TAMPA, Fla. — The Olympics may have come to a close, but for one Strawberry Crest High School graduate, the memories will live on forever. However, she wasn’t there to play a sport; she was there to introduce a device that could revolutionize the way people play sports.
ABC Action News first introduced you to Aarushi Pant last year when she was a junior at Strawberry Crest, working with her fellow students to create a Human Health Band, which monitors overheating among athletes.
Little did she know, one year later, she’d be showing off the invention during the Olympics in Paris, France.
“This was just crazy for us. When I got the text, I didn’t think it would reach this level,” said Pant.
Pant was one of 10 students across the globe to be invited to the Olympics as an ambassador for the campaign “Together for Tomorrow, Enabling People.”
It’s a partnership between Samsung and the International Olympic Committee that aims to encourage students to build a better future through technology.
“It was really exciting for me, and of course, I’ve never seen an Olympic event in person, so that was extremely exciting for me,” said Pant. “I mean, the adrenaline rush was crazy. I saw a swimming event when I went, so everyone was just cheering their players, and I was like, ‘Wow, this is really cool.'"
It was also Pant’s first trip to the City of Lights.
“Me and my dad actually visited a little bit around Paris. We went to the museums, the Palace of Versailles, we saw the Eiffel Tower at night, which was just amazing,” said Pant.
In between sightseeing and cheering, Pant introduced the Human Health Band to members of the International Olympic Committee.
“So it measures a student’s temperature, and it releases that information onto an app for the coach, and so if the temperature is going above a threshold, it will alert the coach that their temperatures are rising so they can be pulled out of the field,” said Pant.
Pant said she may have been the only student from Strawberry Crest to make the trip but she could have never done it alone.
“I’m extremely lucky, and I don’t think this would be possible without my teacher and the other students at Strawberry Crest who really worked together to make this happen, so I’m really grateful to them,” said Pant.
Pant was even presented with her own special medal.
“This is the Openness Medal. It’s about being open to failures, open to trying new things, and it goes with the theme of open always wins,” said Pant.
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