Seventeen Cavaliers Set to Compete at Paris Olympics

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Seventeen current and former Virginia student-athletes are set to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Swimming and track & field each have six athletes competing, with two soccer players, two tennis players and one rower.

Opening ceremonies are scheduled for Friday, July 26, but two Cavalier soccer alums will be in action prior to that date. Joe Bell will be the first Hoo to compete as his New Zealand soccer team takes the pitch on Wednesday, July 24, to open group play. Emily Sonnett and Team USA play their first match of women’s group play on Thursday, July 25. This is the second time both have competed in the Olympics.

Virginia is sending six female swimmers to compete at Paris La Defense Arena July 27-August 3. Virginia has five swimmers on the 20-member US team, giving the Cavaliers one-fourth of that roster. Virginia head coach Todd DeSorbo will be the head coach of the US squad in Paris that will feature three current Cavaliers (graduate student Alex Walsh, senior Gretchen Walsh and junior Emma Weber) and two recent alums (Paige Madden ’21 and Kate Douglass ’23). Junior Aimee Canny will be swimming for South Africa.

This is the second Olympic competition for Alex Walsh, Canny, Douglass and Madden, all of whom competed in Tokyo, combining to win three medals. De Sorbo was also in Tokyo, serving as an assistant coach for Team USA. This is the highest number of UVA swimmers that have competed in a single Olympic game and the fifth consecutive Olympics in which a Cavalier has competed.

Virginia also has a strong showing on the US women’s tennis roster, taking two of the five places on the team. First-time Olympians Danielle Collins and Emma Navarro are also the first two female Cavaliers to compete in the sport. The two former NCAA singles champions are ranked No. 9 and No. 15 in the world. Both are scheduled to play singles, while Collins is also slated to compete in doubles. The tennis tournaments begin on Saturday, July 27 with the gold-medal match scheduled for Saturday, August 3.

Heidi Long will be making her Olympic debut, rowing in the eight for Great Britain. Preliminary action is slated to begin on Monday, July 29, and the finals will be held on Saturday, Aug. 3. This is the sixth straight Olympics in which a UVA rower has competed with Cavaliers, medaling in four of the last five Games.

Virginia has six athletes competing in track and field events, led by veteran shot putter Filip Mihaljevic, who will represent Croatia at his third Olympics. He will be joined by four other former Cavaliers who are all making their Olympic debuts: Ashley Anumba (Nigeria, discus), Halle Hazard (Grenada, 100 meters), Jordan Scott (Jamaica, triple jump) and Bridget (Guy) Williams (USA, pole vault).

Andrenette Knight, who was an alternate for Jamaica in the sprints, has been named to Jamica’s mixed relay team, raising the number of Cavaliers competing at the games to 17.

The Cavaliers’ track and field events begin on Friday, August 2, with shot put and discus qualifications and 100m heats and continue through Friday, August 9, with the triple jump finals.

Virginia has one other former Cavalier heading to Paris as an alternate, with Pien Dicke currently serving as a reserve for the Dutch field hockey team.

Virginia alum Tammi Reiss will be serving as an assistant coach for USA basketball’s women’s 3×3 team. The three-time All-American helped lead the Cavaliers to three straight Final Fours as a player and also served as an assistant coach under Debbie Ryan from 1993-96. She is currently the head women’s basketball coach at Rhode Island, having twice been named the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year.

Additionally, former Cavalier rowing Olympian Lindsay Shoop will work with the NBC broadcast team as an analyst for the sport. Shoop won gold in the women’s eight for Team USA in Beijing in 2008, four years after the end of her Cavalier career. Lori Lindsey will serve as a soccer analyst for the network. Lindsey was a two-time ACC Player of the Year for the Cavaliers. This is her second time calling Olympic contests, having also worked at the Tokyo games.

Including this year’s competitors, Virginia has had 80 athletes competing at the Olympics, winning 34 medals with 17 golds.

* Note: USA Equestrian member Will Coleman has scratched from the Olympics. Coleman was a UVA grad but not a former varsity athlete. This was to be his second Olympic games

For more information on the Cavaliers competing at Paris 2024, visit our Olympics Central page at https://virginiasports.com/2024-summer-olympics/

Cavalier Paris 2024 Olympians

Current athletic eligibility or final year of competition at UVA in parenthesis

Aimee Canny (Jr.) – South Africa – Swimming – 200 Free, 4×200 Free Relay
Kate Douglass (‘23) – USA- Swimming -100 Free, 200 IM, 200 Breast
Paige Madden (’21) – USA- Swimming – 400 Free, 800 Free, 4×200 Relay
Alex Walsh (Grad) – USA – Swimming – 200 IM
Gretchen Walsh (Sr.) – USA- Swimming – 100 Fly, 50 Free, 4×100 Free
Emma Weber (Jr.) – USA – Swimming – 100 Breast
Todd DeSorbo – USA- Swimming – Head Coach (women’s team)

Danielle Collins (’16) – USA – Tennis
Emma Navarro (’22) – USA – Tennis

Heidi Long (’19) – England – Rowing – W8+

Joe Bell (’19) – New Zealand – Football

Emily Sonnett (’16) – USA – Football

Ashley Anumba (’23) – Nigeria – Athletics – Discus
Halle Hazard (’21) – Grenada – Athletics – 100M
Andrenette Knight (’21) – Jamaica – Athletics – Mixed Relay
Filip Mihaljevic (’17) – Croatia – Athletics – Shot Put
Jordan Scott (’20) – Jamaica – Athletics – Triple Jump
Bridget (Guy) Williams (’19) – USA – Athletics – Pole Vault

Tammi Reiss (’92) – United States – 3×3 Basketball Assistant Coach

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Olympic Alternates
Pien Dicke (’17) – Netherlands – Hockey

Broadcasters
Lindsay Shoop  (’04) – NBC – Rowing
Lori Lindsey (’02) – NBC – Football