With UO being a global host for the World Athletics Championships this summer, opportunities for students and faculty inspire reflections on the impact it will have throughout the school year. In July, the UO community hosted many highly ranked athletes from various countries at the World Athletics Championships, bringing a new level of cultural diversity to campus. Now, professors and students are aiming to apply the impacts of the championships to rich conversations in the classroom.
The World Athletics Championships are an athletics competition held biennially for track and field. The event has historically been held in major cities around the world linking sport and culture through the integration of nations and identities through competition. For the first time ever it was held in the United States here in the comparably small town of Eugene, Oregon at Hayward Field.
Eugene, renowned as TrackTown USA after pioneering the way for training methods and world records, became the first U.S. city to host the championships. The event hosted 180 plus nations and according to the Sports Business Journal, brought over 54 thousand spectators within the first three days to watch top-tier athletes compete. In the end, the event exceeded 146 thousand in ticket sales as reported by The Oregonian.
While study abroad programs, internships, and global perspective courses on campus build students’ cultural knowledge throughout the year, what goes unrecognized is the impact the large sport’s presence on campus brings to the table. The Student Envoy Program, hosted through the UO Department of Global Engagement, serves to train students to be local hosts and guides to visiting athletes.
Julia Frank, a sophomore double majoring in Public Relations and Advertising, worked as an envoy this summer at the championships, serving as a local guide for athletes from Botswana. As an envoy, Frank was attached to her delegation and ready on call if they needed guidance around campus and Eugene. Working in the residence halls where the athletes stayed, she saw firsthand the connection of cultures brought to campus through communication barriers, guidance with public transportation, and overall hospitality.
“Of course, there were cultural barriers, but overall it integrated different cultures and gave me a global perspective,” Frank said. “This is the closest people will get to an Olympic event in Eugene, Oregon.”
She said that this experience both opened her eyes to the behind-the-scenes work that went on bringing 180-plus nations together on campus and the impact track has around the world. Along with the international coverage brought to UO following the WCH, these students gained international relations experience and a level of cultural perspective not as accessible throughout the year.
Following the historic US win, professors and faculty look ahead to the potential new conversations to be held in the classroom over the lessons learned with the championships. Chris Chávez, UO associate professor and director of UO’s Center of Latino/a and Latin American studies, gave his perspective on how the track event impacts the university further. He discussed the benefits that come from mixing cultures on a wide scale. He talked about the important role media plays in global events like these in giving people who couldn’t attend the chance to see the impact. Chávez emphasized the role students have as consumers when transferring lessons learned during the WCH to conversations in the classroom.
“In an apolitical kind of way, it was a beautiful mix of cultures,” Chávez said. “From an intercultural aspect, we have physical assets and materials (from the event) we can use in the classroom.”
Chávez said that business classes should use the championships as an example of global economic interactions, while international relations classes could talk about the intercultural sensibilities UO was responsible for as a global host. Going forward, the championships appear to be an event that can be referenced in the classroom with respect to tourism, economics, culture, diversity, among other topics. UO will continue to bring in top-tier athletes from around the world as well as host events that amplify the cultural diversity of campus and Eugene. While the next World Athletics Championships will be held in Budapest, the cultural footprint created this summer will enrich students and faculty continually.
