First things first, the weather was absolutely beautiful. It was about 70 degrees and sunny with little to no wind (perfect for our mandatory business casual attire). Also, another great thing is that breakfast was free at the hotel, which was GREAT considering Switzerland is so expensive. I'm not joking, you may consider selling a kidney or something in order to afford $10 water and a $30 burger.
Anywho! The croissants were amazing, the iced coffee was decent, and there was no hot food, but overall, it got the job done before we headed over to the Olympic Museum and met with the IOC!
When we first arrived, there was a beautiful fountain and a sad amount of stairs, but we prevailed, and all made it up in one piece to the library where we had three presentations. Fortunately, they offered us some still and sparkling water as soon as we arrived because they knew those stairs could be hefty (ha!).
The first presentation was basically a recap of PKim's lecture about the IOC and the different branches of how each group is broken up for the preparation of the games. There were some technical difficulties which meant no slides, and I'm assuming that cut her presentation short because she really didn't say much that we didn't already know. Topics included were; Olympic Charter, IOC Branches, Athletes 305, and Olympic 20+20. Basically, how all of these tied into the Olympic Values and how they promoted world peace through sport with the Olympic Games.
Personally, I found the second presentation a bit more exciting and informative from a woman named Natasha who is a Syracuse grad (CUSE! CUSE! CUSE!) She spoke of marketing and funding primarily with broadcast and TOP sponsors. I believe this really adhered to the Newhouse kids present and also those who may want to work in media and marketing for a sport organization. Takeaways from this was that broadcast is the main revenue builder for the IOC, and most of the money collected goes to Olympic Solidarity.
After this, we ate a phenomenal lasagna lunch with bread and salad at the TOM Cafe in the museum. It was good, we didn't have to pay, and water wasn't $10 so a solid 10/10 lunch if you ask me.
Following this, we attended the actual museum portion of the Olympic Park, where we found a gift shop! Feature a Lacoste Olympic hate for $89 YIKES. The museum itself was extremely interactive and super cool because it touched on so many basis of its history and how it continues to grow over the years. How it dealt with political issues, opening ceremonies, the beginning process, and much much more.
My favorite part was the items worn by Olympians, specifically the USA Hockey jersey belonging to Jim Craig. I think a lot of us enjoyed this part along with the interactive area that's basically like Wii Fit.
Finally, after all of this, we were able to get an hour and a half to ourselves. Some of us went and hung out by the rocks, some just went for a walk, others took a nap, and most importantly, some got some ice cream.
This lead to our team bonding later on at night where we went to Migros (yes Migros not Migos) and bought our dinner for a cute little picnic at the park. It was like that sweet little family picnic, but with people, you just met a week and a half ago. Shout out to Jake for grilling everything and the rest of the guys for being a solid support system on his $6 grill.
We played some kickball and had some bonding time on the rocks, so overall it was a really great day.
Also, no fountain hopping yet, but stay tuned!
Bon Voyage!
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