By Emily Rice
Earlier this month, a few of Andy Clark’s current and former students, myself included, had the amazing opportunity to attend the Chicago Sports Summit.
Across four panels, we heard from a diverse range of speakers from various sectors of the sports industry, each providing valuable insights into their respective areas of expertise.
The first panel was with Joie Chitwood and Vaughn Moore about the upcoming PGA President’s Club in 2026, which will be hosted at the Medina Country Club. They spoke about how this President’s Cup is going to be unique for several reasons, including that Medina recently spent $24 million on renovations and that it will be the first course to have hosted a President’s Cup, Ryder Cup, U.S. Open, and PGA Championship.
Joie Chitwood and Vaughn Moore
Just in time for this past weekend, the next panel was with Carey Pinkowski, George Chiampas, and Jenny Spangler to talk about the Chicago Marathon. They explained a little bit of the history of the race and shared details about this year’s race as well. This year hosted more runners than ever before with roughly 50,000 runners from over 130 countries and all 50 states participating.
Carey Pinkowski, George Chiampas, and Jenny Spangler
The next interview with Laura Ricketts, the controlling owner of the Red Stars, co-owner of the Cubs, and minority owner of the Sky really resonated with me. She spoke about many topics but two that stood out to me were her discussions of the inequalities that exist in the sports world between men’s and women’s sports and the difficulties that lie within having your stadium less than optimal in terms of being out of reach of public transportation and having to share with other teams/events. When she took over the Red Stars team, the team wasn’t in the best shape, but she hopes to change this and create a world-class team that sets the standard for other teams.
To wrap the morning up, the final panel was about how science and data analysis drive pro athletes’ performances with Elizabeth Pieroth, Brittany Dowling, and Keegan Knoll. Although each of these panelists specializes in different departments of athlete performance, they all agreed that it is often hard to get athletes to step down/take a break when they are injured and that finding the line between performance and injury prevention is often blurred, but they are hoping the use of more integrated technology and data will help prevent this stigma.
Thank you to all the guest speakers for their valuable insights and a special thank you to Ann Pitcher for allowing us to be at this amazing event!