In 1896, the International Olympic Committee began its revival of the ancient Greek games in Athens, Greece. Since the inception of the modern games, Ivy League athletes have been competing for their countries against people from all over the world. Three Cornellians made the trip to the 1904 Games, which has led to a legacy of over 80 athletes competing for the elusive gold medal.

Brett Hoover, an Ivy League and Olympics enthusiast, worked on compiling a list of all the Ivy undergraduates who had competed in the Olympics since its rebirth, noticing the extensive history of the two organizations.

“No other league can say they had people in the 1904 Olympics, because no one else did. So that’s part of it, that our history starts at the very origins of it,” Hoover explained about the high prevalence of Ivy Olympians.

Prior to 1991, when a high school senior was accepted for admission to any of the member universities of the Ivy League, the future collegiate scholar would make his or her final decision based on the university’s non-financial assets.

Welcome to Cornell Diaries, where we print the anonymous recorded lives of Cornell students. While The Sun maintains the confidentiality of each writer, all facts have been verified and all diaries record the truth.

Friday January 30, 2009

9 a.m. I hear my alarm go off … I look to see what time it is and hit the snooze button.

9:30 a.m. I’ve hit the snooze button six times. I’m finally awake … I’m up too early after another late night of beer pong and repeatedly taking shots at my mixer … The hangover feels worse when you know you have to be at practice in an hour.