The 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea are underway, and Emory experts are available to comment on a host of topics relating to the games.

Ethics, Politics in Sports

Erin C. Tarver, assistant professor of philosophy at Emory’s Oxford College, is the author of “The I in Team: Sports Fandom and the Reproduction of Identity” (2017). Tarver can discuss sports and nationalism: the role that the Olympics plays in the development of national identity, or the use of sport as a site for political protest. She also can discuss ethical questions around fair participation, especially gender segregation of competition and "gender testing," and the ethics of doping or other forms of cheating.

Media Contact: Victoria Comella, victoria.comella@emory.edu, 404-712-8780

Psychology of Olympic athletes

Ken Carter, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Psychology at Emory’s Oxford College, is the author of the upcoming book “Buzz! Understanding Thrill Seekers and the High Sensation Seeking Personality.” Carter, who gave a 2016 TEDx talk “Just for the Thrill of it: An Inside Look at Sensation Seeking,” is on the science advisory board of Science North, which is launching an exhibit about extreme sports in March 2018. He has produced a Coursera on the psychology of thrill seeking and has appeared on regional and national media. Most recently he wrote an op-ed on “How a thrill-seeking personality helps Olympic athletes.”

Media Contact: Victoria Comella, victoria.comella@emory.edu, 404-712-8780

Sports cardiology

Jonathan Kim, MD, assistant professor of medicine (cardiology) at Emory University School of Medicine, is a sports cardiologist who directs a cardiology clinic at Emory Saint Joseph's Hospital, where he and his colleagues evaluate and treat a variety of cardiovascular conditions specific to athletes of all ages and levels. 

Website: http://www.emoryhealthcare.org/physicians/k/kim-jonathan.html

Media Contact: Jennifer Johnson, jennifer.johnson@emory.edu, 404-727-5696

Water- and food-borne diseases

Amy Kirby, PhD, adjunct professor in the Hubert Department of Global Health and Environmental health at Emory's Rollins School of Public Health, has 15 years of research experience in infectious diseases. She specializes in using the tools of molecular microbiology to address questions of epidemiological significance, specifically in the area of water- and food-borne disease. Her current research is focused on the transmission and detection of norovirus. 

Website: https://www.sph.emory.edu/faculty/profile/#!AEKIRBY

Media Contact: Melva Robertson, melva.robertson@emory.edu, 404-727-5692

Travel medicine

Phyllis Kozarsky, MD, professor of medicine (infectious diseases), Emory University School of Medicine, is the former medical director and founder of TravelWell, a clinic that serves individuals who are traveling internationally with health advice and education, immunizations and/or medicines to prevent disease; post-travel illness; global health, migration and quarantine; tropical medicine; and the epidemiology of travel related infections and infectious diseases. She is a co-founder of the International Society of Travel Medicine and a senior advisor of GeoSentinel, a network of 54 clinics internationally that track trends in travel-related occurrence of diseases. Kozarsky is also an expert consultant to the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine in travelers’ health with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

TravelWell Website: http://www.emoryhealthcare.org/travelwell/

Media Contact: Janet Christenbury, jmchris@emory.edu, 404-227-4785

Environmental exposures

Dana Barr, PhD, associate professor of environmental health at Emory's Rollins School of Public Health, has conducted research in the U.S. and Latin America on environmental exposures and can discuss the consequences of a variety of environmental exposures. 

Website: https://www.sph.emory.edu/research/centers/hlh/faculty/hlh-page-barr/index.html

Media Contact: Melva Robertson, melva.robertson@emory.edu, 404-727-5692

Sports-related injury and recovery

Emory Sports Medicine Center physicians represent sports medicine specialties within the Emory Orthopaedics & Spine Center. They are comprised of 14 sports medicine physicians throughout the Metro Atlanta area and are supported by athletic trainers and therapists helping to care for professional, elite, and collegiate athletes in Georgia, including the Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta Dream and Atlanta Braves. In addition to caring for athletes, Emory Sports Medicine Center is a leader in research into prevention, treatment, and recovery from athletic injuries. These physicians can discuss player injuries, training, hydration and various sports-medicine-related topics. For a complete listing of experts, see:
Website: http://www.emoryhealthcare.org/sports-medicine/

Media Contact: Melva Robertson, melva.robertson@emory.edu, 404-727-5692

Terrorism and Emergency Preparedness

Anthony F. Lemieux, Ph.D., M.A. is adjunct associate professor in the Rollins School of Public Health and in the Department of Pediatrics in the Emory University School of Medicine. He is director of the Global Studies Institute, and professor of Global Studies and Communication at Georgia State University, where he is also a lead researcher in an interdisciplinary second-century initiative on Trans-Cultural Conflict and Violence. He has extensively studied motivations for terrorism and violent extremism. Website: https://www.sph.emory.edu/faculty/profile/#!ALEMIEU
Media Contact: Melva Robertson, melva.robertson@emory.edu - 404-727-5692