The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recently approved and awarded Maties Sport the right to host an Olympic Studies Research Centre (OSRC).
The centres, which are the brainchild of the IOC, form an integral part of the academic and research integrity of the Olympic movement.
The centre, which will be known as the South African Centre for Olympic Studies and Social Impact (Sacossi), is only the second of its kind in the country and Africa, and one of 68 around the world. As its name states, all output will be aligned to meaningful impact.
Sacossi will be led by Professor Cora Burnett, one of Stellenbosch University’s Centre for Sport Leadership (CSL) research fellows, who also established the first Olympic Studies Centre in Africa at the University of Johannesburg in 2014. She will be the centre’s director from 1 January 2024 and CSL head Dr Nana Adom-Aboagye its deputy director.
Sacossi aims to act as a leading research and academic entity in Africa and engage in multi-stakeholder collaboration for conducting impactful and engaged education, training and research to inform policy development, strategic decision making and knowledge production related to Olympic studies and sport for development and peace at all levels.
This mission will be supported by the 21 (three local and 18 international) internationally recognised and highly productive research fellows that the CSL has been able to appoint in the course of the year.
“The depth of scholarship among the research fellows translates to about 1 600 publications, which brings them to be colloquially named ‘The Dream Team’,” said Adom-Aboagye. “The CSL and Sacossi have indeed been able to attract a ‘dream team’ of scholars whose areas of expertise range from sport history, gender and sport, sport governance to cognition and e-sport, to name a few areas of specialisation.”
The 21 research fellows represent 11 countries, spread across five continents and will be affiliated with both the CSL and Sacossi. The fellows represent the following institutions:
. Stellenbosch University (Prof Albert Grundlingh, Prof Cora Burnett and Dr Michele van Rooyen)
. University of Technology Sydney, Australia (Prof Nico Schulenkorf)
. Victoria University, Australia (Prof Ramon Spaaij)
. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Brazil (Prof Billy Graeff)
. University of Calgary, Canada (Dr Araba Chintoh)
. Palacky University, Czechia (Prof Simona Safarikova)
. Brunel University London, England (Prof Vassil Girginov)
. Durham University, England (Prof Iain Lindsey)
. Loughborough University, England (Prof Richard Giulianotti)
. Loughborough University London, England (Dr Holly Collison)
. Université de Toulon, France (Professor Arnaud Richard)
. University of Limerick, Ireland (Prof Adam Toth, Dr Ian Sherwin and Prof Mark Campbell)
. Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand (Prof Lesley Ferkins)
. University of Otago, New Zealand (Prof Sally Shaw)
. University of Waikato, New Zealand (Prof Holly Thorpe)
. The University of Edinburgh, Scotland (Dr Christine Nash)
. Adelphi University, USA (Prof Meredith Whitley)
“We are proud to be associated with such high-calibre individuals and welcome them to Sacossi,” said Burnett.
