For the next several weeks, faculty and students in the Syracuse University College of
Human Ecology's
Department of Sport Management will transform the 'traditional'
classroom across geographies, time zones and cultures into a three-week, hands-on
European exploration of the Olympic movement. The group is documenting its journey
experience by experience with first-hand stories and photos at
http://olympicodyssey09.blogspot.com/.
This new course, titled "Olympic Odyssey: Future, Present and Past," teams
Department of Sport Management chair and professor
Michael D. Veley and senior
instructor
Patrick Ryan with a group of students to explore the history of the
ancient and modern Olympic Games and their influence on modern sport through
in-depth exploration of Olympics sites.
During the "Olympic Odyssey," students' discoveries are in London, the host of the
2012 Olympic Games; Paris, where Pierre de Coubertin spurred the revival of the
modern Olympics in the 1890s; Lausanne, Switzerland, where the International
Olympic Committee has been headquartered since 1915 and which also houses the
Olympic Museum and the Olympic Studies Centre; and Athens, the home of the
ancient Olympic Games and where the modern games returned in 2004.
The business, as well as the competitive athletic, aspects of the Olympic movement
are being studied, along with the influence the IOC exerts on sport in modern times.
The organizational aspects of the IOC are also studied in depth, as well as the
process used to select an Olympic city.
"By meeting with and talking to experts, students have the opportunity to ask in-depth
questions and see first hand what the Olympics have brought to the world of sport and vice
versa," Veley says.
About the College of Human Ecology at Syracuse University
The College of Human Ecology is dedicated to excellence in professional academic education
and integrates publicly engaged scholarship as a philosophy and method in all of its degree
programs. The college brings together a rich history of academic programs whose signatures
of social responsibility and justice join new and evolving majors reflective of educating global
citizens whose leadership can-and does-change the places and people where they live and
work.
