Learning didn’t stop during spring break for dozens of Falk College students who took part in immersive travel opportunities. The college offers a wide array of travel programs for students, with and being pillars of the experience.

Three immersion travel programs this spring provided Falk students with unique opportunities for hands-on learning from leading industry professionals, while also discovering and embracing different cultures.

Ireland

Students enrolled in the Sport Culture in Ireland class spent nine days in Ireland over spring break. The group of 13 students, comprised of and majors, traveled to iconic Irish spots such as the Cliffs of Moher, Temple Bar and Kilmainham Gaol to experience the culture of Ireland.

The students visited the Na Fienna Gaelic Athletic Association club, where they participated in Gaelic football, hurling and handball games with classmates while learning about the sports’ history and impact in Ireland. At University College Dublin’s Institute for Sport and Health, experts in the fields of sports medicine and exercise science gave insightful presentations about injury and rehabilitation research. At a visit to the Leinster Rugby Club, students learned from team officials about the role of technology in athlete development and what it takes to manage a winning sport organization.

Visit the to learn more about the students’ experiences in Ireland.

Italy

Falk College students enjoy a cooking lesson in Italy.

In each of the last two springs, students in the Italian Football: Impact and Outcomes class have visited Italy to meet with representatives from Serie A soccer clubs and learn about Italian culture surrounding soccer, or calcio.

The students on this year’s trip met with representatives from Soccerment, an Italy-based artificial intelligence platform seeking to accelerate the adoption of data analytics into soccer; networked with front office officials from Bologna FC; and toured Viola Park, home of ACF Fiorentina. Students experienced exciting Serie A matchups at Stadio G. Sinigaglia, home of the Como 1907 football club, and Giuseppe Meazza Stadium, home of Inter Milan. Aside from soccer, students toured historic locations such as the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Milan Cathedral. On the final day of the trip, students learned how to make authentic Italian pasta from scratch.

Los Angeles

Falk College students visit SoFi Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Chargers.

Students have enjoyed the Falk in Los Angeles Career Exploration trip for more than a decade. Open to all Falk students, the trip offers students the opportunity to connect with industry professionals, explore career paths and visit leading organizations in one of the country’s largest sport markets.

This year’s trip included stops at the NFL Network, FOX Sports, Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Kings, Los Angeles Clippers, the Rose Bowl and more. Students met and networked with Falk’s extensive based in southern California to set themselves up for successful careers in the industry.

The and the program at ���ϲ����� have entered an agreement that will allow ���ϲ����� sport analytics students to complete statistical analysis and provide insights and visualizations to the UFL. The agreement marks the first time an American college or university has worked with the spring football league.

As part of the agreement, the UFL will provide ���ϲ����� students with experience in professional football and access to its employees, while ���ϲ����� will provide the data analysis skills of students from the leading sport analytics program in the country.

“The United Football League is proud to team up with the two-time national champion Sport Analytics program at ���ϲ�����,” said UFL President and CEO Russ Brandon, a member of ���ϲ�����’s Department of Sport Management . “Innovation is at the heart of the UFL, so it is only fitting that we seek out the creativity and the expertise of these students as we look toward a new approach to sports analytics.”

The UFL is the premier spring football league formed from the merger of the XFL and USFL in 2024. Under the combined ownership of RedBird Capital Partners, FOX, Dany Garcia, and Dwayne Johnson, the UFL features eight teams in key markets: Arlington, Texas; Birmingham, Ala.; Detroit, Mich.; Houston, Texas; Memphis, Tenn.; San Antonio, Texas; St. Louis, Mo., and Washington, D.C.

The 2025 UFL season will kick off at 8 p.m. ET Friday, when FOX Sports debuts “FOX UFL Friday”—a new night dedicated to UFL action taking place each Friday during the 10-week regular season—with a matchup featuring the St. Louis Battlehawks against the Houston Renegades. The league’s second season will conclude on Saturday, June 14, when ABC presents the 2025 UFL Championship Game.

“The UFL envisions itself as a gathering place for innovative thinkers,” said UFL Vice President of Football Technology Brad Campbell. “Thanks to the contributions of the sport analytics team at ���ϲ����� we will be able to raise this vision to a whole new level.”

