The highly anticipated 2024 Paris Olympics kicks off July 26, with opening ceremonies officially starting at 1:30pm eastern daylight time. While the actual competition is an ocean away, Charlottesvillians will see several familiar faces representing Team USA and other countries on their small screens.
Equestrian
Local equestrian Will Coleman is returning to the games for the first time since his original appearance in 2012.
Coleman started riding—on a Shetland pony named TJ—after moving to Charlottesville at 6 years old.
After graduating from UVA in 2007, Coleman returned to competition and founded Will Coleman Equestrian, which he runs with his wife Katie Coleman. The business is based in Gordonsville, Virginia, and Ocala, Florida.
The equestrian has been named to the U.S. Olympic Eventing Team and will compete with his horse Off the Record. Eventing, also called Three Day Eventing, is split into three parts consisting of dressage, cross country, and show jumping.
Rowing
Across the pond, alumna and former UVA Rowing captain Heidi Long will compete for Great Britain in the women’s eight. The 2024 games are her first Olympic appearance.
“Every day I’m trying to keep focused on rowing and what we are trying to achieve, but I also want to enjoy and feel the excitement of all these special moments,” Long told online magazine British Rowing. “Knowing that my friends and family will be in Paris to support the whole team will hopefully inspire and encourage us to have the best time of our lives.”
In the Paralympics, Sky Dahl will compete in Para Rowing 3 mixed four with coxswain. The PR3 category includes athletes with residual function in the legs and those with vision impairment.
Soccer
Stepping onto the pitch, Cavalier alum Emily Sonnett will play on the U.S. women’s soccer—or, as it’s listed on the Olympic website, football—team.
Since graduating from Virginia, Sonnett has had an action-packed professional soccer career. She is a member of the U.S. national team and was part of the squad that won the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Sonnett is already an Olympic medalist, winning bronze with Team USA at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Swimming
The Charlottesville area will be well-represented in the pool this Olympics. University of Virginia Head Coach Todd DeSorbo is leading the American women’s team, which boasts an impressive five Cavalier competitors. Local highschooler Thomas Heilman will also be swimming for Team USA and is the youngest swimmer to make the men’s Olympic team since Michael Phelps in 2000.
Breaststroke
In her first ever Olympic appearance, UVA’s Emma Weber will represent Team USA in the 100-meter breaststroke event. Weber’s personal-best time of 1:06.02 is unlikely to get her to the podium, but anything is possible in this event, which online publication SwimSwam said is “proven to be unpredictable.”
Kate Douglass—whose image was displayed across the outside of the U.S. Olympic Trials arena—is among the favorites to take gold in the 200-meter breaststroke. Her biggest competition is expected to be defending winner Tatjana Smith of South Africa.
Butterfly
Walsh will make another appearance for Team USA in the women’s 100-meter butterfly and is likely to take gold after setting a new world record in the event at Olympic Trials this June. “Making the team was the biggest goal, but getting a world record was absolute insanity,” she told NBC Sports poolside at the Trials. “I couldn’t ask for a better first event of the meet.”
On the men’s side of the pool, Western Albemarle High School student Thomas Heilman will represent the U.S. in both the 100- and 200-meter butterfly. The 17-year-old is the youngest person on the American Olympic swim squad and made major waves when he qualified for two events at his first Olympic trials in June.
The up-and-comer faces steep competition in both of his events, with Kristóf Milák of Hungary expected to win the 100- and 200-meter races. Heilman’s personal best times in both events put him in the running for a spot on the podium, with a higher likelihood that he places top three in the 200-meter butterfly final.
Freestyle
Sprinting the 50-meter free is up-and-comer Gretchen Walsh, who made a major splash at the NCAA Championships and Olympic Trials earlier this year. The UVA fourth year is on the shortlist to make the podium in the event, though Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström is expected to comfortably take gold.
Walsh will also be swimming in the 100-meter race and is among a handful of serious contenders for the podium in that event.
UVA alum Paige Madden is the one to watch for the longer distance freestyle events, competing in the 400- and 800-meters. Madden has posted impressive times in both races and will represent the U.S. alongside living legend Katie Ledecky, who holds the world record in the 800.
Madden will be swimming an uphill battle to medal in both events amid a crowded competitive field.
In the relay pool, the U.S. has a truly stacked lineup: Walsh and swimming superstar Kate Douglass, another UVA alum, will race on the 4 x 100-meter women’s freestyle relay, while Madden and Ledecky will lead the 4 x 200-meter women’s freestyle relay.
The U.S.-Australian rivalry in the pool will be on full display in the relay events, with Australia favored to take gold in the events. The Aussie roster for the women’s 4 x 200-meter free relay includes the two fastest women in the world in the event, Ariarne Titmus and Mollie O’Callaghan. China and Canada are also expected to have a good showing in the race.
In the international field, Aimee Canny will be competing on behalf of South Africa in the women’s 200-meter freestyle event. A current UVA student, Canny was part of the record-breaking 2023-24 women’s NCAA team. Canny will need to fight to pull off an upset, with Australia expected to sweep gold and silver in the race and Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey favored to win bronze.
