Sarah Bacon
Minnesota connection: Gophers
Sport: Diving (women’s 3-meter springboard, 3-meter synchronized)
Olympic experience: First
Bio: The most decorated female athlete in Gophers history, Bacon, 27, won five NCAA diving titles in five seasons at the U, tied for the most national titles of any Gopher. At the 2020 U.S. Olympic trials in her hometown of Indianapolis, Bacon was one spot off from qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics. She returned to the diving trials in Tennessee last month to qualify in both the individual 3-meter springboard and 3-meter synchronized with diving partner and 2016 Olympian Kassidy Cook. The pair finished fourth at last year’s world championships and trains with Gophers diving coach Wenbo Chen.
Schedule: July 27, synchronized; Aug. 7-9, individual 3-meter springboard
Napheesa Collier
Minnesota connection: Lynx
Sport: Women’s basketball
Olympic experience: 2021
Bio: The youngest player on the U.S. roster in Tokyo, Collier played limited minutes as Team USA won its seventh gold medal in a row in women’s basketball. This time around, the 27-year-old forward was coming into the Olympics in the top five in the WNBA in points (20.0 per game), rebounds (10.2 and steals (2.2). But a recurrence of plantar fasciitis has kept her out of the Lynx lineup since July 4 and raised questions over how much she will play in Paris. In February, at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Antwerp, Belgium, Collier led the United States in scoring (19.0) and was selected one of the five top players at the tournament.
Schedule: July 29 vs. Japan, 2 p.m.; Aug. 1, vs. Belgium, 2 p.m.; Aug. 4, vs. Germany, 10:15 a.m.; Aug. 7-11, knockout rounds
Lara Dallman-Weiss
Minnesota connection: Shoreview
Sport: Sailing (mixed 470)
Olympic experience: 2021
Bio: After finishing 12th in the two-person women’s 470 dinghy race at the Tokyo Games, Dallman-Weiss heads to Paris to compete in a sailing event making its Olympic debut: the mixed-gender 470. Teaming up with five-time Olympian Stu McNay, Dallman-Weiss qualified for Paris with a 26th-place finish at the world championships in March in Spain. The Mounds View High School alum, now 35, began sailing on White Bear Lake at age 6 and captained the Eckerd College sailing team. The U.S. sailing team was shut out at the Tokyo Olympics.
Schedule: Aug. 2-7
Anthony Edwards
Minnesota connection: Timberwolves
Sport: Men’s basketball
Olympic experience: First
Bio: Edwards, an Atlanta native, just completed his fourth season with the Timberwolves after the franchise selected him No. 1 overall in 2020. He led the team to its first Western Conference finals appearance since 2004, earned All-NBA honors for the first time and is a two-time All-Star. He led the team in scoring last season with a career-best 25.9 points per game. Edwards, who turns 23 on Aug. 5, is playing for Team USA for the second consecutive summer after he was a part of the World Cup team that placed fourth in 2023, leading the Americans in scoring with 18.9 points per game. The United States has won 16 of the 20 gold medals awarded in men’s basketball, including the last four.
Schedule: July 28, vs. Serbia, 10:15 a.m.; July 31, vs. South Sudan, 2 p.m.; Aug. 3 vs. Puerto Rico, 10:15 a.m. ; Aug. 6-10, knockout rounds
Suni Lee
Minnesota connection: St. Paul
Sport: Women’s gymnastics
Olympic experience: 2021
Bio: Lee, the first Hmong American to make the Olympic team, won the gold medal in the women’s all-around and the bronze in the uneven bars at age 18 in Tokyo three years ago. She also helped the United States to silver in the team final after the withdrawal of Simone Biles and finished fifth in the balance beam. Now 21, Lee is back at another Olympics after dealing with serious kidney ailments that left her wondering whether she would ever compete again. With Biles headed to her third Olympics, this is the oldest and most decorated American women’s gymnastics team going to a Summer Games, with the last two all-around champions and four Tokyo Olympians on the squad. Lee has stated her goals this time are to make all-around final again, win the beam gold and finish top three in bars.
Schedule: July 28, qualification for all-around and event finals, 2:30 a.m.; July 30, team final, 11:15 a.m.
