Former Olympic athletes are highlighting events at a two-day global sports symposium at Westminster College in Fulton.
Olympic shot put competitors Christian Cantwell and his wife Teri Cantwell live in Columbia. They spoke yesterday to about 100 students and staff at Westminster about their experiences with Team USA. Christian won a silver medal in Beijing in 2008.
“A little bit of an understanding of how being an Olympic athlete is because there is a parallel between what we do and most other sports,” Cantwell said.
Vice President of the Churchill Institute Dr. Rob Havers says he’s happy the Cantwells came to speak: “It’s wonderful however that there is a local dimension. So having the Cantwells, local Olympians, speak here is tremendous,” Havers said.
This is the 8th year Westminster has held its global symposium. Each year the symposium explores a topic of global significance through guest speaker presentations.
“Global sport seemed to be a very interesting topic because every country plays sports,” Havers said. “It’s very interesting to see how sport can shed light on different cultures. It’s also something that appeals to students because we have a large athletic population. What we’d like them to take away is that global sport is really a common language for the world in many ways.”
The symposium covered topics such as sports medicine, sports media and the overall impact sports have on society. The two-day symposium continues today.
