HIKE: Team GB / Paris 1924 & 2024

Project Description

The funds are to be used to generate outputs alongside external partners, and for generating impact and knowledge exchange.

We seek funding for an impact facilitator to accelerate the knowledge exchange aspect of our ongoing action research project. This work has been requested by the University’s strategic partner Team GB as part of their preparation for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Dr Catherine Baker and Dr Jenny Macleod are co-authoring an academic research article on Harry Edward, the first black British athlete to win a medal at the Olympic Games. Baker and Macleod have both published extensively on themes of national identity, Baker specialises in ‘mega-events’ and Macleod focuses on the First World War and its legacy. Our article is tentatively entitled ‘How Berlin’s teenage sprint star became Great Britain’s first black Olympic medallist: Harry Edward, internment and the First World War’ which we intend to submit to the International Journal of the History of Sport. Simultaneous to this research, we are engaged in social activism through our knowledge exchange work with Team GB. Since 2020, we have been co-producing knowledge with our History students at the University of Hull about past Olympic competitors in their historical context. This knowledge exchange work draws directly on the methodological framework of our research on Harry Edward. Our knowledge exchange supports the One Team GB project, wherein historical knowledge has been used by Team GB to demonstrate their core values (Performance, Unity, Pride, Responsibility, Respect) through examples of diverse past competitors. It has been used in multiple creative ways such as an animated film, artwork for the Olympic village, and specially created books for team members, promoting University of Hull’s profile and expertise in History and Olympic Legacy along the way. Alongside the sustainability work for Team GB, the One Team GB project was key in the University getting noticed by the International Olympic Committee’s Olympic Studies Centre, who approached University of Hull to establish an Olympic Studies and Research Centre, one of 60 across the globe. Such was the One Team GB project’s success. Team GB have invited us to continue the project and develop further materials for Paris 2024. Their principal goal for this project is to develop an inclusive esprit de corps for Team GB where all present-day members feel they belong, because they see themselves reflected in their ancestors in the team. That team spirit and sense of belonging will underpin their sporting performance. Its wider significance lies in an articulation of an inclusive vision of the nation by one of the most prominent representations of the United Kingdom. With Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion being core values of the University of Hull as well, we are eager to demonstrate the University’s commitment to them through working together with Team GB and promote inclusivity across the nation.