Dakotah Lindwurm
Minnesota connection: St. Francis
Sport: Track and field (women’s marathon)
Olympic experience: First
Bio: Lindwurm, a former goalie on the high school hockey team-turned Division II All-America track athlete from Northern State University, secured her spot on Team USA with a third-place finish (2:25:31) in the marathon trials in February in Orlando. She has had success in recent years at Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, winning twice (2021, 2022) and finishing second in 2023. Lindwurm ran part of the same course during the Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon in June, one last race before the Paris Games. She finished second, and both she and her Minnesota Distance Elite teammate Annie Frisbie, who took the Garry Bjorklund title, beat the previous course record.
Schedule: Aug. 11, 1 a.m.
Payton Otterdahl
Minnesota connection: Rosemount
Sport: Track and field (men’s shot put)
Olympic experience: 2021
Bio: When he’s not coaching or taking care of his pet snakes, Otterdahl, 28, is preparing for his second Olympics, having finished 10th in men’s shot put in Tokyo. After recovering from hip labrum surgery in late 2022, Otterdahl finished fifth at the 2023 World Athletics Championships and third at the U.S. Olympic trials in June behind Tokyo gold medalist Ryan Crouser and silver medalist Joe Kovacs. The Rosemount High alum wrestled, played football and won Class 2A state championships in both shot put and discus before heading to North Dakota State. With the Bison, he set the NCAA indoor shot put record en route to two NCAA titles.
Schedule: Aug. 2, qualifying; Aug. 3, final
Cheryl Reeve
Minnesota connection: Lynx
Sport: Women’s basketball
Olympic experience: 2016, 2021
Bio: An assistant coach for the gold medal winning teams in Rio and Tokyo, Reeve became head coach of the U.S. women’s national team in 2021. The team is 13-0 in international play during that time, including a gold medal run at the 2022 FIBA World Cup. The Lynx head coach since 2010 and general manager since 2017, Reeve has led them to four WNBA championships and is a three-time WNBA Coach of the Year, most recently in 2020. Among her assistants in Paris is St. Paul native Mike Thibault, whose daughter Carly was on Lindsay Whalen’s staff with the Gophers.
Schedule: July 29 vs. Japan, 2 p.m.; Aug. 1, vs. Belgium, 2 p.m.; Aug. 4, vs. Germany, 10:15 a.m.; Aug. 7-11, knockout rounds
Regan Smith
Minnesota connection: Lakeville
Sport: Swimming (women’s 100 backstroke, 200 backstroke, 200 butterfly, medley relay)
Olympic experience: 2021
Bio: Smith, 22, has compiled one of the most impressive résumés of any American swimmer in recent years. At the Tokyo Olympics, she won silver in the 200 fly and the 400 medley relay and bronze in the 100 back. In the past three world championships, she brought home nine medals, including five golds. A brief, disappointing stint at Stanford eventually led Smith to move to Arizona in 2022 to work with Bob Bowman, who coached Michael Phelps to 28 Olympic medals. She enters the Olympics ranked No. 1 in the world in the 100-meter backstroke, after setting a world record at the U.S. trials in June, and No. 2 in the 200 back and 200 fly.
Schedule: July 29, 100 backstroke heats and semifinals; July 30, 100 backstroke final; July 31, 200 butterfly heats and semifinals; Aug. 1, 200 backstroke heats and semifinals, 200 butterfly final; Aug. 2, 200 backstroke final; Aug. 3, women’s medley relay, heats; Aug. 4, women’s medley relay final
Jordan Thompson
Minnesota connection: Edina
Sport: Women’s volleyball
Olympic experience: 2021
Bio: In Tokyo, an ankle injury kept Thompson, 27, out of the United States’ first-ever gold medal victory. The 6-4 opposite hitter helped the U.S. top pool play with a game-high 18 points in a win over Turkey. Since her Olympic debut, Thompson has played professionally in Italy and Turkey and will join the Houston team for League One Volleyball’s inaugural season in January. After graduating from Edina High, Thompson set numerous NCAA Division I records playing at the University of Cincinnati, including most kills in a match (50) and highest single-season kills per set average (6.27). The U.S. women’s volleyball team enters the Paris Olympics ranked fifth in the world.