Under the leadership of Sport Analytics Undergraduate Director and Professor , ���ϲ�����’s sport analytics students captured back-to-back National Sport Analytics Championships in 2023-24, and they have won numerous player and team analytics competitions in football, basketball, and baseball. About 70 students are providing data collection and analysis for 13 of ���ϲ�����’s athletic teams, and the program’s other professional partners include the Kumamoto Volters’ men’s basketball team in Japan, the Farjestad BK women’s hockey team in Sweden, the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets, Major League Soccer’s CF Montreal, and others.

Under the agreement with the UFL, the Sport Analytics program is coordinating student participation, and seven students have joined the first phase, with more to be added later. The UFL is assigning projects related to league operations and initiatives, and the parties are holding regular meetings to discuss projects, share findings through visualizations (charts, graphs, dashboards), and strategize on next steps.

“We are honored to partner with the UFL and look forward to providing insights and actionable items for the teams and league,” Paul said. “The experience and feedback our students will gain from this partnership is something that’s impossible to replicate in the classroom. Opportunities like this have been our dream since the start of the program, and we are so appreciative of all the wonderful people in the UFL and how their experience and expertise will benefit our students in so many ways.”

student and lead author Alivia Uribe ’25, Sport Analytics Professor  and Sport Analytics Associate Professor teamed with University of Reading (U.K.) Professor James Reade and University of Stirling (Scotland) senior lecturer Carl Singleton to write “Do Behavioral Considerations Cloud Penalty-Kick Location Optimization in Professional Soccer: Game Theory and Empirical Testing using Polynomial Regression and ML Gradient Boosting.”

Their research was named best in field at the prestigious , held March 7-8 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Sloan Sports Analytics Conference showcases cutting-edge research that’s featured in top media outlets throughout the world and has changed the way sports are analyzed. This year’s competition featured six sports tracks: basketball, baseball, soccer, football, business of sports and other sports. Abstracts were selected based on the novelty, academic rigor and impact of the research.

The team that won the Research Paper Competition at the prestigious MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference included, from left to right, Shane Sanders, James Reade, Alivia Uribe, and Justin Ehrlich.

Ehrlich explained that the group submitted an abstract in the fall. Out of thousands of submissions, the most promising were invited to submit full papers. These manuscripts were then evaluated, and the authors of the top seven papers were invited to present orally at the conference in Boston earlier this month. A panel of industry experts judged these presentations, and the winner was announced during an awards ceremony at the conclusion of the conference.

“I am incredibly proud of our team’s work as it resulted in a fantastic project that resonates deeply with others,” Ehrlich says. “Although aiming for riskier, higher areas of the goal can yield greater expected conversion rates, players typically avoid these zones due to the increased risk of missing entirely, which carries negative perceptions. Our findings generated enthusiasm among many attendees and received considerable attention at the conference.”

Uribe, a forward on the , is the first female lead author to be on the Research Paper Competition-winning team in MIT Sloan’s 19-year history, according to the event organizers.

“This is something I’m extremely proud of,” says Uribe, a sport analytics minor. “I could not be more grateful for the professors who have helped me create this opportunity. The knowledge and expertise I bring into it as a student-athlete is something very unique.”

Sanders and Ehrlich built on their previous analytics research to assist Uribe with her research, while Reade and Singleton provided invaluable soccer data. This was the second consecutive year that Sanders and Ehrlich had a research paper selected among the top seven at MIT Sloan. Last year, they presented their study on the NBA that shows the average expected value of 3-point shots has become less than 2-pointers since the 2017-18 season.

“Falk College is an ideal place to work and teach, the best college I’ve ever been affiliated with by far,” Sanders says. “The administrators, faculty, and students really pull together here like nowhere else I’ve been. Moreover, our leadership team has positioned sport analytics to shine as a program.”

Read the team’s full research paper on the MIT Sloan .

The ���ϲ����� contingent at the AXS National Collegiate Sports Analytics Championship in Nashville, Tennessee. From left to right, Sport Analytics Program Undergraduate Director and Professor Rodney Paul, undergraduate student Hunter Geise, graduate student Owen Brown, undergraduate students Piper Evans and Madelyn Forster, graduate student Andrew Odnoralov, and undergraduate student Jonah Soos.

After students from the Sport Analytics program at ���ϲ����� captured back-to-back undergraduate team titles at the in 2023-24, the program had just one more mountain to climb: An individual championship.

