Article by John Meylor
Last weekend, the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France wrapped up. The 16 day global event saw over 10,000 athletes from 206 countries compete across 329 events. The final medal count saw USA and China tie with 40 gold medals apiece, and had USA as the far and away overall medal count leader with a total of 126. Amongst the USA’s overwhelming number of medalists, 8 coloradans delivered Podium performances for the country.
Colorado has always played an integral role in the United States’ Olympic showing, historically providing training to native Coloradoan athletes across numerous sports, as well as providing for athletes from all over the country. Colorado is home to Olympic City, Team USA’s primary training facility which trains over 15,000 athletes every year for upcoming Games. For this year’s Games, Colorado was represented in Team USA by 26 athletes across 14 different events, the second most of any state in the country. The following events saw podium(or top 3) performances from Colorado natives:
Men’s Basketball
CU Alum Derrick White helped lead the Men’s Basketball team to a dominant tournament run, walking away with a Gold Medal. White provided much needed depth for the hyper-talented USA Team that quickly earned the nickname “The Avengers” due to the sheer titanic levels of greatness across the roster. The Parker, Colorado native first had his national breakout in the college basketball world. As a former-Buff he led the team in scoring and was named First Team All-Pac-12 while leading CU to multiple playoff appearances. Following his success in his home state, White continued to make a name for himself in the NBA as a strong bench scorer and starting defender, leading him to multiple All-NBA Defensive selections and an NBA Championship this year as a member of the Boston Celtics. Although White didn’t have quite the volume of minutes in the Olympics as he did in the NBA finals, his defensive prowess and high basketball IQ provided the USA squad the extra power to coast its way through the tournament for the eventual gold medal. The achievement is adds to Whites solidifies 2024 as the best year of White’s career.
Women’s Soccer
The US Women’s Soccer team entered Paris looking to snap an Olympic snub in the sport, as the common-cited heavyweights of the sport had failed to win the last 3 olympics prior to Paris. Amongst the roster Colorado was represented by forwards Mallory Swanson and Sophia Smith, from Highlands ranch and Windsor, respectively and by midfielder, Golden native, and USA Team captain Lindsey Horan. The 3 all performed exceptionally well and heavily contributed to team USA’s success, with Swanson and Smith especially standing out for their exemplary scoring, combining for 7 goals in the tournament. Amongst those 7 included a game clinching goal in overtime from Smith in the semi finals against Germany and the Gold Medal winning goal by Swanson against Brazil.
Women’s Volleyball
On the final day of the Games, the USA Women’s volleyball team haggled for what ended up being a silver medal in the final tournament. Their run through the games was quite strong, cleanly sweeping teams like France and Poland, as well as etching out clutch 3-2 victories over a fiery Serbian team and the formidable top-seeded Brazilian team, before finally having their run end at 2nd as they competed again the Italian team. Colorado was represented on this squad by Jordyn Poulter and Hayleigh Washington. Pouler is an Aurora native who was a nationally ranked top 3 prospect out of high school and who has won multiple global competitions for the USA, including the 2020 Olympic Gold. Poulter is valued for her setting ability, often being touted as the best setter in the world. Washington is a Denver native who holds multiple state high school records for various in-competition stats, and has won national championships in college, as well as being a major contributor to the aforementioned 2020 Gold winning team.
Mixed Triathlon
Within the games’ triathlon events, Coloradan Taylor Knibb represented team USA in the Mixed Relay. The mixed event saw four person teams of 2 men and 2 women compete in triathlons within a relay format, with each athlete swimming 330 yards, cycling 5 miles, and running 1.2 miles. Knibb, a longtime resident of Boulder, acted as the anchor within the race, using her final leg of the relay to push ahead of Great Britain’s team and secure a silver medal in a tightly contested race. Knibb was the child of Ironman athletes and began competing from a very young age, being one of three women to win world championships in both U23 and Junior triathlon events. In addition to her triathlon success, Knibb is a world class Ironman runner as well, winning two world championships for the women’s Ironman 70.3(colloquially known as the half Ironman) and finishing fourth in her debut at the Ironman World championships last year. In addition to her silver medal performance in the Mixed triathlon, Knibb made waves in Paris for being the only athlete from Team USA to compete in two entirely different sports, as she had also earned a spot on the U.S. Cycling Team.
Women’s Sport Climb [Combined]
One of the largest changes to recent olympics iterations is an increased focus on climbing, with events in both Paris and its predecessor that focus on the 3 climbing disciplines of bouldering, lead climbing, and speed climbing. This year, bouldering and lead climbing were combined into a general sport climb event. The women’s sport climb is where Boulder native and climbing prodigy Brooke Raboutou finally had her olympic breakthrough. Following a relatively disappointing showing in Tokyo in which Raboutou placed 5th amid high expectations, she entered Paris with a vengeance and put on a clinic in both disciplines, with her bouldering runs showcasing a technical and crafty style. Raboutou was born and raised in Boulder, and instantly became a superstar in the climbing world upon breaking numerous records for being the youngest woman to send various V10 and V11 bouldering climbs between the ages of 9-11. Since then, Raboutou has competed in numerous global climbing competitions, and claimed her first gold medal from an IFSC Climbing World Cup event in 2023 for bouldering. For her performance at Paris, Brooke Raboutout ended up with a silver medal, and was the centerpiece of one of the most notable moments of the game as she tearfully cheered on her competitor, Slovenian Janja Garnbret, as Garnbret claimed the gold.
Track and Field
The cornerstone of the Summer Games this year, as is often the case, were the Track and Field events that took place towards the back half of the Games. The USA showed world class dominance, with 14 golds and 34 medals across 42 events. Amongst the gold winners was Longmont native Valarie Allman, a discus specialist who won the event with a throw that extended more than 7 feet further than the 2nd place throw. Allman’s showing continued a very impressive streak of showings in global track events this decade, which began with a gold medal performance at the 2021 tokyo olympics, and then was followed by top 3 performances at both the 2022 and 2023 world athletics championships. Allman is now just one of 4 women to ever win multiple gold medals in the event, and will be aiming to be the first ever three-peat in the category come the 2028 games in LA.
Posted on Aug 17 – 4:00pm