As an aspiring college student, you should always be looking for unique ways to boost your applications that also reflect your passions. Passion projects are a great way to showcase to admission representatives that you’re disciplined and dedicated to seeing a commitment through to the end, like an Olympian on their way to the gold—or in this case, your college degree. But with these self-guided and -motivated pursuits becoming more popular in college admission, how can you create a unique project that will get you noticed? Let’s take some inspiration from the Summer Olympic Games and explore how you can combine athletic interests and academics for a winning application.
Tracking event stats and athlete performance
You may not initially think that math nerds and sports jocks can be one and the same, but I give you: The stats person. Who’s running your football fantasy league? A stats person. The people fact-checking on the fly for hosts during live sporting events? Stats people. Statistics and the Olympics could not be more complementary with more than 10,000 athletes competing each season and the potential for predicting future performance by analyzing medal placement percentages and record-breaking completion times.
Whether you’re exploring the stats of current athletes like track Olympian Sha’Carri Richardson or studying patterns of the Games as a whole over time, you can conduct research and use it to build spreadsheets, write an essay, or film a video presentation on your findings. The point of a passion project is to get creative with the things that interest you in a way that will resonate with admission representatives, regardless of the subject matter.
Related: Beat Out Your Competition: Exploring Careers in the Sports Industry
Researching the history of major sports
The very first Olympic Games took place in Athens in 1896 with only 241 athletes and 43 events. Today, the Olympics have expanded to two separate events for 74 summer and winter sports that draw in tens of thousands of athletes—and that doesn’t even include the Paralympics for athletes with disabilities. All this to say, the history of the Olympic Games is rich and over 125 years long. Whether you decide to write a paper on the history of the Games in general or create an interactive project on the changes in gymnastics over time, there are intriguing historical narratives to explore that are sure to pique the interests of both the academics and the sports enthusiasts in the admission offices at the colleges you want to apply to.
Setting and documenting an athletic challenge
Olympic athletes are known for their strict workout regimes and practice schedules. And while you may not be training like Katie Ledecky or Simone Biles, dedicated student-athletes can use Olympic-level training programs as inspiration for great admission projects. What’s something you would love to focus on in your sports and fitness life? Maybe you want to improve your tennis serve over the course of a few months, or you might be getting ready for athletic recruitment to a college basketball team. Whatever your motivations, write out a training schedule for a predetermined amount of time and track your progress as you complete each day’s workout and training tasks. Make sure to set concrete checkpoints, determine what your final goal is, and decide how you’re going to translate your hard work into something you can showcase on your college applications.
Related: 3 Valuable Time Management Strategies for Student-Athletes
Every couple of years, we get to witness an exciting new winter or summer season of incredible feats of athleticism through the Olympic Games. They are a huge, defining moment for all the hard work every Olympian has put in throughout their lives—just like admission into college is the culmination of all your hard work. Take inspiration from these incredible athletes to help you shape your applications, showcase your unique interests, and gain admission to a great college on your way to your golden degree.
Have you finalized your college list yet? If you want to add a few more, explore some schools based on your favorite games with our Gold-Medal Colleges for Summer and Winter Olympic Sports!
