Springfield College Connections to 2024 Summer Olympics

Mon, 07/29/2024 - 12:00

Springfield College has a long and storied history of Olympic and Paralympic connections. If you are in any way involved with the 2024 Olympic/Paralympic Games, whether it be as a participant, coach, administrator, media, volunteer or in any other capacity, please let us know by emailing alumni@springfieldcollege.edu.

Please send photos if available and a sentence or two about your experience.

More Olympic connections will be coming in the next issue of Triangle Monthly.

Frederick Richard, who placed first at the U.S. Men's Gymnastics Olympic Trials this past June, and earned an Olympic Bronze Medal with Team USA, was coached by Tom Fontecchio '69 during his youth. Photo credit: U.S. Olympic gymnast Frederick Richard with Tom Fontecchio, Richard's coach early in his career. Copyright: Frederick Richard family.

Christie Mehlhorn Gialloreto, G'96, is the Mental Performance and Mental Health lead for Rowing Canada, a position she has held since January 2020. Rowing Canada has two crews racing this Olympics, one of which is the W8+ who will try to defend their Tokyo Gold Medal.

William "Bill" Lynch '72, G'75, shared that he was a volunteer for Media Affairs/Public Relations for Swimming and Diving during the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Lynch helped to supervise formal interviews between medalists and international media. At the time, he was a full time administrator with the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics at Rutgers University. In 2023, Lynch was inducted into the Springfield College Athletic Hall of Fame (Swimming).

Mike Dean '13 - "As a proud Springfield College graduate, I'm thrilled to share that I was recently part of the incredible team that delivered the USA Track & Field Olympic Trials in Eugene (OR) last month. Working alongside sport event professionals from across the country as a freelance event operations and production professional was an amazing experience.

The collaborative energy and diverse skill sets on display were truly inspiring. Witnessing the athletes' passion and talent first hand was unforgettable. I even had the opportunity to meet many of them and hear their incredible career journeys and unwavering dedication to their goal of making the Olympic team."

Springfield College Historic Olympic Connections

Springfield College has made indelible marks on the modern Olympics. More than 120 of its students, faculty, staff, and alumni have participated as inventors of sports, athletes, coaches, sport psychologists, trainers, judges, officials, administrators, researchers, reporters, volunteers, and more.

Since the first U.S. Olympic Committee (now USOC) in 1894, Springfield College’s Humanics philosophy has been symbiotic with the Olympics. Serving on that committee was the director of the College’s Physical Department, Dr. Luther Halsey Gulick. The Olympic Charter defines Olympism as “a philosophy of life exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will, and mind...”

Springfield College is the only college to receive the Olympic Cup, which was created by Modern Olympics Founder Baron de Coubertin to honor an institution for furthering the Olympics through merit, integrity, and ideals.