Late last month in Nashville, Tennessee, major Jonah Soos ’25 reached that pinnacle by in the undergraduate business analytics division.

“It was awesome,” Soos says. “Any time you can win a national event of this caliber against steep competition, it’s an incredibly validating feeling for the work you put in.

“I was so proud to represent ���ϲ����� and the Sport Analytics program and all the time and effort they put in to cultivating the best rising talent in sports,” Soos adds.

The ���ϲ����� undergraduate team of Soos, Piper Evans, Madelyn Forster and Hunter Geise just missed a three-peat by finishing a narrow second to the team champions from the University of Iowa. Graduate analytics students Andrew Odnoralov and Owen B. Brown also participated in the competition for ���ϲ�����.

Sport Analytics Undergraduate Director and Professor and Sport Analytics Program Coordinator accompanied the students to Nashville and mentored the group, and Soos praised Paul, Dorchester, and Director of Corporate Partnerships and External Engagement for “making opportunities like these a possibility.”

“Our group did an excellent job in a challenging and exciting event,” Paul says. “Jonah, as always, was incredible; calm and poised in the heat of competition. He’s truly a superstar as he makes it look so easy. You can almost see ‘the game’ slow down when you hear him present and see the literal art he creates with data. It is amazing to witness.”

Soos, who is minoring in economics and sport management, has worked as a baseball analytics intern at Wasserman, a baseball talent agency, and he’s currently a data engineering intern for the ���ϲ����� men’s basketball team. This past August, after presenting his research on pitchers at the Saber Seminar in Chicago, Soos was was hired by the Cincinnati Reds as a baseball analytics trainee for the 2025 season.

We reached out to Soos to learn more about his experience in Nashville and what it took to become a national champion. Here’s that conversation:

Q: What was the format for the individual and team competitions at the National Championship?

Jonah Soos with the trophy he earned for winning the undergraduate business analytics division

A: It was set up in a March Madness-style bracket, starting with 64 students in 16 different rounds of four students, and two students advanced from each round. Points were awarded for teams for every round a student advanced and totaled over each section (undergraduate and graduate) once the competition concluded to create the team standings.

As students, we presented to a room of judges each round, and if selected in the top two, we moved on to face other students until a winner-take-all final four in front of the entire conference.

Q: What was your “assignment,” and were you given any advance notice of what you would be doing?

A: Our assignment was analyzing PWHL (Professional Women’s Hockey League) social media data provided by Zoomph to create analytical insights about ways the brand can continue to grow and expand. We were provided sample data and a study guide ahead of time to think through the question and understand the data. Most questions on the study guide were very broad and built to give a lot of flexibility for interpretation and analysis, leading to the true assignment of creatively interpreting the data to find critical data-driven insights.

Q: What was your reaction when you received your assignment?

A: I definitely felt like the competition played into my strengths. My favorite part of data analysis is the storytelling component–placing data in context to find actionable insights and key takeaways that anyone can understand. In this format with quick presentations and limited time, you really have to be at your best and cut the fluff, only giving judges quick hitters to make a cohesive story.

Q: Can you explain what kind of data you received, what you needed to analyze and how you went about that?

A: We received data from different social media platforms for each PWHL team tracking post reach, engagement and platform-specific effects. We were given roughly four hours to create the data-driven insights and build a presentation before everything was locked and no changes could be made.

Q: How was the data judged and how was it determined that you were the champion of the undergraduate division?

A: The first round was definitely the hardest; you had never given your presentation before and had very little prep time. As the rounds went on, I was in a flow state and felt every time my presentation got stronger and stronger up until the finals. The final round, unlike the previous ones, was a winner-take-all from the four students that advanced through the elite eight. Judges then voted on the order of the final four presentations, and I was fortunate enough to be crowned champion.

Q: From your experiences at ���ϲ����� and Falk College, what is it about the program that prepares you to have this kind of success at the national level?

A: The Sport Analytics program is revolutionizing education in sport. To have the opportunity to so frequently interact with alumni in the industry, learn using real world data, and practice and compete against peers to build a collective wealth of knowledge, it’s what leads us to win all these competitions. I’ve learned so much from everyone around me–my peers, mentors, professors, and industry professionals–and without that experience, there is no way I would be where I am.

