Daily Record Features US Bobsled Visit to EyeCare 20/20 on Front Page!
Yesterday's visit by LASIK for the Gold's Erin Pac, and teamate Elana Meyers, the Bronze Medal winners in the bobsled, was featured on the front page of today's Daily record!
Here is the article:
Olympic bobsledders say thanks to E. Hanover eye doc - even though one can't get surgery
EAST HANOVER — Olympic bobsled medalists Erin Pac and Elana Meyers were at the Eagle Rock Avenue office of EyeCare 20/20 on Monday, where they signed autographs and posed for photos.
The dozens of people who came to meet the pair had the chance to hold the bronze medals they won in the Vancouver Games this year.
But the main purpose of the visit — Meyers getting LASIK eye surgery — never happened.
During screening Monday, Dr. Cary Silverman realized Meyers' corneas were too thin and she was not a candidate for the vision correction surgery, which Silverman offers for free to Olympic-level amateur U.S. athletes. So Meyers was still wearing glasses and greeting visitors at 2 p.m. when she had planned to be getting prepped for surgery.
Pac, 29, and Meyers, 25, comprised the two-member U.S. bobsled team that finished third this year, with two Canadian teams winning gold and silver. Pac, the driver, got LASIK at EyeCare 20/20 a year ago and returned to East Hanover for the appearance.
Meyers, the brakeman who flew to the township from training in Lake Placid, N.Y., took the news of her too-thin corneas in stride, and said she was grateful Silverman offers the procedure to Olympic hopefuls for free. She said she couldn't have afforded it on her own. And she sees herself as having benefited from Pac's LASIK-improved vision.
"I benefited also," Meyers said. "Clear vision helped us win the medal."
Pac said clear vision is essential when driving 80 mph down a steep, icy track with "mind-boggling curves."
"I'm the eyes and hands of the sled," said Pac, a resident of Farmington, Conn.
An avid sports fan, Silverman started LASIK-for-the-Gold in 2008 to help top U.S. athletes who participate in sports that don't typically offer opportunities for serious financial gain, including luge, BMX, speed skating and pole vault. He has performed the vision correction surgery for 11 athletes so far. Of Team USA's 37 medals in Vancouver this year, seven were won by athletes who got LASIK from Silverman, according to the program.
Even at the elite level, Pac and Meyers said, bobsledding is still an "amateur" sport, with little hope of sponsorships.
"We're not rolling in diamonds or blinging out or anything like that," Meyers said. "It's not lucrative, let's put it that way."
Meyers said she will be "working like crazy" this summer, including as a trainer at a Gold's Gym near where she lives in Douglasville, Ga.
Jake Remaly:
973-428-6621;
[email protected]
Blinging out! Haha! Awesome :)
Thanks for making me laugh....
Posted by: Lisa Loves Lasik Columbus | April 07, 2010 at 03:26 PM