Chelsea student wins Postgraduate Dissertation of the Year
Published 23 February 2012
Chelsea School of Sport postgraduate student Jorg Krieger has won the Sue Glyptis Memorial Award for Postgraduate Dissertation of the Year awarded by the Leisure Studies Association (LSA).
The guidelines for submission are for exceptional quality in any area of leisure studies. Jorg was encouraged to enter by principal lecturer Professor Alan Tomlinson, who was also his supervisor for the dissertation.
Jorg had already won two prizes at the Chelsea School Student Exhibition in 2011. He said: “There was never any doubt that I wanted to take part as I had already won the Chelsea School Postgraduate Award, but to win a UK–wide award for my dissertation really came as surprise. I am very happy that the work I put into it paid off in that way, especially because English is not my native language.”
For his dissertation, Jorg analysed the staging of the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in 2010. According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the event has an educational as well as a high–performance focus, however Jorg wanted to analyse what the participating athletes thought about the event. He said: “My approach was quite unique as I focused on the experiences of the athletes and compared their perceptions of the event to the IOC’s intentions. In this way, my study was very much subject–centered. However through making use of critical discourse analysis based on a hermeneutic (interpretive) approach, I came to the conclusion that the athletes had quite a different opinion on the event than the IOC as they did not enjoy the culture and education programme as portrayed by the organisers.”
Jorg felt the facilities and staff at Chelsea School of Sport were a factor in him winning the award. He said: “The facilities at Chelsea School of Sport and the amazing staff in the Centre for Sport Research have done so much for me and it helped me to win the award. Getting to know so many different critical perspectives of sport really got me going to think critically about sport and sport events.
“I have to say that one of the best things about being in Eastbourne was that I could go to Beachy Head every day where I could read so many books and articles for my work.”
Currently Jorg is working at the German Sport University Cologne at the Institute of Sports History and has just started his PhD on “the establishment of an institutional network for the global anti–doping fight”. He said: “I will probably stay in research and academia for now. Having spent four years in the UK, I enjoy very much working in an international sport environment and I hope that I will be able to move back to the UK one day”.
As part of his prize, Jorg will present a paper at the LSA conference in Edinburgh from 17–19 July.