To read the full story, visit the Falk . To learn more academic programs, experiential learning, and career opportunities in sport analytics, visit the Falk College .

Lega Serie A USA Managing Director Andy Mitchell addresses a classroom of Falk College students

, managing director of Lega Serie A USA (the American division of Italy’s preeminent soccer league), recently visited Falk College to speak with students in the SPM/SAL 300 “Italian Football: Impact and Outcomes” class. The course includes a , where the students will meet with Serie A organizations and other industry leaders while learning about the culture of Italy.

We asked sport analytics major Sebastian Bush ’27 about this opportunity to meet Mitchell and ask questions ahead of the Italy trip. Here’s what he wrote:

“When I heard about the opportunity to visit Italy over spring break and learn about the traditions associated with Italian calcio, or soccer as we know it, I knew I had to sign up. The class, “Italian Football: Impact and Outcomes,” isn’t just about the trip, though, it’s an exploration of what makes Italian soccer so unique.

Sport analytics major Sebastian Bush ’27 (center) was one of the many students who had questions for Andy Mitchell

“For example, on Feb. 14 we had the incredible opportunity to hear from the CEO and managing director of Lega Serie A USA, Andy Mitchell. He spoke about his upbringing and early sports fandom, his career path that led him from CNN to Meta, and finally his journey to working in the highest levels of soccer and sports marketing.

Mitchell credited his early experience in the digital landscape as a major factor in his career success. He recounted being “the last man in the pecking order” as a young employee at CNN and therefore being handed digital and website responsibilities that no one else wanted. He found that area of development interesting, and it led him to ultimately becoming vice president of digital marketing and partnerships.

It wasn’t until a few years ago, however, that Mitchell found his way back to sports. He had never been a huge soccer fan, but after learning about the game both he and his family quickly became infatuated with it. He soon set a goal to work in the industry. Now, over one year into his job at the U.S. office of Serie A, the premier soccer competition in Italy, Mitchell has expanded the league’s reach throughout North America.

His passion for spreading calcio across the United States is clear. From newsletters to corporate partnerships to social media and community-driven campaigns, Mitchell and his small staff have achieved quite a lot. Getting to hear about the complexities of these deals as well as Mitchell’s day-to-day responsibilities and challenges was an amazing glimpse into the elaborate world of Italian soccer.

One highlight of  Mitchell’s talk was hearing his insight into how he and his colleagues support Serie A teams and players in United States-based initiatives. For example, he talked about working with Puma and the agent for U.S. Men’s National Team star Christian Pulisic to build the Pulisic Stomping Grounds, a community-forward philanthropic effort to support youth soccer across the country.

This was just one of the many efforts Lega Serie A USA has been involved with, and it’s a great example of some of the incredible work that goes on behind the scenes. Overall, Mitchell’s talk provided invaluable context about the landscape of Italian soccer and helped prepare us for the upcoming trip to Italy later this semester.

Visit the to learn more about academic programs, career opportunities, and immersion trips in the Departments of Sport Management and Sport Analytics.

It’s the first partnership of this kind between an American college or university and a Japanese professional sports team. As part of this agreement, sport analytics students and faculty will work in different capacities with students and faculty from , which is located on the Japanese island of Kyushu.

Kumamoto Basketball Co., Ltd., President and Chief Executive Officer Satoshi Yunoue says partnering with ���ϲ�����’s prestigious sport analytics program will improve the team’s performance as it seeks to move from the Japanese B.League’s B2 league to the B1 league. The Volters open their season on Oct. 7.

“In recent years, the importance of data has been gaining attention, and we are confident that together with Kumamoto University, (���ϲ�����) will support us in the analytics portion and contribute to improving our winning percentage as we accumulate know-how in data analysis,” Yunoue said in a statement on the team’s website that was translated into English.

“We are excited to be able to work with ���ϲ�����, which is leading the way in data analysis in the field of basketball in the United States,” Yunoue added.

The Falk College’s partnership with Kumamoto is the next phase for sport analytics students, who already provide data analysis for 11 of ���ϲ�����’s athletic teams. In this photo, sport analytics major Dan Griffiths reviews performance data with track and field student-athlete Elizabeth Bigelow.

In serving as the Volters’ de facto analytics department, seven undergraduate and graduate students in sport management will remotely collect and analyze a variety of data, including player performance statistics, live game video, information from wearables that track performance data, and business and operations data.

