Skaters and higher education: who studied what?

[yume]

Seems like physical education studies are not the most popular in Japan. Skaters like Wakaba, Mai, Kaori, Marin are in business schools/economic sciences faculties.

 

[Amei]

Seems like physical education studies are not the most popular in Japan. Skaters like Wakaba, Mai, Kaori, Marin are in business schools/economic sciences faculties.

In my opinion especially for successful skaters that are able to garner some commercial interest with endorsement deals and show skating having a business degree makes sense because they can largely self-manage or at least be significantly involved in their own management and not leave it to a hired manager since there have been numerous instances of them taking advantage of their clients.

 

[TallyT]

Seems like physical education studies are not the most popular in Japan. Skaters like Wakaba, Mai, Kaori, Marin are in business schools/economic sciences faculties.

Makes sense. After all, the greater part of the working life will be after they retire from skating, and they are looking at decades of working in the business field.

I have just taken early retirement, and am starting my second degree (my first was oh, years and years ago) in a whole new and different academic environment, so have great respect for every one of them doing theirs now or looking at it.

 

[statmam]

Curran Oi https://medicine.yale.edu/profile/116692/

 

[Mathman]

Curran Oi https://medicine.yale.edu/profile/116692/

He is actually a PhD candidate in molecular biophysics. He also manintains a figure statinbg statistics site.

https://www.statsonice.com

 

[Skatesocs]

Curran Oi https://medicine.yale.edu/profile/116692/

AMAZING!

And Tenley Albright is the GOAT (she really was an amazing skater and person)!

 

[withwings]

Thank you - I'm glad you asked! Yes, he's brilliant brilliant. "A human being of the highest character", as P Mills put in his tribute to Tatsuki when he retired from pro skating in 2018.
The book is called A Research Introduction to Artistic Sports, and covers quite a broad scope, including copyright issues, sport management, sustainability of rinks, preservation of the FS culture, etc. There is also a program analysis on Rippon's Afternoon of a Faun in this book. And yes, it's only available in Japanese *sigh*. Here's a video of Tatsuki introducing it if you'd like to get a glimpse of the book, and himself ofc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me7kEDgwO90
This might go well off-topic for this thread (pardon my rambling...!!), but I'm just so happy to see people from international communities still talk about him.

I am immensely thankfull for the video! Thank you very, very much. Although I do not understand a word in Japanese, Tatsuki's demeanor, his confidence, his calmness speaks itself. To grasp his brilliance one does not need to understand a language.

You are not off the topic at all. Many thank you for providing an info about his book Matchida is a brilliant, unforgettable skater and persona. His academical achievements is not less impressive and it is exactly on topic for this thread. Tatsuki indeed is a brilliant human being.

 

[TallyT]

Yuzuru mentioned on Japanese TV today (the 24HR program to raise relief funds) that he has completed his grad thesis while on hiatus. Not at all surprisingly, it was skating related... "the outlook and usage of 3d motion capture technology in figure skating." (a rough translation by a fan, it's not been long since it aired)

The skaters are ahead of the ISU it seems...

 

[Fourleaf Clover]

OMG!! Congratulations Hanyu! I had a feeling that he's going to finish his thesis during this quarantine. So worth it being a dried up cactus.

 

[TallyT]

OMG!! Congratulations Hanyu! I had a feeling that he's going to finish his thesis during this quarantine. So worth it being a dried up cactus.

And the piece of film showed a brief glimpse of (presumably) pages from his notes... even as we speak, fans worldwide will be busily translating

 

[cmk]

Tonia Kwiatkowski, communications, Baldwin-Wallace college in Cleveland area.

 

[dorispulaski]

Gary Beacom of Canada graduated from the University of Toronto in 1984 with a Bachelor of Science in physics and philosophy.

Jeff Buttle was majoring in chemical engineering at University of Toronto. I do not know whether he graduated.

Ice dancer Kimberley Navarro graduated cum laude in 2004 from Columbia...I believe she either majored or minored in dance.

