by Alison Brown
The beginning of the year means that spring semester is just around the corner. Not heading back to the classroom yourself? Not to worry, we can bring the classroom to you.
We have been very lucky to have a lot of very smart people on the podcast over the years and many of them share their smarts with students at colleges and universities. Take a listen to our professor playlist and learn about the Olympics and Paralympics. You don’t even have to take a test!
Cat Ariail (Middle Tennessee State University)
Dr. Ariail stopped by the show to talk about her book, Passing the Baton: Black Women Track Stars and American Identity. She shared the stories of great African-American track stars, like Alice Coachman at the 1948 London Olympics and Wilma Rudolph at Rome 1960, who changed the way society perceived black women in the sporting world. Our conversation touched upon how, while a lot has changed for female athletes over the decades, some myths and prejudices die hard and effect women today.
Terrence Burns (Emory University, Belmont University)
Terrence has stopped by the podcast more than once, which is a good thing because he is an expert in Olympic marketing and branding. He has been in the Olympic world for a long time filling many roles, so he has plenty of great behind-the-scenes stories to share! We have talked about the future of Olympic branding, the evolution of Olympic sponsorship and marketing, and the history of the host city bid process. Terrence also throws in a few tales about one of my favorite subjects: royals and the Olympics. Listen for tidbits on Great Britain’s Princess Anne and Spain’s King Felipe VI.
Michele K. Donnelley (Brock University)
Dr. Donnelley is an associate professor in sport management but her focus is on gender issues in sports. When she visits, we get to talk about if any uteri have ever flown out of a woman’s body at a competition! (Spoiler alert: they haven’t) We talked about gender equity at Paris 2024 and LA 2028. Both host cities touted progress for female athletes, but those claims may not have be all that they seem.
Yoav Dubinsky (University of Oregon)
We are incredibly jealous of Dr. Dubinsky’s job: he is the operational director of the Olympic Studies Hub at the University of Oregon. What is an Olympics Studies Hub? Yes, we cover that in the episode. Short answer: you geek out over Olympic history, that’s what you do.
Victoria Jackson (Arizona State University)
It seems like a lifetime ago when World Athletics set testosterone limits for women in middle distance races. We spoke to Dr. Jackson in 2019 when the Court of Arbitration ruled on a case brought by Olympic champion Castor Semenya. Semenya had been barred from the 800m event based on the new rules. The idea of “protecting” women’s sports has only become more heated in the years since. It is important to look back at the recent history to understand how we got to where we are now.
Wayne Lamarre (University of New England)
If you are a woman on Team USA’s Olympic hockey team and you get hurt, don’t worry. Wayne Lamarre will take great care of you. Along with being the athletic trainer for the team, Lamarre has been the director of the Master of Science in Athletic Training Program at the University of New England for over 24 years. Before he headed over to Beijing 2022, he stopped by the podcast to share exactly what a trainer needs to do to care and protect his players and how that has changed over his career.
Andrew Maraniss (Vanderbilt University)
Andrew wears many hats at Vanderbilt, but we love him for the books he writes. We have covered two as part of our book club, Inaugural Ballers: The True Story of the First U.S. Women’s Olympic Basketball Team and Games of Deception: The True Story of the First U.S. Olympic Basketball Team at the 1936 Olympics in Hitler’s Germany.
Andy Spalding (University of Richmond)
Many people see the Olympics and corruption going hand-in-hand. How can we change the reality and perception of corruption in the Olympic movement? Dr. Spalding, head of the independent Olympics Compliance Task Force, joined us to talk about the work his group is doing to develop a new approach to these issues for the Olympics and the World Cup. This was a wide-ranging and enlightening conversation.
Thanks for registering at TKFLASTAN University! We promise all our courses will earn you extra credit in the Olympic and Paralympic world without any term papers or early morning classes required.