A U.S. scholar will explore the ancient Olympic Games through a modern lens Friday in a lecture at The University of Western Ontario.

Classicist David Gilman Romano, from the University of Pennsylvania, will present the International Centre for Olympic Studies’ annual Ion P. Ioannides address on Oct. 24, at 3:30 p.m., in Room 11 of the Arthur and Sonia Labatt Health Sciences Building.

The lecture is called, "True heroes and dishonourable victors at Olympia."

Romano, an adjunct professor of Classical Studies and senior research scientist in the Mediterranean section of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology, draws on a career-long scholarship in the ancient Olympic Games. He returns to Western’s campus, which he visited for the first time in 1974, to present his first professional research paper on the theme of the Olympic Games in antiquity.

A public reception will follow the lecture.

The Ioannides address was established in 1986 and memorializes Ion P. Ioannides, who distinguished himself in the Second World War as a Greek guerilla hero during the German and Italian occupation of Greece.

He became Deputy Minister of Physical Education, championing Olympic-type sports in elementary and high school curricula. Ioannides, who died in 1984, taught summer courses at Western in the 1970s, helping to conduct field experiences in Greece and Turkey for Western sport history students.