AUT holds special pre-Olympic event
AUT recently held a special pre-Olympic event for students and staff at its City Campus to celebrate being the official university of the New Zealand Team competing at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Named ‘Tour de Fern – Sprint for the Fern’, the pop-up event is a New Zealand Olympic Committee activation currently on a national roadshow to get Kiwis excited about the Games.
AUT’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Damon Salesa, says the interactive nature of the Tour de Fern event was a great way to build engagement, excitement and some healthy competition among AUT students and staff about the University’s support for the New Zealand Team.
“It was brilliant to see staff, students, alumni and Olympians taking part in the cycling activation alongside each other and showing excitement about the much-anticipated Games knowing AUT is a key supporter of the NZ Team,” says Professor Salesa.
Two current AUT students who are also star wheelchair racers, Jaden Movold and Gabby Wright, took part using a grinding machine and achieved some of the fastest times on the day.
Tour de Fern was MC’d by AUT alumna, Olympian boxer and New Zealand Olympic Committee Athlete Engagement Lead, Alexis Pritchard.
AUT is proud to be the home of New Zealand's top sport and fitness facility, AUT Millennium, and SPRINZ, the country’s leading sports research institute. Our School of Sport and Recreation is one of the largest in New Zealand, with programmes from certificates to doctoral degrees and over 1,000 students, including 100+ research students. Our world-class researchers work with athletes and organisations around the world to advance current practices.