George Washington University Athletics
Summer Spotlight: Sandro Weber of Men's Soccer
8/18/2020 11:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer, Student-Athlete Development
Weber spent summer learning despite COVID-19 challenges
A graduate student pursuing a master's degree in Sport Management, Sandro Weber was among the group of GW students slated to attend the 2020 Tokyo Olympics this summer as part of Dr. Lisa Delpy Neirotti's class, Behind the Scenes of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games.
With the Games postponed due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, Weber, a midfielder who posted three goals in his first season in Buff and Blue last fall, had to switch up his summer plans back home in Ettlingen, Germany. He detailed the experience taking a pair of online courses for GWsports.com.
Just like many around the globe, my summer has not worked out as planned at all due to COVID-19, but thanks to the support of many at GW and beyond, I can say I learned quite a bit that will help me going forward by taking advantage of unexpected opportunities during this challenging time.
Originally, I wasn't going to return to Germany until Christmas. Instead, I arrived back home in early April after all classes moved online and our spring practices were cut short.
This summer, I had planned to do an internship in the DMV area, get ready to play my final season in the fall and, in a once-in-a-lifetime chance, work for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the Summer Games in Tokyo for three weeks as part of a GW summer class led by Dr. Lisa Delpy Neirotti.
Because of the global pandemic, I had to make alternate plans. I'm thankful that I was able to find ways to learn and grow toward a career in the world of sports while at home.
Scott Rezendes, a GW alumnus and CEO of the North American Scouting Network "The Soccer Syndicate", offered a course about professional soccer in the U.S. that lasted four weeks. We talked about pro league structures (MLS, USL, NISA), MLS roster rules, the players association (which Scott worked for), labor relations and CBA negotiations, as well as scouting, youth development, transfer market, college and the impact of COVID-19. It was very interesting for me, coming from the completely different European soccer system without much prior knowledge about the U.S. system -- and also helpful, as I consider future jobs or internships here.
In addition to that, I still took Dr. Neirotti's class, which moved completely online due to the postponement of the Tokyo Games.
This class literally saved my summer. Obviously, nothing can substitute the experience of being on-site at the Olympics, and I was excited about my first trip to Asia. There is no doubt that this would have been an incredible once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. However, Dr. Neirotti made the best out of the situation and created a challenging, but extremely interesting and valuable, online class.
Instead of focusing on the Tokyo Games, we were able to cover basically all topics, fields, and stakeholders associated with the whole Olympic Movement over the course of two months.
Thanks to Dr. Neirotti's great reach in terms of networking in the sports industry, she was able to get 23(!) high-level professionals as guest speakers for our class lectures, including members of the IOC (Anita DeFrantz, David Haggerty), the Olympic Games Executive Director (Christophe Dubi), the Global Director of Brand Innovation from Nike (Michael Orenstein), an executive from the IOC's top sponsor Intel, executives from different several different sport federations, professionals working on the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Summer Games and many more.
We learned an incredible amount about the Olympic Games and the Olympic Movement in general, and I'd definitely say the guest speakers were the most valuable part of the class. They were able to give great insights into what they're doing, how they are involved in the Olympic Movement, and also how they got where they are in terms of career development.
On top of that, it was an excellent opportunity to increase my professional network by following up with the guest speakers, who live and work all over the world.
Overall, Dr. Neirotti ensured we would see the full potential of this online class to make the best out of the disappointment of not being able to experience the 2020 Tokyo Games live on-site. I'm glad that I took the class as it was a very interesting and valuable way to spend such an unusual summer. Perhaps I will end up working as part of the Olympic Movement in the future and eventually get the chance to attend the Games!
