It’s an Olympic year, which means that in the months leading up to the Opening Ceremonies athletes from around the world must attempt to qualify in their respective disciplines for their respective countries.
Given the age range of many prospective Olympians, it should come as no surprise that a significant quantity of recent and/or current collegiate athletes are among those vying for the opportunity to participate in the world’s oldest and most iconic sporting competition.
In fact, at the Tokyo Games three years ago there were more than 1000 NCAA athletes (past or present) who took part, including roughly 75 percent of Team USA.
With those statistics in mind, it should come as no surprise that the University of Iowa has a number of Hawkeyes chasing Olympic aspirations in 2024.
As the start of competition in Paris approaches in late July I’ll be keeping track of how everyone with past/present/future ties to the Black & Gold performs on the grandest stage in athletics.
But first, as previously mentioned, you’ve got to qualify – an incredible feat all by itself.
Headed to Paris
By my count a trio of Hawkeyes are officially Paris-bound thus far – men’s wrestler Spencer Lee (2017-23), women’s rower Eve Stewart (2016-2020) and future women’s gymnast Aurélie Tran.
You all know Spencer Lee’s story by now, so I’ll save you too much rehashing.
The three-time NCAA champion and three-time age-level World champion has a great chance to fulfill his lifelong dream with a gold medal performance competing in the 57-kilogram division of men’s freestyle wrestling.
Moving to the waterfront, Eve Stewart is set to become the first Hawkeye to ever compete in rowing at the Olympics after being selected as a member of the ‘Women’s Eight’ roster for historically dominant Great Britain. Meanwhile, Aurélie Tran has yet to officially compete for the Hawkeyes as the incoming freshman won’t arrive on campus until the fall semester. Instead, she went ahead and became an Olympian first – punching her ticket to Paris for Team Canada thanks to a runner-up finish in the all-around competition at the 2024 Canadian Gymnastics Championships held earlier this month
Awaiting selection
Another likely trio of Hawkeye Olympians starts with former men’s hooper Peter Jok (2013-17).
Jok – a 2017 First-Team All-Big Ten honoree and one of the best shooters in school history – was the fifth-leading scorer (10.2 points/game) for the South Sudanese team that qualified for Paris at last summer’s FIBA Basketball World Cup.
The newest internationally recognized country in the world, South Sudan declared its independence in 2011 and was incredibly able to put together an Olympic-quality men’s basketball program barely a decade later.
Based on his contributions last year Jok figures to have a great chance of being selected for the 12-man roster headed to Paris.
On the women’s side of the ledger, two more Iowa alums find themselves in a similar situation.
Previous all-time leading scorer in program history Megan Gustafson (2015-19) and former teammate Tomi Taiwo (2018-2022) helped the Spanish and Nigerian women’s national teams respectively earn Olympic bids this past February – putting both of Lisa Bluder’s pupils in excellent position to be chosen to go to Paris next month.
Trials on the track
Back in April, a dozen Hawkeye wrestlers took to the mat at the US Olympic Trials in State College, Pennsylvania.
That impressive figure appears set to be surpassed in Eugene, Oregon in the coming days (June 21-30) as track and field trials for Team USA will be contested out in the great Northwest.
Past and present Hawkeyes will litter the Trials in events ranging from sprints to hurdles on the track, from jumps to throws in the field, as well as one recent graduate who’s set to take on the grueling decathlon.
**Competition dates/times for every Hawkeye can be found HERE, and TV/streaming info HERE.**
Among the contingent, the top name to know is undoubtedly Laulauga Tausaga-Collins (2017-21) – the reigning World champion in the women’s discus throw.
Tausaga-Collins won an NCAA crown back in 2019 for the Hawkeyes, but truly burst onto the global stage last summer when she pulled a huge upset over Team USA countrywoman (and Tokyo Olympic gold medalist) Valarie Allman and the rest of the field in Hungary.
She’ll be joined by a deep group of fellow throwers with Black & Gold ties, including:
- Nikolas Curtiss (2022), men’s shot put
- Kathelina ‘Kat’ Murphy (2020-24), women’s discus
- Mike Stein (2023-pres.), men’s javelin
- Reno Tuufuli Jr. (2015-19), men’s discus
From youngest to eldest, Stein – a sophomore from Milford, Iowa – set a new school record in the javelin to win a Big Ten title this season.
