The short documentary showcases the United States Performance Center (USPC) in Charlotte through the voices of athletes, coaches, staff, and co‑founder Ike Belk. Athletes recount lifelong training, Olympic and Paralympic experiences, and credit the USPC’s integrated support—sports psychology, nutrition, chiropractic, medicine, and strength & conditioning—for their success, including medal wins. The center’s regional advantages (proximity to the airport, collaborative environment) and its role in fostering team camaraderie are highlighted. Ike Belk discusses the center’s economic impact on North Carolina, its partnership with 16+ organizations, and ambitious plans to host the World Military Games 2027 and eventually the Olympics. An innovation hub for human‑performance research is described, linking high‑end science to practical applications. Community support, especially from the Belk family, and the broader vision of sport as a force for peace are emphasized throughout.
Chapters
I started taekwondo when I was 3 years old.
By the time I was born, they actually had a boat waiting for me.
Both my parents are athletes. Basically, when I started walking, they made me start training for something.
I did make it to the Olympics. It was an amazing experience.
It's everyone living out their dreams in real time.
Overwhelming, like, joy and pride to be able to represent your country.
It was the one moment that I had been building up to for literally my entire life.
If you want to do something, if you have this dream, It's gonna take work, otherwise it's not worth doing it at all.
I was born and raised in Charlotte. I think I was the USPC's first para athlete. They kind of came and said, we're gonna do whatever we can to support you.
USA Triathlon had him on a long-term plan for 2028. He had so much upside, we were like, we need to make a push and go to Paris and make it happen. And we started training Carson full-time and he won the silver medal.
I don't think I would be the, the same athlete, the same fighter that showed up at the Games if it wasn't for this program.
USPC has been like my backbone.
What we have here, I don't think we can get anywhere else in the U.S.
The U.S.
Performance Center, through the various iterations, seemed like a great fit for us. We sent 2 athletes and came home with 2 medals, a silver and a bronze.
So being in Charlotte is this incredible opportunity to bring a team together again and build that team camaraderie.
Being down here in Charlotte with the United States Performance Center, they've been able to provide our team with so many resources. It allows us to tap into all those things that make up being a high-performance athlete.
Our team consists of sports psychologists, nutritionists, chiropractors. Like, we have everybody here in-house under one facility. Nutrition, sports psych, sports med, strength and conditioning all sit down and say, hey, this is where this athlete is today. What can we do to make it better? What do we need to adjust in their training schedule?
And I would not have made it through to the Games if it wasn't for the staff that have been provided for us from USPC.
So I think Charlotte as a region is so hospitable for us because, one, US Performance Center only 25 minutes from the Charlotte International Airport, and be able to pretty much go anywhere in the world is huge for us.
It's wonderful to have supporters. that get behind the Olympic movement. The Belk family has been a major supporter for many, many, many years.
Ike Belk, co-founder and owner of U.S. Performance Center. How can you bring all these teams to North Carolina? That sounds crazy. But after signing 16 organizations, you know, more to come as well, the end of this year and next year, you know, it's not crazy. This is the reality. What are they giving back? They're giving back heads in beds, jobs, economic impact, and the world stage looking at North Carolina. We had over 100,000 room nights booked up last year. We had Olympic trials. We had international championships.
When we were working with the state, there were 2 components. There was the one side of the economic impact of tourism, But the other side was then the innovation of healthcare. We have pulled together developer partners to be able to grow what we have right now into an innovation center for human performance research and really becoming that global shining star of what this can look like. Taking high-end science and being the translator that can then go out and put it into the practical application and improve people's lives.
We are bringing one of the largest games in the world to North Carolina. The World Military Games, the summer of 2027, known as the second largest event in the world, never happened in America. And it's estimated that it's over a couple billion dollars economic impact coming back to our community. My goal would be host the World Military Games and then to host the Olympics. You know, it is an untapped market and an opportunity for North Carolina.
That's just the beginning, and we're excited about it. Events like that put Charlotte on the map. We know that we have an obligation to make sure that anything that we do in Charlotte is extremely successful.
You kind of get to see how powerful sports can be, and it, like, it can literally change people's lives. Like, it's so inspiring.
The Olympic movement is believing in something bigger than yourself. It is the ideal of creating peace in the world through sport.
Everybody here is We all are going towards the same dream, and I think it's so important to be in this kind of environment when you want to be among the best in the world.
