CJ Allen, a WSU grad, earned his spot in Paris on the Olympic trials final month.
When you’ve managed to outlive Crowdstrike-induced chaos and efficiently boarded a world flight up to now few days, you could have observed a conspicuous variety of sporty-looking passengers on board. With the 2024 Paris Olympics kicking off this weekend, and with the Paralympics happening subsequent month, elite athletes from the Seattle area are flocking to France—competing towards the world’s crème de la crème throughout 329 athletic occasions.
Our native Olympic cohort is a multi-hyphenate bunch reflecting our area’s eclectic skills. From the youngest member of the US Paralympic workforce, to a gymnast who can rely Beyoncé as a fan, to brawny bookworms, listed below are native members of Staff USA you’ll be able to cheer on as they go for gold.
CJ Allen
Allyn
Allen, of Allyn, is a WSU alum competing within the 400m hurdles. He’s a double Pac-12 champion, leads Bible research for his workforce, possesses a chiropractic diploma, and is growing a YouTube channel. A veritable multitasker, Allen clinched his spot on the workforce final month on the Olympic Staff Trials in Eugene, and completed tenth on the World Championships final yr.
Jordan Chiles
Vancouver
You might acknowledge Chiles from her stellar efficiency on the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the place she gained a silver medal within the girls’s creative workforce all-around occasion (alongside her buddy Simone Biles). Chiles has deliberately centered and celebrated Black tradition in her routines—she was the one Black member of her gymnastics program rising up in Vancouver, WA—however, shamefully, was advised to alter her ’90s hip-hop-heavy ground routine as a result of it’s not “USA-like.” Named after Michael Jordan, Chiles counts the basketball legend amongst her followers, in addition to famous person Beyoncé.
Jonas Ecker
Bellingham
Who says Inexperienced Lake is quiet and boring? Take a stroll across the lake within the morning and also you’re more likely to see Jonas Ecker within the thick of an arduous kayaking observe alongside teammate and Seattle native Aaron Small. Ecker, who’s set to graduate from UW in 2025 with a level in marine biology and chemistry, is collaborating in two Olympic occasions: kayaking solo towards Small within the 1,000m occasion, and with Small in a two-person kayak within the 500m race.
Travis Gaertner
Burien
A resident of Burien, Travis Gaertner is a seasoned Paralympic biking veteran. He earned a gold medal in Sydney in 2000 and in Athens in 2004—for Staff Canada. Now a twin US-Canadian citizen, Gaertner’s aiming for his third gold medal at age 44; he simply gained his Staff USA qualifying race, suggesting a gold-medal hattrick could also be within the playing cards.
Elouan Gardon
Acme
You’ll have seen Elouan Gardon racking up wins and spectacular stage instances on the 2023 Tour de Bloom in Central Washington. A C5 bicycle owner who, till lately, had solely competed towards able-bodied cyclists, Gardon says he didn’t find out about para-cycling till “a number of months again,” however shortly earned match factors to qualify for the Paralympics. He’s now the youngest member of the US Paralympics biking workforce.
Nevin Harrison
Seattle
An alum of Roosevelt Excessive College, the dash canoe star is not any stranger to Olympic success. She gained a gold medal within the 200m dash on the 2021 Tokyo video games, and has taken residence gold at different main international occasions, together with the Canoe Dash World Championships and Pan American Video games. Harrison obtained her begin 10 years in the past on the Seattle Canoe and Kayak Membership.
Keana Hunter
Issaquah
Hunter grew up in Issaquah however is now primarily based in Los Angeles. She’s a part of the eight-member creative (or synchronized) swimming workforce hoping to carry again an Olympic medal for the primary time in 20 years. A seasoned professional and former member of the Seattle Synchro membership, Hunter has been a part of Staff USA since age 12.
Aaron Keith
Woodinville
After a mountain biking accident and ensuing surgical procedures that brought about residual paralysis, Keith first participated in US Paralympic Biking in 2013. He gained a silver medal within the males’s time trial on the 2021 video games, and has earned 13 medals at international occasions. Exterior biking, Keith works as a chiropractor in Woodinville.
