Dr. Sheldon Burns returns in 2007 for his 23rd season as a Vikings Team Physician. A doctor at Edina Family Physicians, Burns is a Board Certified Specialist in Family Practice, Emergency and Sports Medicine.
Burns is also the Medical Director for the Minnesota Timber wolves of the National Basketball Association, Medical Director for the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA and the Minnesota Wild of the National Hockey League. He has served as team physician for a total of seven United States Olympic or World Championship teams, most recently for USA Basketball's gold medal winning entry at the Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia, in September 2001. Burns also worked as a USA Olympics team physician in the Athens games. He has served as tournament physician for the Minnesota State High School League.
Burns is a Clinical Professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School and is active in teaching sports medicine at the Minneapolis Sports Medicine Center and The Orthopedic Center. He was a deputy medical commissioner of the International Olympic Committee and has worked in six Olympic Games.
A native of Grand Meadow, MN, and raised in Nisswa, MN, Burns received his undergraduate degree from Hamline University in St. Paul and earned his medical degree in 1974 from the University of Minnesota Medical School. Burns and his wife, Linda, who reside in Minneapolis, have two children, Alicen and Evan.