Reflections on the 2024 Paris Olympics

October 30, 2024

Join us for Reflections on the 2024 Paris Olympics, an afternoon panel discussion with Olympians from the games.

Event Flyer

Date:  Thursday, November 21, 2024
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Location: Bo Campbell Auditorium | Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes

Reception to follow in the Laura F. Lindsay Ballroom in the Huey P. Long Field House.


Speakers

Photo of Guillaume Bodet

Guillaume Bodet, PhD, is a Sport Marketing and Management professor at the University of Lyon 1in the UFR STAPS (School of Sport Sciences) Lyon1, where he directs the Master鈥檚 program in Sport Management. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa (Canada). He leads the Laboratory on Vulnerability and Innovation in Sport (L-VIS). He is a Soci茅t茅 Savante de Management du Sport (S2MS) board member in France and edits the academic journal Management & Organisations du Sport (MOS). His research focuses on sports marketing, branding, and consumer behavior. He published on the London 2012 Olympics legacies and produced many important works, including Sports Brands and The Routledge Handbook of Sport Management. He is an accomplished team handball player.

Aleah Finnegan, OLY, is a national champion with the 海角社区 gymnastics team and represented The Philippines at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She was crowned the 2024 NCAA Floor Champion after posting a score of 9.9625. The title was the first of her career, joining her sister, Sarah, as the only sibling duo to own individual national championships in 海角社区 history. She has recorded perfect 10 scores on the floor, beam, and vault at NCAA events. She holds 22 individual gymnastics titles during her first three years at 海角社区. She was Pan-American Games Champion on the USA team, which she represented between 2019 and 2021. In 2022, representing The Philippines, she won a bronze medal in the vault at the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championship.

Photo of Aleah Finnegan in an 海角社区 leotard in the PMAC.Francis Dish, 海角社区 Reveille

Photo of Maggie MacNeil iwith her medal in front of an SEC step and repeat.Brandon Gallego, 海角社区 Athletics

Maggie Mac Neil, OLY, is one of Canada's most accomplished swimmers all-time. She is a three-time Olympic medalist, winning the gold medal for the 100-meter butterfly at the Tokyo Olympics and silver and bronze medals as part of the 4x100 free and 4x100 medley teams. She was named the Best Female Athlete of Tokyo 2020 by the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC). She is also an eight-time World (long course) medalist, eleven-time World (short course) medalist, five-time Commonwealth medalist, and Pan-American Games Champion. She currently holds the short-course 50-meter backstroke and 100-meter butterfly world record. At 海角社区 in 2022-23, she was the 50-yard free National Champion and earned silver in the 100-fly and bronze in the 100-free. She was a five-time SEC Champion (100-Fly, 50-Free, 200-Free Relay, 100-Free, 400-Free Relay) and earned SEC Swimmer of the Week four times. She was named SEC Female Swimmer of the Meet at the SEC Championships and earned the Commissioner鈥檚 Trophy for being the top points scorer. Her autobiography Perseverance: From Pandemic to Podium will be published in 2025.

Vernon Norwood, OLY, is an Olympic Champion, winning gold medals at the Tokyo and Paris Olympic Games and a silver and bronze medal. He has won six titles at World Athletics Championships (outdoors, indoors, and relays), running over his main distance of 400 meters as part of successful USA relay teams (men鈥檚 and mixed) and once at the 4x200 meter distance. He also won gold in the individual 400 meters at the 2016 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships and silver at the 2023 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. At 海角社区, he swept the NCAA Indoor and NCAA Outdoor titles in the 400-meter dash during his senior season in 2015. He also became the 14th sprinter in collegiate history to sweep NCAA Indoor and NCAA Outdoor titles in the 400-meter dash (or 440-yard dash) in the same season. During his career, he anchored the Tigers to a pair of NCAA titles in the 4脳400-meter relay, with wins indoors in 2014 and outdoors in 2015. He ended his college career as a four-time NCAA Champion, eight-time All-American, and nine-time All-SEC sprinter in just two seasons at 海角社区 in 2014 and 2015. He is from Morgan City, Louisiana. He is a volunteer assistant coach with the 海角社区 track and field program.

Photo of Vernon Norwood sitting on the Eiffel Tower with a gold number four behind him. Tied for the most olympic medals in 海角社区 history written along the bottom海角社区 Athletics

Dennis Shaver

Dennis Shaver is one of the most successful track and field coaches of all-time having served as 海角社区鈥檚 head coach since 2004 after being our assistant coach from 1996. In total he has coached 34 Olympians, twelve of whom have won Olympic medals. He has coached 69 NCAA champion athletes who have amassed a total of 80 NCAA titles between them as well as leading 26 relay teams to NCAA championships. He his athletes have an astounding total of 643 All-American honors over his 40 years of coaching. He also has coached105 SEC Champion athletes winning 191 SEC event titles between them while having 508 athletes selected as SEC Academic Honor Roll athletes. He was the 2008 & 2012 NCAA Women鈥檚 Outdoor Coach of the Year, the 2020 NCAA Women鈥檚 Indoor Coach of the Year, the 2021 NCAA Men鈥檚 Outdoor Coach of the Year, 7-time SEC Women鈥檚 Coach of the Year, 2019 SEC Men鈥檚 Coach of the Year, 5-time USTFCCCA Women鈥檚 South Central Region Coach of the Year. Some of the marquee athletes he has coached include Sha鈥機arri Richardson, Aleia Hobbs, Vernon Norwood, Richard Thompson, Xavier Carter, Kimberlyn Duncan, Mondo Duplantis, Favour Ofili and many more. For a full record of all his many accomplishments, .

