The Physician Assistant (PA) Olympics has become a renowned cross-cultural event for PA students, faculty, alumni, and guests of Greater Philadelphia Physician Assistant Programs. The event affords participants the opportunity to come together and work collectively in service to raise awareness of a community-based organization.
This year marks the inaugural partnership with Special Olympics Pennsylvania (SOPA) as its continual recipient of the event. This event aims to unite the leadership and service engagement talents of PA faculty and students from local PA programs to raise funds for SOPA.
Each PA Program raises money by running individual charity events and participating in combined program fundraisers. The ten PA programs participating this year are Arcadia University, Delaware Valley University, Drexel University, Drexel at Salus University, Saint Joseph’s University, Temple University, Thomas Jefferson University, East Falls, NJ, Thomas Jefferson Center City, and West Chester University.
The competition culminates each year with “The Great Race,” where each program competes in a race with entertaining challenges throughout the city of Philadelphia. Each participating PA program will have teams consisting of 10-12 students per team.
The teams then race through the streets of Philadelphia by solving riddles and completing challenges at each landmark stop designed by each PA program. The team with the best overall time wins The Great Race. The race ends with a closing party generously supported by Moriarty’s Restaurant and Irish Pub.
WHEN: Wednesday, April 12, 2025 at 12 p.m.
WHERE: The race takes into account 10 historical landmarks in Center City and is 6 miles long.
The Great Race will conclude with a closing party generously supported by Moriarty’s Restaurant and Irish Pub.
The PA Olympics was started in 2003 by Michael Huber, MMS, PA-C, DFAAPA. Each year, PA programs in the Greater Philadelphia region go head-to-head to raise money for a selected local charity organization in the Delaware Valley region.