Paul Wylie attended Harvard University and graduated in 1991 with a degree in government according to his Wikipedia entry?

 

[Oreo]

Gorsha Sur graduated from UC, Hastings College of Law.
Hayes Allen Jenkins graduated from Colorado College and Harvard Law School.
David Jenkins graduated from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Carol Heiss attended (not sure if she graduated) NYU

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

Gary Beacom of Canada graduated from the University of Toronto in 1984 with a Bachelor of Science in physics and philosophy.

Jeff Buttle was majoring in chemical engineering at University of Toronto. I do not know whether he graduated.

Ice dancer Kimberley Navarro graduated cum laude in 2004 from Columbia...I believe she either majored or minored in dance.

Paul Wylie attended Harvard University and graduated in 1991 with a degree in government according to his Wikipedia entry?

Yes Paul graduated Cum Laude with a government degree. He also has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Kim Navarro graduated cum laude from Columbia University in May 2004 with a major in English and a minor in dance.

 

[TallyT]

Bringing back this old thread to note that Waseda University have - in a really impressive bit of serendipitous timing - awarded their highest honorary award, the Azusa Ono Memorial Award that denotes excellence academically artistically and athletically, to Yuzuru.

 

[FelineFairy]

Russian athletes and higher education is a topic everyone can analyse easily when looking at Universiades. The majority of Russian participants there are students of PE schools. It is normal for high level professional athletes to be admitted to higher educational establishments specialising in physical education. There are 49 universities/academies/higher educational colleges etc. of PE in Russia, besides there are departments at Pedagogical Universities, etc. In those 49 there are over 56000 free places (state-sponsored) and over 108000 requiring payment. Usually active elite athletes (with some help by the state) are enrolled into those free (mostly part-time or distance) places if they don't insist on other preferences. If they study PE (with a lot of complicated subjects, psychology included) well, like Misha Kolyada did, they can have a good foundation for a future coaching profession. In the case of not choosing PE, they have to enter on the general basis of school exams results. Petr Gumennik has top results, so he will be able to choose (he is thinking of medicine or biochemistry, not a field for part time) when he decides to go to University after finishing his career as a skater. Sasha Boikova chose a profession where part time is possible, journalism; with her high but not top results in all exams, about 70-80 out of 100, it was still not high enough to get a free place (in popular fields it can be that 99 out of 100 is required), so the parents are paying. For paid places the level of competition depends on the decision of the University, they might decide to accept almost everyone, or those with pretty mediocre results like 40-50 out of 100. Thus, the issue of being able to afford it exists only for those who can't study for free. As for universities prestige, yes, there is a difference in levels, but more so depending on the chosen profession. Some universities are great in sciences, others in humanities etc. There are two really big centres, Moscow State and SPb State, with history and big names, and a lot of not so prestigious but quality ones. Special schools in a field (Foreign language university in Moscow, e.g.) can be better than the departments of the big centres.
It is of course not easy to study, and being an elite athlete it's very hard, so some kind of support is perfectly all right IMO if the student is at least making some effort. I have unfortunately seen students coming to their English exam and asking for a pass without being able to introduce themselves. But that's a different story.
Getting a PhD is a totally different aspect. A dissertation in the Russian system has always been something very outstanding. A broad and deep theoretical (+ experimental depending on the field) research result, not one aspect of a problem, which is normally under study in our Master's research works. Three years are required to write it and special qualifications exams to be admitted. So people like Mishin are rare, as the talent for scientific research rarely goes with a physical and artistic talent of a skater. Another former figure skater with a Ph.D in mechanics and a successful career in business is Andrei Minenkov.

 

[elegance]

It's interesting to see how many of these degrees skew to STEM disciplines rather than arts and letters.

 

[Flying Feijoa]

It's interesting to see how many of these degrees skew to STEM disciplines rather than arts and letters.

It doesn't look like a disproportionate amount though? Just scanning through the thread again, there's quite a lot of law/finance/business/economics/sociology. PE/kinesiology/dance too. Medicine or pre-med is sort of debatable as a STEM discipline (I say this as someone in the life sciences).