UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Four Penn State student-athlete are among the contingent of students traveling to Greece as part of Harvard’s Sport and Education Program: from Ancient Olympia to the Present. The student-athletes participating in the trip, which will take place from July 7-11 in Olympia at the International Olympic Academy (IOA), are wrestling’s Hayden Cunningham, women’s lacrosse’s Abby Baker, and track & field’s Madeleine Söderqvist and Gabriella Recce. The IOA and the Greek General Secretariate of Sport sponsor the program.
For five days this diverse body of students and faculty from Penn State, Harvard, Texas, Dartmouth and Greek universities will convene in the birthplace of the Olympic Games to examine how sport shaped ancient models of knowledge and how, in turn, the ancient athletic-knowledge complex served as a model for modern universities and professional sports.
“I am thrilled and grateful to be able to share this opportunity with Penn State’s student-athletes,” said Jaime Schultz, professor of Kinesiology at Penn State and faculty member participating in the program. “The chance to learn, think, and talk about the connections between sport and education at the site of the ancient Olympic Games—and to do it with top scholars and students from around the world—is extraordinary.”
In the state-of-the-art facilities of the IOA, participants will explore the historical, social and practical connections between sport and education from the ancient Olympics to the modern university system. Faculty-led sessions will take place on the archaeological site and museum of Ancient Olympia and the Museum of the History of the Olympic Game of Antiquity to give students a vital connection to the past.
Faculty members for this year’s program include Schultz, Charles Stocking Academic Director of the Sport and Education Program and associate professor of kinesiology at Texas, Heather Reid, Scholar in Residence at the Exedra Mediterranean Center, and Georgios Mouratidis, assistant director of the British School at Athens. Guest speakers for this program include George Mavrotas, Secretary General of Sports and former Greek Water Polo team captain, Mark Schiefsky, Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies at Harvard and Erin West, Assistant AD for student-athlete development and academic integration at Harvard.