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CHARLOTTESVILLE Nine individuals with connections to University of Virginia athletics are headed to China for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. The group traveling to Beijing includes six former Cavalier varsity student-athletes, one incoming student-athlete, a current Virginia coach and a former club sport participant at UVa.
The former Cavalier student-athletes competing at the games include Angela Hucles (women’s soccer), Melanie Kok (women’s rowing), Vanja Rogulj (men’s swimming), Ruby Rojas (softball) and Lindsay Shoop (women’s rowing). In addition, former Cavalier basketball standout Dawn Staley is traveling to China as an assistant coach with the US women’s basketball team. Erika Stewart (incoming first year on the women’s swimming team), Adam Nelson (graduate student at the Darden School of Business and a volunteer assistant coach with the UVa track and field team), and Wyatt Allen (a graduate of the University and former rower with the UVa men’s rowing club team) will also compete in Beijing.
Hucles, a mainstay on the US Women’s National Team since 2003, is competing in her second Olympic Games. A member of the 18-player roster traveling to China, she has made 16 appearances for the US National Team this season, scoring three goals. In 2004, she was a member of the American team that won the gold medal in Athens, appearing in two games in the Olympic tournament. Hucles played for the Cavaliers from 1996-99 and still holds the school record with 59 career goals.
Kok will compete in her first Olympic Games, representing Canada in the women’s lightweight double. A 2007 graduate of the University, she was a first-team All-American in 2007 and a second-team All-American in 2006 for the Cavaliers.
Rogulj is representing Croatia in the Olympics for the third time, having also competed in Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004. The Croatian national record holder in the 100 breaststroke, he will compete in that event and the 400 medley relay in Beijing. An 11-time All-American for the Cavaliers from 2004-2007, Rogulj won four consecutive ACC titles in the 200 breaststroke and three consecutive ACC titles in the 100 breaststroke. He was the 2005 ACC Swimmer of the Year and the 2004 ACC Freshman of the Year.
Rojas, who will play for her home country of Venezuela, competed for the Cavaliers from 2000-03 and ranks among the top 10 in 19 categories on Virginia’s career lists, including third in home runs (25), third in runs (141), fourth in doubles (50), fifth in hits (241) and sixth in batting average (.332). The 2000 ACC Rookie of the Year, Rojas was a three-time All-ACC selection and helped the Cavaliers to runner-up finishes in the conference tournament in 2000 and again in 2003. She also earned first team All-Region honors in 2001.
Shoop will make her Olympic debut in Beijing as she competes on the United States’ women’s eight crew. A Charlottesville native, she earned first-team All-America honors twice at Virginia, in 2003 and 2004. Shoop won a gold medal in the eight while rowing for the United States’ team at the World Rowing Championships in Munich, Germany, in September of 2007. The victory qualified the United States in that event for the 2008 Olympic Games. She also earned a gold medal and helped establish a world record with the United States’ eight at the 2006 World Championships.
Staley is serving as an assistant coach for the US women’s basketball team in Beijing. She is in her first year as the head coach at South Carolina after eight seasons at Temple. As a player, Staley earned 10 gold medals and one bronze in international competition, including three Olympic gold medals (1996, 2000, 2004). A three-time All-America guard for Virginia from 1989-1992, she won two National Player of the Year awards, the Honda-Broderick Cup in 1991, and helped UVa to three Final Four appearances.
Stewart, who joins the Cavalier swimming and diving program as a first-year this fall, will represent Colombia in the 200 individual medley at the Olympics. A native of Durham, N.C., she has dual citizenship and her time of 2:19.57 in the event was good enough to earn a place on the Colombian team.
Nelson, a volunteer assistant coach for the Cavaliers’ track and field program and graduate student in Virginia’s Darden School of Business, is making his third trip to the Olympic Games. Nelson, the most decorated shot putter in the world, is already a two-time Olympic silver medalist and is on a quest for Olympic gold in the shot put. He made the team by finishing third at the Olympic Trials. He went into the trials holding this year’s world-leading throw of 22.12m, established on June 8 at the Prefontaine Classic.
Allen is making his second trip to the Olympics as he competes for the United States with the men’s eight crew. At the 2004 games in Athens, Allen was a member of the USA’s gold medal winning men’s eight crew. A 2001 graduate of Virginia, he competed on UVa’s men’s rowing club team.