Drexel Engineering Professor Will Represent Thailand Team and Compete in 2006 Winter Olympics

Business Wire, Feb 10, 2006

PHILADELPHIA -- Forty-seven-year-old Drexel University Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Prawat Nagvajara will compete in the Winter Olympics. A native of Bangkok, Thailand--a country where the average yearly temperature hovers in the 80s--Nagvajara will represent his homeland in cross-country skiing at the 2006 games. He is the sole representative of Thailand. He is Team Thailand. He will carry his country's flag during the opening ceremony.

It wasn't always a dream for Nagvajara to compete in the Olympics. In fact, he had never skied until his college years in the U.S. What's most intriguing about the oldest Winter Olympian to compete in an endurance sport is his motivation to compete in the Olympics and represent his country. After seeing the devastation the tsunami caused in Thailand, Nagvajara felt an obligation to participate in the 2006 games to raise his homeland's morale.

With his competition date approaching, Nagvajara says he feels ready after an average of 14-15 hours of training weekly. His trainer has focused on endurance training to ensure that Nagvajara will finish the race in good time. His primary goal as one of the oldest competitors in the Winter Olympiad is to reach the finish line in under an hour. "For average athletes like me, it's a dream just to be able to compete in the Olympics," he said.

Nagvajara will tackle the Turin slopes on February 17. His wife, Gena Nagvajara, and their two children, six-year-old Nathan and three-year-old Ty, are with Nagvajara in Italy.

At Drexel, Nagvajara teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in electrical and computer engineering, while conducting research on high-performance computing for electrical power grids.

*** To schedule an interview with Nagvajara while he is in Turin, Italy, contact the Drexel University News Bureau at 215-895-6741. B-roll of Nagvajara training, at home or in the classroom can be downloaded at www.drexel.edu/olympics/prawat. No permission from Drexel is required to download and use the footage. ***