The First-Year Olympics Makes its Debut

Campus recreation and the office of residential life are hosting the inaugural First-Year Olympics from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. this Saturday, September 30 on Bellomy field. The event involves inviting first-year students in teams determined by their residential learning communities (RLCs) to compete against one another.

The teams are led by a community facilitator (CF) and filled with freshmen who live in their residence hall. These teams will compete in a mix of events, from traditional team sports like basketball and soccer, to more unique events, such as Rubix Cube races. The teams will compete for the Olympic championship banner, which the winning RLC will be able to display in their building for the rest of the academic year.

“The event came to be from research done on the move-in weekends of other universities, and was seen as a great new event to bring to our campus,” said Austin Hunt, assistant director of campus recreation. He hopes that a new event – specifically for first-years – jumpstarts students' involvement on campus.

Though the RLC Olympics are exclusively for first-years to participate in, all are welcome to attend. Events will start on Bellomy field and finish in the Malley center. First-year students that commute are also welcome to participate and will have the ability to play on the team of the RLC they have been assigned to for the year.

Hunt’s goal is for the event to serve “as an ice breaker of sorts to aid our first-year students in making those friends and building the community and sense of belonging right out the gate.”

This sentiment was echoed by senior Gillian Tran, a three-time CF in Sobrato Hall and the Loyola RLC. Tran said that freshmen “not only have the chance to meet other freshmen who they otherwise might not have met, but also to become acquainted with others living in the same residential learning community as them.”

The Olympics will not have formal opening or closing ceremonies like the traditional Olympics, but will start with an introduction and welcome by Hunt. To close, there will be an announcement of each team’s final score, a crowning of the winner and presentation of the championship trophy and banner.

However, not all first years may be in the loop about the event as a whole.

“My CF did not talk about it,” said Diego Carrillo-Garcia, a first-year economics student, he also said even if he did know about the event, he probably would not have participated.

Time will tell on the event’s overall success. Regardless, it is a new opportunity for first years to immerse themselves in the campus community in a way that prior classes have never had the opportunity to.