Matt King
Snohomish
Issues didn’t look nice for Matt King on the Olympic swimming qualifiers: he missed becoming a member of the workforce by only one hundredth of a second. However fortunately, he’s secured a spot on the 100m relay workforce; King’s efficiency on the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, suggests he might assist carry the workforce to clutch victories. He gained gold within the males’s 400m medley relay, silver within the blended 400m free relay, and bronze within the males’s 400m free relay. “Let’s go eat snails,” he joked after cementing his spot on the Olympic workforce.
Audrey Kwon and her creative swimming teammates on Staff USA spend eight hours per day within the water coaching.
Audrey Kwon
SEATTLE
Kwon is performing alongside Keana Hunter in creative swimming. She counts Seattle and Seoul, South Korea, as her hometowns, however lives in LA to coach 10 hours a day along with her teammates—with eight of these hours spent within the water. Kwon has carried out at a world degree since age 12.
Rielly Milne
Woodinville
A former Husky, Milne is the coxswain for US males’s eight boat. He took a three-year break between Olympic qualifying seasons to play equestrian polo, however is not any stranger to boat-borne success: he helped safe podium finishes on the U23 World Rowing Championships in 2017 and 2018. A stickler for high quality efficiency, Milne additionally used to conduct seemingly rigorous gaming tech evaluations for his YouTube channel.
Evan Olson
Bothell
Olson first started rowing in 2014 after studying native nonfiction e-book The Boys within the Boat. Alongside Milne, Olson will go for gold within the males’s eight boat. Standing at 6’ 6”, Olson might have the wingspan to rake in a profitable outcome.
Jacob Plihal
Vashon Island
Chronologically talking, Plihal could be the first Washingtonian to grace your TV display throughout Olympic athletic occasions. Racing on the primary non-ceremonial day of the Olympics (July 27), Plihal is hoping to win a medal within the males’s single sculls—he’d be the primary American to take action since 1956. A graduate of Northeastern in structure, Plihal can take pleasure in Paris’s Haussmannian digs as soon as the calls for of high-performance rowing take up much less of his time.
Aaron Small
Seattle
The opposite half of the Inexperienced Lake kayaking duo, Aaron Small is a UW graduate with a BS in oceanography. He additionally accomplished “a lot of research” in American Signal Language whereas at UW: small is difficult of listening to, and is proudly the first-ever dash kayaker with listening to loss to take part within the Olympics. Small and Ecker have spent 10 years as opponents and teammates—in addition to three years as roommates.
Hailey Van Lith, the main scorer in highschool girls’s basketball historical past in Washington, will compete within the 3×3 match.
Hailey Van Lith
Wenatchee
A distinguished NCAA star and the all-time main girls’s basketball scorer in Washington highschool historical past, Van Lith will take to the courtroom on the US 3×3 Ladies’s Nationwide Staff. She has two gold medals from youth worldwide tournaments underneath her belt, along with MVP and All-American accolades. She’s cited Diana Taurasi, Sue Fowl, and Breanna Stewart as inspirations for her taking part in fashion.
Seattle native Sami Whitcomb earned Australian citizenship in 2018, and can compete for her adopted residence.
Sami Whitcomb
SEATTLE
A veteran of the Seattle Storm with two WNBA championships underneath her belt, Sami Whitcomb will play for Australia’s nationwide workforce. A UW alum who gained Australian citizenship in 2018, Whitcomb will in all probability make it rain threes in Paris.
Campus Connections
A litany of UW Rowing alumni will take to the water on the Olympics: Chris Carlson, Nina Castagna, Teal Cohen, Ben Davidson, Jacob Dawson, Gert-Jan van Doorn, Simon van Dorp, Holly Dunford, Pieter Quinton, Aisha Rocek, Jessica Thoennes, and Logan Ullrich.
UW alums Cheng-Tsung Pan, Nick Taylor, and Carl Yuan will golf. Izzi Batt-Doyle, Brian Fay, Kieran Lumb, Sophie O’Sullivan, Sam Tanner, and Gianna Woodruff will kind a Husky posse throughout observe & discipline occasions.
WSU Cougars emeriti Ieva Adomavičiūtė and Josh Hawkinson will row for Lithuania and play basketball for Staff Japan, respectively.
Lastly, a number of former Gonzaga males’s basketball gamers might be in Paris: Rui Hachimura taking part in for Japan, Filip Petrušev for Serbia, and Kelly Olynyk and Andrew Nembhard for Canada.
