CANYON, Texas — A West Texas A&M University professor will chase gold this summer in France—not as a competitor during the 2024 Paris Olympics, but as an official volunteer.
Dr. Vanessa Fiaud, an associate professor in the Department of Sports and Exercise Sciences in WT’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences, was approved as a volunteer for both the Paris Olympics and the subsequent Paralympic Games. The Olympics will take place July 26 to Aug. 11, followed by the Paralympics from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8.
“When it came around that Paris was going to host the Games, I jumped on the opportunity,” said Fiaud, a native of France. “They made a call for volunteers last summer, so I went through a pretty grueling process—a personality test, a competency test, a language test. I have lodging available with family and I’m familiar with Paris, but I still waited for months and months to hear if I was accepted.”
Her official duties won’t be finalized until June, but Fiaud said she believes she will volunteer with the fencing and tae kwon do competitions for the Olympics and be attached either to a nation’s delegation or specific dignitaries for the Paralympics.
Her Olympics assignment is particularly meaningful: Fiaud was a competitive fencer as a child.
In fact, her connection to the Games goes back to her very beginnings. Fiaud was born in Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse, the historic home of Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympic Games.
“I grew up surrounded by Olympics references all of the time,” Fiaud said. “We did mock Olympic Games between my town and the neighboring Chevreuse.”
Then, in 1992, Fiaud carried a replica of the Coubertin coat of arms for a relay that paralleled the path of the Olympic torch on its way to Albertville, France, before the Games that winter.
“We ran basically from Paris to Château de Mirville overnight in the rain, but it was a great experience,” Fiaud said. “I continue to follow the Olympics. I cherish it, and basically don’t sleep for two weeks.”
Fiaud studied at La Sorbonne in France, earning degrees in business and law, before coming to the United States, where she earned a master’s degree in health and physical education at Southwestern Oklahoma State University. After some time back in her home country, Fiaud returned to the U.S., earning a doctorate in kinesiology at Texas Woman’s University. She has taught at WT since 2009.
Fiaud will offer an online course in the history of the Olympics over the summer. Because she’ll be in Paris through Sept. 11, she’ll teach the first few weeks of the 2024-2025 academic year remotely, as well.
“I’ll be taking notes every day for my classes,” Fiaud said. “I’m very excited to share this experience with my colleagues and my students.”
Recruiting, retaining and rewarding the best faculty is a key maxim of the University’s long-range plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World.
That plan is fueled by the historic One West comprehensive fundraising campaign, which reached its initial $125 million goal 18 months after publicly launching in September 2021. The campaign’s new goal is to reach $175 million by 2025; currently, it has raised nearly $160 million.
Photo: Dr. Vanessa Fiaud, West Texas A&M University associate professor of exercise sciences, was chosen to serve as an official volunteer for the Paris Olympics and Paralympics over several weeks this summer. She’s posing with a plush version of the official mascot, Phryge.