“We are honored and excited about the partnership between Kumamoto University and ���ϲ����� Sport Analytics,” says Sport Analytics Undergraduate Director and Professor . “We look forward to providing statistical insights, building visualizations and models, and doing everything we can to help with the success of the Volters as we build what we hope to be a lasting collaboration with our wonderful partners at both Kumamoto University and the Volters.”

Under Paul’s leadership, sport analytics students have captured back-to-back National Sport Analytics Championships, and they have won numerous player and team analytics competitions in basketball, football and baseball. About 70 students are providing data collection and analysis for 11 of ���ϲ�����’s athletic teams, and other partnerships such as the one with Kumamoto are in the works both nationally and globally.

Previously, the Volters utilized staff members to analyze data on a limited basis. In addition to analyzing the Volters’ data, the ���ϲ����� students will help analyze data from opposing teams, and the collaboration with ���ϲ����� and Kumamoto University will help the Volters build their own data analysis team.

“We would like to use the Volters as a hub to connect university students in Kumamoto and America,” Yunoue says. “We are grateful for this connection, and we will become a team and work together as colleagues working toward this goal.”

Paul says this partnership speaks to the uniqueness of the sport analytics program because ���ϲ����� students will apply the skills they’re learning in the classroom to a variety of areas for the Volters that will benefit from data analysis.

“This is the next step in the evolution of our program where our students are working in a practical laboratory with a professional team in another country and all that goes with it,” Paul says. “These are the ways they can show off their skills, and with the different time zones they can wake up in the morning and see the score of the game and the results of what they did.”

Over the summer, sport management major Camila Malda ’25 (far left) interned with the Chicago Red Stars while sport analytics major Adelaide Gilley ’25 (far right) interned with the Houston Astros.

Adelaide Gilley, a senior in the Falk College’s program, already has an extensive resume of on-campus experiences. She is co-head of player performance for the ���ϲ����� men’s basketball team, vice president of membership for the Sport Management Club and co-chair of the club’s , to name a few. Now, she can add baseball operations intern for the to the growing list.

Adelaide Gilley

Gilley says a connection she made at a in Philadelphia that she attended through the Falk College last September helped her get the internship with the Astros for summer 2024. As a Houston native, Gilley says it was a dream come true to work for her hometown team.

Camila Malda, a senior in Falk’s , is originally from Mexico City, Mexico. She spent her summer as a corporate partnerships intern for the of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).

Camila Malda

Her tasks included helping to organize and carry out the Red Stars’ Pride Night and a special game night at Chicago’s iconic Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. The Wrigley Field game set a record for the highest attendance at a NWSL match with 35,038 spectators.

Malda says a fellow Red Stars intern in ticket sales is also a Falk College student, reinforcing a lesson she has heard from her professors: “You’re going to end up working with or under someone from ���ϲ�����.”

We spoke with both Gilley and Malda while they were in the middle of their internships this summer. The below videos highlight their experiences working with professional sports organizations.

During the academy, participants experience college life firsthand–residing in dormitories on campus, eating at dining halls, using university labs and facilities, and practicing with such industry software as Tableau and Excel.

“It’s helpful; moving in, especially. Knowing what I’ll need will make it easier a year from now when I’m moving into whatever dorm,” says Max Kaplan, a rising senior from Marietta, Georgia, who hopes that dorm is at ���ϲ����� next fall. Kaplan learned about the academy during a tour in March and plans to apply for early decision to the Falk College.

This summer’s schedule included trips to the ���ϲ����� Crunch, ���ϲ����� Mets, Highmark Stadium in Buffalo and the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown; speaking with industry professionals; and touring facilities. Back on campus, one of the activities had students complete NFL combine-style exercises while wearing Catapult Sports Technology vests that track performance data such as heart rate, blood oxygenation and energy expenditure. Students later analyzed that data and used it to hold a fun mock draft.

Students in the Berlin Sport Analytics academy take part in Esports Day, playing video games while filling out scouting reports to pick up on trends, strategies and behaviors.

“They’re getting a real taste of what it means to do sport analytics here at ���ϲ�����. A lot of what we’re doing is hands-on experience working with data in the same sort of way that they would as students here and as professionals,” says Assistant Professor , who organizes and oversees the Berlin Academy program.

