Foreword

 

Dear all,

I am delighted to introduce you to the 9th edition of our M.A. Olympic Studies Newsletter. This release coincides with one of the most exciting periods for our study programme, as we just concluded the selection of the participants of the 7th Intake. We are looking forward to welcoming 25 new members of the M.A. Olympic studies family. The opening ceremony for the 7th intake will take place at the German Sport University Cologne (GSU) on 8th September 2019, leading into the group’s first module. The 7th intake has seen the highest number of applicants for the M.A. Olympic studies so far. Many of you contributed to this success by recommending our programme and sharing our newsletter with friends and colleagues. For this, I would like to express my sincere gratitude. You can find more information on our new participants and the selection process in our M.A. OS News section.

As always, this newsletter also presents our readers with the news of our partner institutions in Barcelona and Canterbury as well as of our own OSC Cologne. For this edition, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona´s Centre for Olympic Studies provides us with an account of the 6th intake´s module on Media and Commercialization of the Olympic Games, which took place in March this year in Barcelona under their leadership. They also report on their continuation to offer an interesting massive open online course on the Olympic Games and the Media.

From our southern hemisphere partners, the University of Canterbury´s New Zealand Centre for Olympic Studies introduces us to their new co-director, Dr. Susannah Stevens. On behalf of the M.A. Olympic Studies community, I would like to express a warm welcome to her in this new position. In addition to this, the NZCOS also reports on their continuing involvement in the ‘Global Foundation for Community Health’.

In our graduates section, you can find an article on Prof. Kobus Roux, who graduated from the 4th intake of our programme. With Kobus, the M.A. Olympic Studies´ goal of spreading the Olympic Idea has definitely become a reality. He is now Deputy Director of the University of Johannesburg´s Olympic Studies Centre. I am delighted that Kobus agreed to our presenting here of his impressive academic and professional activities.

As a special message, we also wanted to announce here that Dr. Jörg Krieger joined Aarhus University for a well-deserved position as Assistant Professor in April 2019. We wish Dr. Krieger all the best in this new position and are delighted that he will continue to stay connected with the programme in different ways.

Finally, let me also remind you that we have our key dates section on upcoming modules and activities on the last page. 

Enjoy reading the issue.

Best wishes,

Stephan Wassong (Director of the M.A. Olympic Studies)