Steve Mesler goes Back to School

As a child, one of Steve Mesler’s fondest memories was the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games.  Along with his sister Leigh, he watched the track and field athletes and ran up to them after their events, trying to get an autograph or a picture. 

Years later, Mesler found those roles reversed—instead of being the one chasing Olympians for autographs, Mesler was an Olympic bobsledder with a gold medal to his name.  With his Olympic dreams achieved, Mesler realized that the Olympians he had idolized were just like him—normal people.  Being an Olympian was just part of their life—a part of life that Mesler wanted to share with young children like he had once been.

“It’s just kind of an everyday thing,” he explained, “where you know, your friends are Olympians and we’re medalists and it’s not such a big deal anymore.  So, we wanted to do something where I could give kids that experience that they could have like when I was a kid.”

In order to make that idea come to life, Mesler enlisted the help of his sister, a doctoral student in educational policy at Northwestern University.  Together, they chose ten different schools with the students ranging from kindergarten age to graduate school.  Since the schools were spread out all over the country, Mesler decided to utilize technology to communicate with them all.

“The idea was initially to give kids an idea to experience more than just 2 ½ weeks of the Olympics and realize that there’s a process and what goes into making the team and all that,” Mesler said, “So, the idea was technology-based.  We would kind of exchange, like they would send [video files] and then I would send back videos from Europe.  Then, they would send letters and my sister would scan them in and send them…so it was really like a 21^st century pen pal.”

Although the children watching Mesler and his Night Train teammates prepare and compete in the Olympic Games did learn more about bobsleigh and the amount of work that goes into becoming an Olympic athlete, it was Mesler who felt like he walked away with the most.

“It’s a nice reminder of who’s watching you,” Mesler said, “It was such a nice distraction during the Olympics where, for that twenty minutes, you just talked to kids…it’s not the pressure and…it’s just kids wanting to learn about bobsled and the Olympics and wanting to know what my favorite color is and what my dog’s name is.  So, it was pretty amazing.”

Click here to view more photos of Steve Mesler

Although technology played a vital role in helping Mesler reach out to the schools all over the country, he wanted to make sure his relationship with the students was not just virtual.  He promised the schools he would personally come and visit each one before the end of the year.

While journeying through Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and New York after the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games to visit the schools, Mesler realized just how much he was enjoying himself.  Instead of feeling taxed and tired from traveling so much, he found he was having a great time with the different classrooms and students. He had such a great time he thought other elite athletes should have the same experience.

“After seeing how much fun it was for me, I want to try and make it something that other athletes can do, too,” he explained, “It’s all going to be remote-based…I don’t want an athlete to adopt a classroom in his hometown or something that would interfere with training, because then it becomes too much for the athletes having to decline invitations all the time.”

As Mesler brainstormed ways to get athletes involved in the classroom and still maintain their busy training schedules, the Back to School Project was born. 

According to Mesler’s official website, the project is “an ongoing program that aims to directly connect Olympians and other professional athletes to classrooms across the country utilizing technology to teach the lessons of hard work, perseverance, goal setting and healthy living.”  The project also seeks to integrate the adopted athlete and the Olympic Movement into the academic curriculum.

“It can be anything—geography, math, time—all these things they can use across the spectrum to tie together the Olympic Ideals,” Mesler said, “and then they have their one adopted athlete and they’re cheering for them.  [The athlete’s] just living and [the students] are watching what they do and the teacher will have their schedule and their calendar of where they’re at so the kids can look and say, ‘Hey, they’re in China,’ and they’ll learn about China.”

“It’s not a terribly expensive program when it comes to actually running the program,” Mesler explained, “but the asset will be so interactive where there’s something pretty much fresh every day, with an athlete and two or three classrooms and either blogging or video exchanges.  There’ll be fresh content every single day, so it’ll be really interactive.”

Ultimately, though, Mesler’s enthusiasm for the project comes back to the students he works with. 

“The thing that they were most excited about was being able to touch the Olympics.  It wasn’t just this thing that was out there that they watched…It was like they were actually able to touch it and be involved.”

Getting an inside look at the Olympic experience also motivated the students to take a closer look at some sports they may not have been exposed to before, as well as teaching them the importance of hard work and persistence.

“Everybody can find an Olympic sport that they think they could’ve done,” Mesler said, “And that’s the Olympic experience and that’s what kids have to it…and I think that all these things that we saw where these kids just realize that…if I just try, I can do anything I want.”

Now retired from bobsleigh, Mesler is looking forward to channeling his energy into the Back to School Project and giving both athletes and students an experience like his.

“It’s something that’s really going to do a lot of good and touch a lot of kids’ lives.”