellow Wan Chong Tsai. Dolan's personal physician Martin Hurwitz, who is a clinical assistant professor of pediatrics, and asthma specialist, will be on hand to moderate the program and answer questions.
"There are approximately 15-20 million individuals with asthma when you include those with exercise-induced asthma," Hurwitz said. "The permanence of Michigan athletes in the Olympics, particularly the ones who are asthmatic, really demonstrated that people who have what can be considered disabilities can actually perform at extremely high levels and function very well."
In citing Michigan athletes with asthma who participated in the Olympics, Hurwitz was referring to Dolan and silver medal-winner Tom Malchow.
"We're just going to go and talk about athletics, especially about what we do for asthmatic people in a program like swimming," Urbanchek said.
The appearance of Dolan and Urbanchek should be valuable in a program of this nature.
"Tom and coach Urbanchek are high-profile individuals. Their experiences with asthma, the coach talking about his dealings with asthmatic athletes and Tom from his personal experience I think will be inspirational to the kids that will be there and to the athletes and coaches that will be coming," Hurwitz said.
The program will take place at the Kellogg Eye Center auditorium, 1000 Wall St. The discussion is free of charge and open to the public.