This summer’s program included an esports day as Falk College prepares to launch its in tandem with the this fall. During the exercise, video games and analytics came together, demonstrating there is more to esports than just playing video games.

“While one person in the pair is playing, the other person is doing scouting reports. We are looking to do our best to simulate what in-game analytics would look like, the fast pace of it and marking off certain events that are happening, and looking at frequencies and strategies,” says Nick Riccardi, adjunct professor in the Falk College.

The academy brings students with an interest in the sport industry together, building long lasting connections and relationships.

Dani Dallas, an academy participant from San Francisco, was apprehensive after learning she was one of only three girls in her session, but those fears quickly went away.

“I’ve never felt singled out or different or like I don’t have as much knowledge about sports,” Dallas says. “Everyone has been super nice and welcoming. Even the guys in my class have just wanted to be genuine friends.”

Kaplan echoed a similar feeling about the group.

“Making friends is quite easy here because we’re all kind of in the same situation, so that’s been very nice and helpful,” Kaplan says.

. Visit the to learn more about the sport analytics program.

The Berlin Sport Analytics Academy is made possible through the generous support of Andrew Berlin ’83 and Falk College’s partners in the .

The , in collaboration with the and the Las Vegas-based guest experience agency , spent more than a year planning the event, which was held July 15-17 at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.

From left, Rick Harrow of Harrow Sports Ventures, Falk College benefactor David Falk ’72 and UNLV Sports Innovation Chief Operating Officer Jay Vickers are shown at the opening keynote address for the Sports, Entertainment and Innovation Conference (SEICon).

The event featured exhibitor pods, innovation labs, daily keynotes, seminars/sessions, alumni gatherings, networking events, roundtables and daily wrap parties with music entertainment.

“SEICon was a great success,” says Sport Analytics Professor , who helped organize the event. “The panelists were terrific, the Innovation Hub showed off incredible technology and the keynotes were incredibly informative. We are extremely proud of our partnership with UNLV and Circle and greatly look forward to future joint endeavors.”

Attendees met with industry executives while exploring the latest innovations in sports and entertainment, esports and gaming, sports sociology and diversity, broadcast brands and media, research and development, and more.

���ϲ����� Sport Analytics students Danny Baris ’26, Jessica Fackler ’26, Daniel Griffiths ’26, Marcus Mann ’26, Piper Moskow ’26, and Jonah Soos ’25 presented their research at SEICon’s Innovation Hub.

Among the ���ϲ����� alumni serving as panelists were Jesse Abrams ’13, Julie Nemeroff Friedman ’08, Jasmine Jordan ’14, Lori Robinson ’09, Chris Sotiropulos ’10 and Alyssa Wood ’15. Also, SEICon’s Innovation Lab featured alums Casey Miller ’08, Nick Twomey ’17 and Simon Weiss ’17.

Circle chief executive officer and Sport Management Advisory Council member Shawn Garrity ’86 serves as SEICon Director. The next SEICon event is scheduled for Nov. 19 in New York City.

In his work with the U.S. Track and Field team, sport analytics major Dan Griffiths attended the New York City Grand Prix Meet–the final meet for track and field athletes before the U.S. Olympic Trials.

The 2024 Paris Summer Olympics and Paralympics are here and representatives from the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics at ���ϲ����� will have an impact on this year’s Games–and, quite possibly, future Olympic Games.

The Falk College representatives who are involved in several unique ways with the Olympics and Paralympics include current Falk students Dan Griffiths and Livia McQuade, Department of Sport Management Associate Professor Jeeyoon “Jamie” Kim, and Sport Management graduates and former ���ϲ����� student-athletes Freddie Crittenden III ’17, Kristen Siermachesky  ’21 and Lysianne Proulx ’21.

Here are their stories:

Student: Dan Griffiths

Dan Griffiths spent this past academic year working with the ���ϲ����� cross country and track and field teams.

At ���ϲ����� and now with the U.S. Track and Field team (), sport analytics major Dan Griffiths ’26 is helping to revolutionize how performance data is collected and analyzed.

When Griffiths started working with the ���ϲ����� track and field and cross country teams before the 2023-24 academic year, the teams weren’t utilizing a data-gathering system. But the student-athletes were using Garmin wearables to track their own data, so Griffiths built his own application and a tool that transported all of their data into his application, which then created spreadsheets he used to analyze that data.

