International Winter School in Sport Sciences 2020 in collaboration with JYP

The Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences organises the ninth International Winter School in Sport Sciences. The event takes place on 7–17 January and brings Sport Management students from 14 countries to Jyväskylä. Besides lectures, the students get a chance to try out various winter sports and watch JYP ice hockey matches.
Published
9.1.2020

The students come to Jyväskylä from Japan, South Korea, the United States, and Zimbabwe, for example. According to University Teacher Hanna Vehmas, an organiser and lecturer in all nine Winter Schools, the students are always highly excited about the ice hockey matches and winter sport experiences.

“For some students, this is the first time they see snow and can try skiing,” says Vehmas. “In addition to the lectures, the students appreciate the supplementary programme we offer in several evenings. For instance, skiing or hiking in the wintry nature is a unique way to increase knowledge and understanding both about Finland and about northern conditions in general.”

The first week of the Winter School focuses on organising winter sport events. Attention is paid to the various interest groups and their co-operation. In addition, the City of Jyväskylä is analysed as an organiser of winter sport events. During the week, the students prepare a development plan, which helps the event organisers accomplish even better winter sports events in collaboration with different interest groups.

The theme for the second week of the Winter School is ice hockey as an international and Nordic winter sport. During the week, the students learn about ice hockey’s history and development into one of the most popular team sports in the world.

“In collaboration with JYP, a member of the Finnish ice hockey league, we consider how ice hockey events could be marketed especially to a young sport audience,” Vehmas says. “This collaboration offers an interesting case for the participants of the international Sport Management course.”

The international ice hockey business exemplifies in many ways the current state and future challenges of professional sports and fan behaviour.

The teachers in the Winter School are international researchers and teachers of Social Sciences of Sport as well as experts from the field of sport management in practice.

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