|
|
 |
 |
Back
|
Don Winant grew up in and around water. His father was a U.S. Naval Officer, so he had no choice but to sink or swim. As a boy living at Subic Bay Naval Base, Republic of the Philippines, he rapidly acquired a talent for competitive pool swimming and snorkeling/free-diving. Just for fun he and his swimming coach, Dr. Michael B. Strauss (at the time U.S. Navy Lieutenant and Diving Medical Officer) would do open water distance swimming in Subic Bay with the salvage divers from Harbor Clearance Unit One (HCU-1) and with U.S. Navy SEALS and UDT (Underwater Demolition Team) warriors preparing for or on leave from the war in Vietnam. After his tour of duty at Subic, Don developed into a world-ranked pool swimmer (thanks to all his world-class swim coaches: Dr. Michael Strauss, Dr. Don Van Rossen, Coach Bob Miller, Coach Dennis Donovan, Coach Bob Davis, Coach Rick LaRose, Coach Alan Switzer and Coach Jeff Wren) holding NCAA Division One Conference titles at the University of Arizona and University of Maine. After college he continued to train and compete in the international ranks of triathloning, from the Olympic distance to the Hawaiian Ironman.
Don has always been interested in human performance and human potential. His lifelong dedication to endurance sport piqued his interest in how the human body endures and adapts to environmental extremes. He pursued his interest at the Ball State University Human Performance Laboratory, where he studied under sports physiologist Dr. David L. Costill and sports biomechanist Dr Gale Gehlsen. He even had the muscle biopsy scares to prove that indeed he was another Ball Stater! In recent years, Don’s professional interests led him to the United States Air Force where he trained as an aerospace physiologist at the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM). From USAFSAM he was assigned to the Physiological Support Division, AFSC Hospital, Edwards AFB, California, home of the Air Force Flight Test Center in the high desert of the Mojave. Don had the honor and privilege, thanks to the men and women of the United States Air Force, to participate as a member of the USAF Space Shuttle Medical Recovery Team, as well as serve as USAF Liaison Officer for the post-flight human microgravity studies of the Spacelab Life Sciences One (SLS-1) Project and of the Crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-40). Currently, Don hopes to enter a doctoral program in physiology where he would like to investigate the effects of hyperbaric oxygenation on the treatment of acute mountain sickness (AMS). In his spare time Don trains in multiple sports, coaches a United States Masters Swimming (USMS) Team in Tucson, Arizona, parents two teenagers (Reilly and Shannon), and if not landlocked to the Sonoran Desert of Arizona, applies his skills as a PADI open water diver.
|
|
View Cart (6 items)