Schedule: July 29, vs. China, 10 a.m.; July 31, vs. Serbia, 10 a.m.; Aug. 4, vs. France, 6 a.m.; Aug. 6-11, knockout rounds
Matthew Wilkinson
Minnesota connection: Minnetonka, Carleton, Gophers
Sport: Track and field (men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase)
Olympic experience: First
Bio: Wilkinson, 25, never qualified for the Minnesota state track meet as a distance runner, though he earned a spot in the state cross-country meet multiple times. He drew little attention from Division I programs and enrolled at Carleton College, where he found his true love for running and became a two-time Division III national champion and both the indoor and outdoor national track athlete of the year. That success allowed him to continue his postgraduate career with the Gophers. He won multiple Big Ten titles and was chosen the 2023 Big Ten Athlete of the Championships.
Schedule: Aug. 1, round 1; Aug. 7, final
Alise Willoughby
Minnesota connection: St. Cloud
Sport: BMX racing
Olympic experience: 2012, 2016, 2021
Bio: Nicknamed “The Beast,” Willoughby, 33, is Minnesota’s only four-time Olympian heading to Paris. The 2016 Olympic silver medalist began racing at Pineview Park, her family’s track in St. Cloud, and turned pro at age 15. After two crashes in the semifinals ended Willoughby’s 2021 medal hopes, she won her record-tying third world title at the world championships in May in South Carolina. She also won world titles in 2017 and 2019 and was a state champion gymnast for St. Cloud Tech. In 2019, she married fellow BMX Olympian Sam Willoughby, who is now coaching her.
Schedule: Aug. 1, quarterfinals; Aug. 2. semifinals and finals
Note: Former Gophers gymnast Shane Wiskus of Spring Park is going to Paris as an alternate on the U.S. men’s team but will not compete unless a teammate is injured.
In addition to U.S. Olympians with Minnesota ties, the following athletes who competed for Minnesota high schools and colleges or are current pros in the state will be in Paris representing other countries.
Notably, half of Liberia’s eight-member Olympic track team has ties to Minnesota. At the World Relays in the Bahamas in May, a men’s 4×100-meter relay team made up entirely of runners with Minnesota connections set a national record and qualified for the Paris Games: Akeem Sirleaf of St. Paul, Emmanuel Matadi of St. Paul and Minnesota State Mankato, Jabez Reeves of MSU Mankato and anchor Joseph Fahnbulleh of Hopkins. Sirleaf, after recently sustaining an injury, is an alternate for the Olympics.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Timberwolves, Canada, men’s basketball
Alasan Ann, Maple Grove, the Gambia, taekwondo
Devin Augustine, Gophers, Trinidad and Tobago, track and field (100 meters)
Michael Boxall, Minnesota United, New Zealand, men’s soccer
Bridget Carleton, Lynx, Canada, women’s basketball
Denisha Cartwright, Minnesota State Mankato, the Bahamas, track and field (women’s 100 hurdles)
Joseph Fahnbulleh, Hopkins, Liberia, track and field (men’s 200, 4×100 relay)
Rudy Gobert, Timberwolves, France, men’s basketball
Joe Ingles, Timberwolves, Australia, men’s basketball
Emmanuel Matadi, St. Paul/Minnesota State Mankato, Liberia, track and field (men’s 100, 4×100)
Airi Miyabe, Gophers, Japan, women’s volleyball
Nuni Omot, Mahtomedi, South Sudan, men’s basketball
Jabez Reeves, Minnesota State Mankato, Liberia, track and field (men’s 4×100)
Akeem Sirleaf, St. Paul, Liberia, track and field (men’s 4×100)
Alanna Smith, Lynx, Australia, women’s basketball
Ava Stewart, Gophers, Canada, women’s gymnastics
Bar Soloveychik, Gophers, Israel, swimming (men’s 4×200 freestyle relay)
Erik van Rooyen, Gophers, South Africa, men’s golf
Know of other Olympians with Minnesota ties not listed here? Email [email protected].
Cassidy Hettesheimer, Naila-Jean Meyers, Chris Hine, Christa Lawler, Chip Scoggins and Rachel Blount contributed reporting.
Source link : https://www.startribune.com/paris-olympics-team-usa-summer-games-minnesota-athletes/600381402/
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Publish date : 2024-07-19 14:39:36
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