Individual Medley
After an incredibly competitive race at Olympic trials, Douglass and Alex Walsh will represent Team USA in the 200-meter individual medley event in Paris.
Touching in just behind Douglass in the final, Alex Walsh not only earned a spot on her second Olympic team, but achieved a lifelong dream of making Team USA alongside her sister Gretchen at the Olympic trials.
“To have a sibling duo that is this elite … both going for the same Olympic dream is so rare,” Alex said ahead of Olympic trials. “We’re proud of each other no matter what.”
The 200-meter IM is a major toss-up, with both Douglass and Alex among the shortlist to take home the gold. Alex and Douglass won silver and bronze, respectively, in the event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Team USA has not officially announced the roster for the women’s medley relay, but Douglass and Gretchen Walsh are both highly anticipated to swim the breaststroke and butterfly legs of the event, respectively. Whatever combination of swimmers the U.S. puts forward, the Americans are expected to sprint away with the gold in the relay.
UVA Swimmers could also appear in the mixed medley relay, but there has been no official information released about the makeup of that team. The U.S. has dominated the event in international competitions recently, with Douglass swimming on the gold-medal team that won top prize at this year’s World Aquatics Championships.
Tennis
On the courts, Charlottesville will recognize Danielle Collins and Emma Navarro on Team USA. Both Hoos will play in the singles field, with Collins pulling double duty on the doubles roster.
Navarro—who left UVA to go pro after her second year—has reached new heights after upsetting tennis star Coco Gauff in the fourth round at Wimbledon. While she was knocked out in the quarterfinal by Jasmine Paolini of Italy, the 23-year-old is riding a career-high rank of 15th in the world going into the Olympics.
Also competing in singles, Collins had a strong showing at Wimbledon and is one to watch in Paris. The 2016 alum is currently ranked ninth in the world in singles by the Women’s Tennis Association and was previously ranked seventh in 2022, with the Olympics set to be her last major competition before retiring later this year.
In the doubles arena, Collins is ranked lower, currently positioned at 154th internally by WTA. She will compete alongside Desirae Krawczyk, who is 12th in the world.
As of press time, preliminary brackets for Olympic tennis events have not been released.
Track and Field
In the track and field arena (or, as it’s labeled on the Olympics’ website, Athletics) several Virginia alumni will be competing—but only one for Team USA.
On the American team, former Cavalier Bridget Williams, née Guy, will represent Team USA in the women’s pole vault following her win at U.S. Olympic trials.
“Being a first time Olympian is a huge honor that I will never take for granted,” Williams told Virginia Sports. “The United States consistently [boasts] the top athletes in the world, and I am grateful I get to be a part of this year’s team.”
On the Jamaican team, Hoos Andrenette Knight and Jordan Scott are both making their first Olympic appearances at 27 years old.
A world-class athlete in the 400-meter hurdle and flat events, Knight has been named as an alternate and is among the relay pool. Jamaica’s track and field team are among, if not outright, the best in the world, so qualifying for the team is extremely competitive even for top-ranked athletes.
Knight is currently ranked seventh in the world in the 400-meter hurdle event and finished fourth in the race at the Jamaican Olympic trials earlier this summer. She holds the school record in the event at UVA, which she set during her final year of NCAA eligibility in 2021.
Leaping into action, Scott will compete in the men’s long jump and triple jump for Jamaica. During his time at Virginia, Scott set school records which still stand today in both events.
“Coming from Jamaica, with such a rich history in the sport, I’ve grown to see how much these athletes were admired and cherished by my country and it is still surreal that I’ve finally achieved this goal and am receiving the same level of admiration as the individuals I once looked up to,” Scott told Virginia Sports.
Competing for Grenada, Halle Hazzard will sprint the women’s 100-meter dash at her first Olympic Games. She is one of only four athletes on the Grenada Olympic track and field team, with the Carribbean nation sending six competitors total to Paris this summer.
Hazzard currently holds the UVA record in the 100-meter dash at 11.20 seconds, set in 2019.
Virginia law student Ashley Anumba is also making her Olympic debut in Paris, representing Nigeria in the women’s discus throw.
Ranked 35th in the world in her event, Anumba competed for University of Pennsylvania as an undergrad, then the Hoos during her first two years as a law student. After the Olympics, she is set to return to Charlottesville for her final year of law school.
Also throwing his hat in the ring this Olympics, alum Filip Mihaljević will make his third Olympic appearance for Team Croatia in the men’s shot put.
Post-grad, Mihaljević has risen through the ranks to become one of the top shot put athletes in the world, currently ranked seventh internationally. He previously competed in the 2016 and 2020 Olympics and has placed progressively higher in his event at each Olympic Games.
Goalball
Competing on the American Goalball team, Matt Simpson is making his third Olympic appearance, vying for another medal after taking home silver in 2016 and coming just short of the podium in 2020. The sport is specifically made for visually impaired athletes, with competitors throwing balls with bells inside them into goals. Simpson graduated from UVA Law in 2020 and is a practicing attorney.
