PAST EVENT -The Oxford Sport & Development Evening Panel Discussion

Event Date: 10th June 2022

Time: 17.30

The University of Oxford has a rich tradition of sporting excellence. Sport and fitness have a central role to play in every aspect of university life, from research to student experience. They offer a means to support health and wellbeing, develop life skills, and build bridges across communities and cultures.

In collaboration with the University’s Sports Strategic Sub-Committee, the panel discussion will explore the benefits that sport and fitness bring to university life, how to make them a more central and visible part of the university, and ways in which they can enable the university to have a wider social impact – both locally and globally.

It will do so by bringing together and celebrating an inspirational group of people who are ambassadors for sport and fitness from across the University and its wider network.

Panellists:

Introduced by Professor Irene Tracey: Warden at Merton, Professor of Anaesthetic Neuroscience, and nominated Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford.

Moderated by Oliver Cook: competed at last summer’s Tokyo Olympic Games for Team GB, a former student at Christ Church with a first class degree in history and currently the programme manager for the Oxford SDG Impact Lab.

Dame Professor Sarah Springman: Principal at St Hilda’s, world-renowned expert in soil mechanics, multiple elite European triathlon champion, has been active in sports governance (UK Sport, British Triathlon, World Triathlon) and is still a member of the IOC’s Sustainability and Legacy Commission.

Professor Heidi Johansen-Berg: Director of the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (WIN), has tested how physical activity influences brain development and ageing and is involved in grassroots football.

Lam Joar: Current student at Oxford studying for an MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies. A refugee himself from South Sudan who was an athletics coach and an assistant to the Olympic Refugee Team at last summer’s Olympic Games.

Commander Pete Reed OBE: Three-time Olympic Champion in rowing and Royal Navy Commander who studied at Oxford from 2003-05, and who suffered a debilitating spinal stroke in 2019.