Excelling in China
In August 2008 most University of Sydney students were settling back into study and campus life as a new semester got underway. However, 20 University athletes were preparing for a very different challenge – representing Australia on the biggest sporting stage of them all.
Sydney medal winners
Seven athletes returned from Beijing with medals. Olympic rowers Francis Hegerty and Matt Ryan won silver, while slalom canoeist Robin Bell and water polo players Taniele Gofers and Nikita Cuffe took bronze. Both of the University’s Paralympians won medals. Sarah Stewart won bronze with the wheelchair basketball team, while Angie Ballard won silver in the 4x100m relay.
Away from the spotlight on top-level athletes, a supporting cast of University staff and students were involved as officials or administrators, including Dr Donna O’Connor, women’s basketball trainer, and wrestling coach Leonid Zaslavsky. Professor Leo Jeffcott, the Dean of Veterinary Science, officiated at his sixth Olympics, taking 14 final year veterinary science students and graduates to assist him in his role as veterinarian to the equestrian events.
More on the University's Elite Athlete Program.
Music and the mind
But Beijing 2008 was about much more than sport. The Sydney Conservatorium of Music stepped on to the podium, winning a coveted spot at Beijing’s cultural festival in the build-up to the Olympics.
A dozen musicians, including Conservatorium students, lecturers and alumni, travelled to take part in the two-week Musicathlon. Musicians included the Dean and Principal, Professor Kim Walker, early music specialists Neal Peres Da Costa and Daniel Yeadon, who later in 2008 won the Aria Award for Best Classical Album of the year, and the Greenway String Quartet, whose members were all studying for master's degrees at the Conservatorium.
However, the show stealer was Mount Isa-born William Barton, an honorary associate at the Conservatorium, who wowed the Beijing crowd with his didgeridoo performances.
The Conservatorium representatives appeared alongside performers from London’s Royal Academy of Music, New York’s Juilliard School, and the Universitat Mozarteum Salzburg. The Conservatorium was one of only nine international institutions and two host conservatoriums taking part. It has already been invited to appear at the corresponding event in London in 2012.
Away from the sports stadia and the concert halls, Sydney was also engaging Beijing’s grey matter. In the days before the Olympics began, Professor Allan Snyder, director of the University’s Centre for the Mind, attracted a stellar cast list for his What Makes a Champion? conference, generating widespread media coverage in China and overseas.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair opened the two-day event and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered a video message. Other participants included Henry Kissinger, Sebastian Coe and Ian Thorpe.
"Championship is a complex range of qualities: brains, energy, commitment and passion," Snyder explained ahead of Beijing. "Whether it's sport, business, or the arts, there are essential elements to championship."
The University and China
While the Olympics dominated the news agenda in 2008, the University continued to build its already-strong links with China throughout the year.
The University progressed its plans to open overseas offices to support alumni, development, research, recruitment and outreach activities overseas, with Beijing leading the way.
"We have excellent research and teaching partnerships with China's leading universities," says Deputy Vice-Chancellor (International) Professor John Hearn, whose International Portfolio organised a major events program in the financial capital of Shanghai in October. "This is important for Australia's future in the region and the world."
The focal point of the Shanghai program was a graduation ceremony and alumni reception in the city centre, attended by more than 200 Chinese students and their families who had recently completed University of Sydney degree programs. Meanwhile, a delegation of more than 50 senior executives, academics and research leaders, including the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor, discussed research links, student exchange and scholarships in a busy program that included University of Sydney days at the universities of Fudan, Shanghai Jia Tong, Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.