With Griffiths’ help, the ���ϲ����� women’s cross country team won its since 2011. Throughout the academic year, Griffiths conducted and presented his research at various national competitions and conferences, including the (he was runner-up in sport analytics research), and the inaugural Sport, Entertainment and Innovation Conference () last week in Las Vegas.

Griffiths’ success at ���ϲ����� and his interest in track and field led to his connection with USATF, which gave him the freedom to explore his areas of interest. Using a combination of the latest technology, Griffiths helped create three-dimensional models to best understand an athlete’s musculoskeletal forces.

“For throwers (discus, shotput, javelin), my work focused on using a pose estimation model to detect patterns that could be linked to longer, more powerful throws,” Griffiths says. “For sprinters and distance runners, I used pose estimation data to monitor overtraining and track progress throughout the season and before meets.

“I also conducted extensive research for multi-event athletes in the heptathlon and decathlon,” he adds. “This research aimed to understand how fatigue affects scoring in multi-events and how different training sequences can reduce fatigue.”

Griffiths shared his work with the coaches, and at least two of the athletes he analyzed will be participating in the Olympics: javelin thrower Curtis Thompson and 400-meter runner Alexis Holmes. During his time with USATF, Griffiths traveled to the New York City Grand Prix Meet–the final meet for track and field athletes before the U.S. Olympic Trials–and the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon.

“The thing we think about every morning is ‘How can we win another gold medal today?’” Griffiths says. “Having the opportunity to combine everything I’ve learned and truly be a trailblazer and innovator for USATF and those athletes, especially in a track and field biomechanics context, has made me uber-passionate about the work we are doing at ���ϲ����� and the future of AI/analytics and sports.”

The track and field events run Aug. 1-11.

Student: Livia McQuade

Sport Management major Livia McQuade will attend the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games to serve as a resource for U.S. athletes, their families and their sponsors.

Livia McQuade ’25 is a sport management major and sport event management minor who has spent this summer in Loveland, Colorado, as an athlete relations intern with . Olympus is a management and marketing agency that provides top sponsorship opportunities and marketing strategies for Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

In her role, McQuade has interfaced with athletes from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams and their partners, and with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and other national governing bodies. Her projects have included reviewing contracts, building athletes’ personal websites and organizing outlines for athletes’ speaking engagements.

“I’ve had a truly incredible experience within the Olympic and Paralympic Movement–during a Games year of all times!” McQuade says. “Through it all, I’ve had the privilege to work with some of sport’s most impactful Olympians and Paralympians, including Apolo Ohno, Jessica Long, Noah Elliott, Sarah Adam, Alex and Gretchen Walsh, Alex Ferreira and Steve Serio.”

McQuade, the executive vice president of the in Falk College and co-chair of the club’s 2024 , says she wants to work with the Olympic and Paralympic movement following graduation and this internship has been an invaluable step in that process. Her experience with Olympus will continue in September, when she’ll attend the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games to serve as a resource for U.S. athletes, their families, and their sponsors. The Paralympic Games run from Aug. 28-Sept. 8.

“I could not be more grateful and excited,” McQuade says of her upcoming experience in Paris. “My leadership (at Olympus Sports Group)–Ian Beck and ’16–have thrown extraordinary opportunities my way, and they will remain valuable mentors long into my career.”

Freddie Crittenden III, shown here competing for ���ϲ�����, will represent the U.S. in the 110-meter hurdles event in Paris.

At the U.S. Olympic Trials in late June, longtime U.S. hurdler  ’17 qualified for his first Olympic Games by running a personal-best 12.96 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles. Crittenden finished second overall to teammate and three-time world champion Grant Holloway, who recorded a time of 12.86.

A public health major at Falk and former All-American for the ���ϲ����� track and field team, Crittenden just missed a bronze medal at the World Championships last summer and now at age 29, the Olympic Trials may have been his last opportunity to qualify for the Olympics.

“It feels amazing. Honestly, I’m still in shock and I’m trying to figure out what happened,” Crittenden said immediately after his Olympic Trials run. “But it’s an amazing feeling to come out here and accomplish what I’ve been trying to accomplish for the past 17 years. It’s beautiful.”

