May 24th

Today, we had the chance to visit the Olympic Research Center and speak with many representatives of the IOC. First, Tania Tchea of the IOC’s Television and Marketing Services department spoke to us about the importance of sponsorship and marketing within the Olympic games. A really cool fact she told us about was that 90% of people around the world recognize the Olympic rings. After she spoke, we had the chance to mingle with her outside. She asked us about our studies and provided a lot of great insight. 

After, Stephanie Moreno, one of the librarians at the Olympic Research Center talked to us about finding research for our papers. She told us that the Olympic Research Center is the only public space of the IOC’s and contains all of the IOC’s publications since 1894. We also got the chance to go into the basement of the museum to see all of the Olympic artifacts the museum has collected through the years. This was pretty incredible. We grabbed lunch in the TOM café in the Olympic Museum where we enjoyed some great gnocchi. Then, we went back to the Olympic Research Center to find sources and begin brainstorming our papers. 

That afternoon, we had the incredible chance to go to the Court of Arbitration where we spoke with Brent Nowicki. He talked to us about what he does and how it relates to the Olympics. He even related his work to our studies and interests, which was really neat to hear about. After speaking with him, he showed us the library upstairs, which contained many, many documents and publications on law, sport, and the Olympics.