“It really is the thrill of a lifetime,” Scholes said. “There is nothing like standing at the podium and seeing the stars and stripes going up. It really chokes you up.”

Although most MSU students and staff won’t be able to experience the Olympic Games as Scholes did, a project by the MSU Chinese Undergraduate Student Association made it possible for 10,000 Spartans to be represented at this year’s games.

The group created a 100-foot banner that holds the names of everyone who took the time to sign the banner when it made its rounds across various buildings on campus last spring.

Flanked by other banners from schools all around the globe, MSU’s banner will be visible to everyone who makes the trip to Beijing.

“I was very happy to do this for MSU and the Olympic Games because it is in my country (of China),” said Chenrui Wang, public relations officer for the group. “We did everything by ourselves and prepared this gift for the Chinese for a long time.”

Although no current MSU athletes will compete in Beijing this year, MSU will be represented at the games.

Here are the stories of the individuals who will represent MSU in the Summer Olympic Games.

Keepin’ it green

If it were up to John “Trey” Rogers, no one would know what he’s doing at the Olympic Games.

“Being in the background is always a good thing for turf grass managers,” said Rogers, who has been an MSU professor for 20 years.

“If the field is great then everyone is happy, but if the field is lousy everyone is going to talk about it every time someone slips. No news is good news in my profession.”

In addition to this year’s Olympic Games, Rogers’ profession has found him at the reigns of turf projects at the 1993 World Cup at the Pontiac Silverdome and the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. In 2002, Rogers was also in charge of changing Spartan Stadium’s playing surface from artificial turf to grass.

Although his responsibilities this summer keep him behind the scenes, Rogers’ work space is the focal point of the Olympic Games. Rogers and his staff are responsible for growing and constructing the turf at the 91,000-seat Bird’s Nest stadium, which will host the main track-and-field events, along with the men’s gold medal soccer game.

Using 1,100-pound pots, Rogers and his team have been growing Kentucky bluegrass in Beijing for the past 11 months from a parking lot five miles away from the Bird’s Nest.

All the grass will be transported into the stadium after the opening ceremonies conclude, a process Rogers estimates will take about 30 hours and require roughly 100 workers.

Rogers isn’t nervous about the moving process, but he’s worried about the main enemy for those in his line of work: The weather.

“We’ve done the transporting of the modules a number of times and the Chinese fully moved the field in May,” Rogers said. “I don’t think it’s as big of a challenge as the weather, just because we can’t predict or control it at all.”

Weijun Zhao, director of MSU’s Office of China Programs, helped set up Rogers with the owners of the Bird’s Nest in 2005. After being chosen to be the main consultants on the turf in 2007, MSU’s turf team paired up with the Chinese Sports Facility Construction Co. to begin preparations.

“Things weren’t easy to begin with because the Chinese officials did not trust us fully and they would consult Chinese experts after Trey gave them any advice,” said Zhao, who works as the Chinese liaison for Rogers and his team.

“Gradually they learned we have the real expertise and now they rely 100 percent on our advice.”

“I couldn’t have done it without you, Doc.”

Whenever Dr. Larry Nassar hears those words, he gets butterflies and knows he picked the right profession.

“Being able to help someone accomplish their goals is what I’ve always wanted to do,” said Nassar, who is making his third trip to the Olympic Games.

“I love being able to help athletes achieve their dreams by helping them out and caring for them.”

Since he started with the USA Gymnastics team in 1986, Nassar has worked his way up the ranks and acquired the position of national medical director for USA gymnastics — a post that makes him the head of the governing body that provides medical care for the USA gymnastics, trampoline, and tae kwon do teams at the Olympic Games. He’ll be on site when all the teams compete.

When Nassar, 45, isn’t assisting the national gymnastics team, he serves as a faculty member in MSU’s Division of Sports Medicine. He has been at MSU since he graduated in 1993 with a degree from MSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine.

His responsibilities with the U.S. team have allowed him to travel around the world, but he stresses that his main priority on the road is making sure his athletes are taken care of.

“I normally work from about 7 a.m.-11 p.m. and sometimes I’m on call after that,” Nassar said. “The team is currently doing two-a-days so it does make for a long day because you are in the practice gym or doing treatments (for a long period), then you do it all over again for the second practice.”

Medical care for gymnasts can be a challenge because of all the flexibility and muscles required, according to Nassar.

“Gymnastics differs from other sports because you need to be able to protect the athletes in practice and you can’t just use big bulky braces or put a cast on something,” he said.

“It’s challenging to make sure that they are able to still have their full athletic motion.”

The workload isn’t too much for Nassar, who said he loves every second of working with the gymnasts, with whom he’s formed strong bonds.

“Gymnasts are some of the most talented athletes around and the fact that I can actually help these athletes really accomplish their goals is really incredible for me,” he said.

“I love being able to work with the best athletes in the world.”

The right mind-set

It all came down to one leap for high jumper Nicole Forrester.

The third-year MSU doctoral student had to clear 6 feet, 4 3/4 inches if she wanted to make the journey to Beijing to represent Canada, her home country, in the Olympic Games.

Forrester missed the Olympic Games in 2004 with an injured ankle, and in 2000 she missed the qualifying height by a single centimeter.

But this time, Forrester wasn’t to be denied as she made the leap over the bar.

“She was determined to make that jump,” said Dan Gould, an MSU kinesiology professor who has worked with Forrester for the past two years. “That was a big-time pressure jump that she was able to clear.”

Unlike a strength or fitness coach, Gould has worked with a frequently overlooked aspect of elite athletes preparations — their mental conditioning.

Gould considers himself the mental training coach for Forrester, the first-ranked high jumper in Canada and the 13th-ranked jumper in the world.

Gould met Forrester when she was a student in one of his sports psychology classes and the two hit it off right away, Gould said. Forrester was interested in extensive studies of the minds of Olympic athletes, which he conducted for the U.S. Olympic Committee in the late 1990s.

“I don’t have the magic elixir or potions to give athletes and they are never dependent on me,” he said.

“It’s like she is the CEO and she integrates as much information we can give her to help improve herself.”

Gould enjoys working with the six-time Canadian high jump champion and helping her set her goals.

“She keeps her goals pretty close to the chest,” he said.

“But I know she will be satisfied if she comes back and feels that she jumped the best she could have. Hopefully I’ve helped her with that.”