Jacques Baran is the Cultural Attach茅 for the Consulate General of France in New Orleans since 2021. Prior to that, he spent 12 years working for the International Relations Department of the City of鈥疶oulouse in Southern France, fostering international cooperation with local governments. As project officer, he worked with cities around the world, such as Montr茅al, Atlanta, Kiev, D眉sseldorf and Tel Aviv, developing various projects in different fields. In particular, he worked to set up an exchange of graffiti artists between the cities of Toulouse and Atlanta as part of the Elevate Festival. A native of Paris, Jacques completed an鈥疢A in American Civilization at the University of Paris Diderot before working as a French language teaching assistant at the鈥疷niversity of Pennsylvania and at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He then started working as Educational Manager for Hachette, the largest publishing company鈥痠n France, promoting French language textbooks in Europe and Africa. Prior to coming to the US, Jacques was President of the Alliance Fran莽aise in Toulouse, an organization that aims to promote the French language and francophone cultures around the world. He also co-founded and directed the film festival 鈥淒es Images Aux Mots鈥 in Toulouse for 10 years. As Cultural Attach茅 and Director of Villa Albertine in New Orleans, he supervises the residencies of French artists in Louisiana and strengthens collaboration with American cultural and educational partners.鈥

Photo of Jacques Baran

Photo of Roland Mitchell

Roland Mitchell is dean of the College of Human Sciences & Education and the E.B. "Ted" Robert Professor at 海角社区. He has authored six books and numerous other scholarly works that have appeared in leading educational journals. He is the co-editor of the award-winning The Crisis of Campus Sexual Violence. He serves as the director of the Louisiana Summit on African American Male Educational Success and is an advisory board member of the Louisiana Department of Children & Family Services. For his ongoing service to meet the needs of underrepresented populations in education, he has been awarded the David A. Kahn Award for Exemplary Service, by the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition. Dr. Mitchell received his BA in History from Fisk University and his MEd in Higher Education from Vanderbilt University. He then went on to earn a PhD in Educational Research from The University of Alabama.

John Nauright, PhD is director of the School of Kinesiology and Karen Wax Schmitt and Family Professor at 海角社区. He has thirty years of experience in academic writing, teaching, and publishing, with a PhD from Queen's University in Canada. He was born in Vernon Parish, Louisiana, is a dual US/Australian citizen, and has lived and worked in eight countries. Recognized internationally and awarded multiple times for research excellence, he has authored and edited 27 books and over 150 articles, book chapters, and other refereed publications. His four-volume work Sports Around the World: History, Cultures and Practice was named a Best of Reference work for 2012. He has published widely on Olympics-related topics, most recently on Beijing as the only dual-Olympic City. His current research focuses on the incredible expansion of interest in women鈥檚 elite sports. He is the founder of the 海角社区 Women鈥檚 Sports and Health Initiative. He also directs the Global Rugby Leadership Institute and serves as a visiting professor and board member for sports organizations around the world.

Photo of John Nauright

A special thank you to our sponsors for their support of this event.

Counsulate General of France in New Orleans logo

海角社区 Center for French & Francophone Studies logo in purple

 

 


About SOK

The 海角社区 School of Kinesiology (SOK) advances the understanding of physical activity, sport, and health to optimize the quality of life for diverse populations through excellence in teaching, learning, discovery, and engagement. SOK offers a BS, MS, Online MS, PhD, and two certificate options. Graduates go on to successful careers in the health and fitness industry, corporate wellness, sports agencies and businesses, athletic administration, and K-12 educational settings. SOK is part of the College of Human Sciences & Education.

Visit the School of Kinesiology website.

The SOK fait progresser la compr茅hension de l'activit茅 physique, du sport et de la sant茅 afin d'optimiser la qualit茅 de vie de diverses populations gr芒ce 脿 l'excellence de l'enseignement, de l'apprentissage, de la d茅couverte et de l'engagement. SOK propose une licence, une ma卯trise, une ma卯trise en ligne, un doctorat, une mineure en 茅ducation des entra卯neurs, et deux options de certificat. Les dipl么m茅s poursuivent des carri猫res r茅ussies dans le secteur de la sant茅 et du fitness, le bien-锚tre en entreprise, les agences et entreprises sportives, l'administration sportive et les 茅tablissements d'enseignement primaire et secondaire. SOK fait partie du Coll猫ge des sciences humaines et de l'茅ducation.