Dr. Dawn Hacker’s interest in wrestling has led her to some faraway lands and golden opportunities.
“I love Team USA and wrestling,” said Hacker, 44, a longtime Guthrie chiropractor.
Doctor Dawn was selected to travel to Belgrade, Serbia, as part of the medical staff for Team USA Wrestling at the U23 World Championships on Oct. 20-27.
Not only does she get to travel to a new place — last year it was Albania for the World Championships — she gets to travel “with the best under-23 athletes in the USA.”
“Many of these guys will be future Olympians; many are already NCAA champions,” she told the News Leader.
Hacker began her link to wrestling in 2012, first as a Guthrie High School volunteer and later as the wrestling team’s chiropractor.
Then she started traveling with Oklahoma USA summer travel teams for the National Duals and Fargo Nationals.
“I have worked with tons of Olympians in all sports,” she said. “I spent two weeks at the Olympic Training Center in 2012 as part of my sports medicine training for the Olympic medial volunteer program.”
That led to being nominated for the USA wrestling medical pool and being selected to travel to Albania in October 2024.
It was there that she met Oklahoma State wrestling coach David Taylor, who was there as a competitor. That encounter led to Hacker being asked to provide chiropractic services for the Cowboys.
“My portable chiropractic table is customized with Pistol Pete on it — a great conversation starter,” she said. “He asked how close I was to Stillwater, and if I would be interested in helping with OSU. Obviously, I said YES! I am an alumni and LOVE OSU wrestling.”
Taylor is a former Olympic gold medalist, a three-time world champion, and a twotime NCAA champion who twice won the Dan Hodge Trophy as the nation’s best college wrestler.
In his first season in Stillwater, he led the Cowboys to a thirdplace finish at the NCAA championships and a Big 12 title.
“When David Taylor took over the position, one of the biggest things he pushed for was recovery, bringing in massage therapy and chiropractic care,” said Nick Goldstein, OSU’s wrestling trainer. “And, so, when David made the world team, last year’s World Championships, Dawn traveled with them to Serbia.
“David reached out to me and said she’s from Guthrie, this is somebody that can come up and be a good resource for us, so we connected there.”
Together, Goldstein and Hacker developed “a strategy” on chiropractic services for the team, what’s going to fit their schedule, and “incorporated that into their recovery routine.”
Hacker started with OSU last year “and has been fantastic for us,” Goldstein said.
On her day off, which are Tuesdays, Hacker comes to campus and sees athletes after practice.
“It’s been integral to our injury prevention process,” Goldstein said. “Just being able to have her available to give adjustments, and sometimes she’ll even incorporate some other recovery tools.
“She’s been a tremendous help in taking some of the workload off me, so I can focus more on guys that are hurt.”
Dr. Dawn’s Chiropractic Care Center, 309 N. Division St., was named Business of the Year by the Guthrie Chamber of Commerce in 2024.