Two former sport management majors and ���ϲ����� student-athletes, rower Kristen Siermachesky ’21 and soccer goalkeeper Lysianne Proulx ’21, are alternates for the Olympics with .

Proulx is Team Canada’s third-choice goalkeeper, meaning she will be activated if either the starting or backup goalkeeper is injured. Although she didn’t start at ���ϲ����� until her junior season, Proulx recorded the fourth-most saves (281), second-most saves per game (5.3) and seventh-most shutouts (eight) in program history.

Since graduating from ���ϲ�����, Proulx has excelled in professional leagues in Portugal, Australia and now in the United States with of the National Women’s Soccer League. This past February, Bay FC acquired Proulx from Melbourne City for what Melbourne City described as a record-breaking transfer fee for an outgoing A-League player.

A native of Montreal, Quebec, Proulx represented Canada in the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup and FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup. She went to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup as Team Canada’s third-choice goaltender behind Kailen Sheridan and Sabrina D’Angelo, who have maintained their positions for the Olympics.

Former ���ϲ����� goalkeeper and sport management graduate Lysianne Proulx (center, with ball) is an alternate for Team Canada’s soccer team.

Like Proulx, Siermachesky will be available to her team if an injury occurs. But unlike Proulx, her path to Canada’s rowing team featured a different sport at ���ϲ�����: ice hockey. She played four years as a defenseman at ���ϲ����� and recorded a black-and-blue inducing 132 blocks in 125 games for the Orange.

After graduating from ���ϲ�����, the native of New Liskeard, Ontario, considered playing ice hockey overseas but decided to pursue her graduate degree in sports administration at North Carolina. She wanted to continue her athletics career, but North Carolina doesn’t have an ice hockey team. Then-���ϲ����� ice hockey coach Paul Flanagan suggested she try rowing and contacted the Tar Heels’ coach to make that connection.

Siermachesky’s athleticism and potential caught the eye of the Team Canada Development Team, which asked her to move to British Columbia to train with the national team. Just three years into the sport, she is now on the cusp of competing in the Olympics and it’s likely she and Proulx will remain in the mix for the next summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.

The rowing competition runs from July 27-Aug. 3, while the women’s soccer tournament started July 24 and runs through Aug. 10.

Associate Professor Jeeyoon “Jamie” Kim at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

Faculty: Jeeyoon “Jamie” Kim

 is an associate professor in the Department of Sport Management who studies the long- and short-term social and economic effects of hosting the Games and other major sporting events. Kim is the former manager of the Korean Olympic Committee, and on Aug. 8 she’ll present at the 11th International Sport Business Symposium in Paris.

Kim’s presentation will focus on how the , an Olympic-style event for athletes between 15 and 18 years old, can better impact their host city and support the aims of the Olympic Movement.

“The hope for Olympic sport participation legacy is grounded on the ‘trickle-down effect’ (i.e., watching Olympians compete will inspire youth to participate in sport),” Kim says in a recent Q&A. “For the Youth Olympics, the event can also be a steppingstone for younger athletes to compete on the international stage and grow to become Olympians. Additionally, the Youth Olympics offer many grassroots-level sport opportunities (e.g., sport camps, collaboration with local schools) to encourage the general youth to learn about Olympic sports.”

To combat youths’ dwindling interest in the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee added break dancing, sport climbing and surfing to the lineup for Paris. Kim says this is a critical time for the future of the Olympics as upcoming Games in Paris, Milan Cortina (2026), and Los Angeles (2028) will be held in traditionally strong sports markets where there are opportunities to increase interest.

“Paris 2024 will be the first Olympics to include breaking in the official program,” Kim says. “We will have to see how the event turns out. But, so far, looking at the Olympics qualifiers series and the ticket popularity, it seems like there is a lot of interest garnered for the sport.”

Kim spent five-and-a-half years with Korean Olympic Committee as a member of its International Games, International Relations and 2018 PyeongChang Olympics task force teams. While in Paris, Kim will conduct research in Korea’s Olympic Hospitality House and share her findings with students in her Olympic Sport Management and Olympic Odyssey courses.

And Kim plans to attend the women’s individual finals event of her favorite summer Olympic sport, archery. “Korea has been very strong in the sport historically, and it is always fun to watch a sport where my team does well,” Kim says.