Excellence and dedication are just two words that describe the award-winning physicians, surgeons, and physical therapists with CommonSpirit Sports Medicine. With years of training and experience, the team helps professional athletes and those who lead an active lifestyle heal, move, and get back to doing what they love as they face sports-related injury challenges.
Because every athlete is unique and no injury the same, establishing a single center where patients could visit a physician, physical therapist or sports performance expert under one roof seemed like a natural fit for “Olympic City USA.”
This motivation to care for patients, from the novice athlete to the Olympic-bound cyclist, led to the opening of the William J. Hybl Sports Medicine Center in August 2020. Named for the two-time president of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, this first-of-its-kind facility is an international destination where champions from all walks of life come for its revolutionary work in health and human performance.
The Hybl Center sports performance division, powered by EXOS, specializes in accelerating the athletic performance of active individuals and athletes of all levels. Specialties include strength development, speed and agility, and sports-specific training.
Acute and chronic injuries are diagnosed and treated at the Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Clinic at the Hybl Center, where sports medicine physicians — who happen to be team physicians for the professional Colorado Springs Switchbacks Soccer team — use cutting-edge, minimally invasive and surgical techniques and state-of-the art technology to help both elite athletes and weekend warriors recover. It is where athletes train and optimize achievement.
The physical therapy department at the Hybl Center helps patients transition from pain to peak performance. Programs are designed to optimize sports performance — safely, effectively, and as quickly as possible.
The Hybl Center is recognized for “leading the way in Colorado Springs and throughout the world” in sports medicine. There are always exciting breakthroughs and innovative therapy programs being implemented that exemplify its leadership.
As Dr. Brad Bellard, M.D., Medical Director of the William J. Hybl Sports Medicine and Performance Center and a sports medicine physician said, “We are launching health programs for individuals spanning activity levels from ‘looking to get back in shape’ all the way to elite athletes.”
He added that this program involves a comprehensive health assessment — from nutritional evaluation and consultation to metabolism assessment, joint movement screening and sleep and stress evaluation. The information gleaned from this assessment will be used to develop customized programs for people to efficiently lose weight, improve their health, and accelerate their sport performance.
What sets the Hybl Center apart
- Comprehensive medical care in one building, with sports medicine physicians, imaging, physical therapy, and performance professionals collaborating to get patients to reach their full potential and active health goals.
- Research is being done with UCCS to treat and advance the field of sports medicine and performance.
- Innovative, state-of-the-art technology, including an altitude training chamber, metabolic testing, VO2Max testing, body composition assessment, golf simulator, biomechanical movement screen, gait/running analysis and more, is used to assess and train any kind of athlete.
“Each patient who comes to the Hybl Center is seen as an individual, with goals that are tailored for their specific needs according to their injury, sport or activity level, and timeline,” said Dr. Bellard. “We want patients to recover as soon as they can, as safely as possible. The culture at the Hybl Center can be summarized in two words: Collaborative Care.”
LaDonna Reed has been a patient at Hybl since 2021. She discovered her love for running as a child and has not slowed down since her first race at age four. While Reed dreamed of being an Olympic gymnast, she traded cartwheels for the 100M race, long jump, and javelin. Today, Reed competes in USA Track & Field Masters around the world but knows where to seek care and treatment for her sport-related injuries. “You need a care team. Injuries are going to happen. When they happen, you need to be ready,” Reed advised.
In 2021, while practicing, she threw her javelin and heard a crunch in her knee, “like a tree trunk cracking.” She called and made an appointment with Dr. Kevin Lesh, M.D., family and sports medicine physician, at Hybl the next day. After several tests, Reed got the diagnosis: a torn fat pad in her knee. The best option was a year of physical therapy. She was paired with Laura Starks, DPT, at Hybl, for her recovery. “Laura has been amazing,” Reed said. “She asks about my upcoming events and if she’s able, she will watch me compete online.”
After she was cleared to run and jump again, Reed headed to the Pan-American Masters Games in 2024 and won gold in the long jump and two silver medals. The gold medal that she won for Team USA was from the same knee that had extensive rehab at the Hybl Center.
In sports, there are ups and downs. In 2025 during the Outdoor National Championships, Reed heard a terrifying sound from her body. During her second long jump, “I heard a loud pop, like it came from the sky,” she said. “I was face down in the sand and just kept shouting, ‘Is it hanging?’” She was referring to her hamstring. She knew immediately that something was seriously wrong and that she would be heading back to Hybl. This time she was seen by Dr. Michael Huang, M.D., orthopedic surgeon. He walked in and calmly delivered the news that she had a fully detached hamstring. This injury required surgery at CommonSpirit St. Francis Hospital – Interquest.
About three months post-surgery, Reed is gaining more strength and mobility every day. “Everyone [at Hybl] has been part of my story; from the doctors to the X-ray techs and the physical therapists,” she said.
This injury is just another hurdle that Reed is focused on overcoming. The lifelong athlete has already set on her next goal on the World Championships for Track & Field in Lima Peru in 2028. “I do not plan on stopping ... I’m going to run until I’m 100,” she said.
“The ability to help people like LaDonna be their best — today and tomorrow — is what I find most exciting about the Hybl Center,” said Dr. Bellard. “We have the right resources and the right team to help more people be healthy and achieve their health and fitness goals. Plus, we will continue to develop more innovative ways to help patients recover faster and perform better. We will also educate future leaders in sports medicine who will continue to accelerate innovation within the field.”
Visit www.hyblcenter.org/ for more information.
Care at CommonSpirit is inspired by faith, driven by innovation, and powered by humanity. Learn more at www.mountain.commonspirit.org.
