Office of the Chancellor

Faster, Higher, Stronger

I am sure many of you were glued to your television Friday as The Games of the XXXI Olympiad, also known as the Summer Olympics, got underway in Rio de Janeiro. If you watched closely, you might have noticed some familiar faces, as nearly two dozen current or former UT System athletes are competing in everything from Track and Field to Swimming, Golf, Tennis and Rowing.

At every Olympic Games there are stories that grab you right off the bat. One of my favorites so far involves Morolake Akinosun. Set to graduate from UT Austin in December (you might say she’s having a big year), Morolake is part of the U.S. Women’s track team, competing in the 4x100 meter relay – just as she predicted she would five years ago!

One of the most interesting things about the UT athletes competing in Rio is that several of them are actually representing countries besides the United States. Joanna Evans, for example, is swimming for The Bahamas. And Chrisann Gordon will be running for Jamaica. UT Austin has long been an Olympic powerhouse.

In fact, Longhorns have won 131 Olympic medals, including 73 golds, over the last eighty years.

But other UT institutions have gotten in on the action as well. For example, UT Arlington’s Doug Russell won two Swimming gold medals at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. He also gained notoriety as the first Olympic swimmer to streamline himself by shaving his entire body. UT Arlington Mavericks, always innovating.

An even more impressive UT-related feat took place at those same 1968 Olympics. A young man named Bob Beamon, who at the time was a member of the UT El Paso track team, shocked the world by leaping past the existing long jump world record by nearly two feet! His record stood for nearly 23 years. Back to present day, former UTEP golf star Gerina Piller has earned her way onto the 2016 U.S. Women’s Golf team, and I know Miner fans everywhere will be cheering her on.

Watching the opening ceremonies, I was inspired by the thousands of men and women walking through the stadium – all smiling and waving – who, like Morolake Akinosun, were living a dream they’ve been pursuing for a long time. I daresay most realize the odds of winning a medal are stacked against them. But they are full of pride and joy because they have – through years of hard work and sacrifice – earned the right to compete, to find out how they stack up with the world’s best. What a great achievement.

In that same spirit of striving to the be the very best, let me shift gears slightly and congratulate Dr. Ronald Depinho and his entire team at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, for once again being ranked number one in cancer care in U.S. News and World Report’s annual “Best Hospitals” rankings. If you think of the rankings as an Olympic event, the MD Anderson team has taken home the gold nine out of the last ten years (with one silver).

Three Latin words, “Citius, Altius, Fortius,” make up the Olympic motto. Translated to English: Faster, Higher, Stronger. As we cheer on our UT brothers and sisters in Rio, I hope you’ll remember those words and think about the role we all play – whether at MD Anderson, another UT institution, or simply as neighbors living in this great state – in helping our fellow Texans advance faster, reach higher, and grow ever stronger.

Thanks, as always, for reading. I’ll write again soon.