Last week’s Rose Cafe was an extremely interesting talk that shed light on both athletics and cultural exchange (although some would say the two are intertwined. Mr. Paul Wilcox from the UK spoke to us about the Transatlantic series. I had no idea what the Series was prior to the talk and was extremely surprised and impressed to hear about such an international sports tradition! I was definitely proud to hear about Cornell being a part of this sports league.

According to Mr. Wilcox,the Transatlantic Series is a track and field league between Oxford and Cambridge in England and the Ivy League Universities with a four year cycle- with Harvard and Yale touring the UK every four years. Even more surprising to me was hearing that it is the world’s oldest international fixture. As someone who is not particularly interesting in sports, being especially clueless about track and field, what was really interesting was learning about how unique the league by providing participants with cultural exposure and developing friendships across the ocean through the context of sports and high quality competition. The passion in the speaker’s talk really made it clear that this league is much more than just sports, but about international cooperation and unity and friendship.

As an international student who grew up in three different countries, and even as someone simply living in an increasingly globalized world, I think events and opportunities like the Transatlantic Series are extremely important. It is vital that people have the chance to understand different cultures and perspectives and it was really eye opening to learn how sports can offer a platform to do this.