A group of students from human kinetics professor Scott Martyn’s graduate course in the history of the modern Olympics got a chance to relive some of that history first-hand, visiting games sites in Montreal and Lake Placid, New York, from March 18 to 22.

In addition to touring the new home of the Canadian Olympic Committee and the headquarters of the World Anti-Doping Agency, the group visited Montreal’s Olympic Park, host venue of the 1976 summer games.

In Lake Placid, the students stayed in the Olympic Training Centre, normally reserved for athletes. The village played host to two Winter Olympics—in 1932 and 1980. Staff on the site provided the students with an inside look at its operations.

The trip proved “a great experience,” said master’s student Spencer Lightfoot.

“Being able to stay in the same facility as these elite athletes was unlike any other,” he said. “It helped me understand and connect to the history of the modern Olympic movement.”

—Mike Hatten and Stephanie Cleary