Bayreuth students at the International Olympic Academy

Ten students from the Bayreuth Centre for Sport Sciences took part in the Olympic Seminar of the German Olympic Academy in Greece from 11 - 17 September 2023. The 90-strong group consisted of experts, lecturers, multipliers and students from various German universities. Under the guidance of lecturer Melinda Herfet, the Bayreuth group travelled to Olympia for the first time for the one-week seminar in order to get to know current challenges and obstacles of the Olympic movement better and to debate them. The students received financial support from Sportökonomie Uni Bayreuth e.V. .

The event focused on four themes:

• All Games - All Nations ("Should Russian and Belarusian athletes* participate in the Olympic Games in Paris 2024?").
• Values and Future of the Olympic Games ("The constant change of the Olympic programme does not convey Olympic values and does not inspire the youth.")
• Governance and financing ("How should the money of the Olympic Games be distributed?")
• Environmental sustainability ("Olympic Games must be climate positive or be abolished.")

These were discussed in expert lectures by Prof. Dr Manfred Lämmer (board member of the German Olympic Academy), Dr Sven Güldenpfennig (former director of the German Olympic Institute) and Prof. Dr Holger Preuß (professor of sports economics at the University of Mainz), among others, and passionately and extensively debated between the students of the universities in subsequent parliamentary debates or group disputes on the podium of the lecture hall. The students gained special insights during the lectures by Prof. Dr. Dionyssis Gangas (International Olympic Academy) on the relationship between the Olympic Movement and international politics and by Georgina Grenon (Director of Environment at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Organising Committee) on the measures to promote the environmental sustainability of the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris. 

The University of Bayreuth was also involved: Leo Bolg, Gabriella Moser and Mariano Schroll competed in the parliamentary debate against HAM Munich (Pro) and the German Sport University Cologne (Neutral). The central topic was the constant change of the Olympic programme and its impact on Olympic values. In this context, Team Bayreuth represented the given contra thesis that changes in the programme do not convey values and do not inspire the youth. In a technically profound and equally heated debate, the team was able to achieve a shared first place with the Cologne Sports University according to the jury's evaluation. In the group debate on the distribution of the IOC's funds to the individual interest groups, Annalena Rosier and Jan Menzel were also able to confidently defend their point of view of the world sports federations against the students from the other universities.

In addition to informative lectures and intensive debates, two things were of course not to be neglected at the birthplace of the Olympic Games: Sport and culture. Whether running laps through the hilly landscape of Olympia in the morning, a game of beach volleyball, tennis or Ultimate Frisbee in the afternoon or long, all-evening, never-ending conversations on the white staircase in front of the Academy - the free time was put to the best use. Under the expert guidance of Prof. Dr. Manfred Lämmer and Dr. Ansgar Molzberger (both DSHS Cologne), the seminar also included visits to important ancient cultural and sports sites such as the Acropolis and the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, the theatre of Epidauros, the excavation site of Delphi and, of course, the sanctuary and sports complex of Ancient Olympia.

Lecturer Melinda Herfet, herself still a participant in the Olympia Seminar in 2019 and initiator of the first-time participation of the University of Bayreuth, summed up: "It felt like back then. The connection of the students, the atmosphere in the Olympic sites and the quality of information and discussion proved - once again - to be more than worthwhile."