A good sport for good sports
John Wendt has been named by Gov. Mark Dayton to the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission. Wendt teaches in the Department of Ethics and Business Law in the university’s Opus College of Business.
The Minnesota State Legislature created the commission in 1987 “to promote the economic and social benefits of sports.”
The personable Wendt brings an extensive background in sports and law, nationally and internationally, to the position. He is a member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland; there are less than 300 CAS arbitrators in the world. Arbitrators are chosen for their specialist knowledge of arbitration and sports law. CAS has authority over all Olympic international federations and national Olympic committees.
He also served on the Ad Hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport for soccer’s FIFA World Cup in 2010.
Wendt has taught sports law at the University of St. Thomas and the University of Minnesota, and he has written more than 25 articles on sports, risk management and law. He is a member of the Centre d’Estudis Olímpics (Center for Olympic Studies) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Locally he has served on the bid committees for the Olympic Games, the International Special Olympics and the Olympic Sports Festival; in addition, he served as inside counsel for the United States Olympic Sports Festival ’90, for which he received the governor’s Certificate of Commendation for Service to the state of Minnesota.
For the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission, he has served as a planning member for the Council on Physical Fitness and Sport, on the committee of the “Olympic Wall of Fame,” on the Sports Ethics Committee, and he was co-author of the Minnesota Amateur Sports Congress Charter.
“The governor has given me an incredible opportunity to serve the people and state of Minnesota,” Wendt commented. “The Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission has a lot of good people working there and the commission has a very positive impact on the state.”
The Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission oversees 11 facilities in Minnesota, including the National Sports Center in Blaine, the John Rose Oval in Roseville, the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center in Minneapolis, the Ole Mangseth Memorial Ski Jump in Coleraine, and the National Volleyball Center in Rochester.
Wendt has taught at St. Thomas since 1983. He was a Professor of the Year Award nominee in 2011. In the Opus College of Business, he was a Julie Hays Outstanding Teacher Award nominee in 2010, 2011 and 2012, and a Susan E. Heckler Research Excellence Award nominee in 2012 and 2013.