Moody also finished first at Big Ten’s in 2024 – the lone individual postseason title of her career – by throwing for a huge personal best in the discus.
Curtiss spent just a year in Iowa City after transferring in from Tiffin University yet left his ‘mark’ (quite literally) all the same, setting a new school record in the shot put and finishing as a First-Team All-American (eighth) outdoors.
Before Curtiss, it was two-time discus All-American Tuufuli Jr. (5 in 2017-18) who starred in the throws for the Hawkeyes – notching top-two school marks in both the shot put and discus during his career (the latter of which he’ll contest at the US Trials).
Another former Hawkeye with a World medal already in her trophy case, Brittany Brown (2014-18) captured silver in the women’s 200 meters back in 2019 in Doha.
Then a year ago, she reached the 100-meter final at the World Championships in Budapest, placing seventh. However, she appears to have scratched that event for the 2024 US Trials, electing to instead focus solely on the 200.
Representing Iowa on the men’s side of the sprints will be the current holder of multiple school records, Kalen Walker (2022-24).
A runner up at 60 meters during the most recent NCAA indoor national championships, Walker will have to run a little further (and a little faster) if he hopes to challenge for a spot on Team USA in the 100 – where his personal best (PB) currently stands at 10.09 seconds.
The challenge won’t be any easier for the trio of Hawkeye short hurdlers set to take the track in Eugene, as the United States boasts the deepest collection of high-end athletes of any country in the world in the event.
Jamal Britt (2020-21) owns a blazing fast PB of 13.08 in the 110-meter hurdles yet enters the Trials with just the tenth-fastest mark among the current entries.
He’ll be flanked somewhere in the heats by Gratt Reed (2019-24), a six-time All-American from Atlantic, Iowa.
Hawkeye women’s great Paige Magee (2021-24) has her name all over the school record book, including both the 60 (7.99) and 100-meter hurdles (12.88) events as well as the 4×100-meter relay (43.69).
It may very well take a sizable PB for her just to make it as far as the semifinals in the 100-meter hurdles – that’s how good the US pool of talent is year after year.
Erin Dowd (2022) will test her hurdling mettle in a full lap around the track, as the sixth-fastest 400-meter hurdler in Hawkeye women’s history throws her hat in the ring against a formidable field of its own.
Rounding out Iowa’s 14 competitors in Eugene over the 10 days of Trials are one triple jumper, one (former) heptathlete and one (current) decathlete.
Tionna Tobias (2020-24) was the 2023 Big Ten champion in the heptathlon before stepping away from the multis in 2024, where she’d come home with second-team All-American honors (ninth place) in the long jump at NCAA indoors – the event in which she’ll compete at US Trials.
Meanwhile, Austin West (2019-24) continues to show that for some athletes one, much less nine separate events simply isn’t enough.
The school record holder in the decathlon finished third at Team USA’s World Championship trials a year ago – just missing out on a qualifying spot in Hungary. It figures to be even tougher this go around, as West will contend not only with a deep field of competitors but with an injury that forced him to medically withdraw from the NCAA outdoor championships roughly two weeks ago.
Also in the jumps – this time of the ‘triple’ variety – outdoor school record holder James Carter Jr. (2019-23) looks to make a US team that has produced exactly half of the Olympic gold medalists in the triple jump dating back to the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.
And finally, so as not to be forgotten, elsewhere around the world three other Hawkeyes could chart a path to Paris of their own in the coming weeks:
- Australian 110-meter hurdler Chris Douglas (2016-19).
- Mexican sprinter Austin Kresley (2021-24).
- Jamaican middle-distance star Rivaldo Marshall (2024-pres.), the school record holder and a 2024 NCAA indoor national champion at 800 meters earlier this year.
The journey ahead
If you couldn’t already tell, I’m a pretty big fan of the Olympics and so many of the athletic competitions that it entails.
Furthermore, as a completely pedestrian high school runner track and field might very well be my favorite part of the summer games every four years.
All of that’s to say I’m very much looking forward to following as many of these Hawkeyes on their 2024 Olympic journeys as possible.
Prior to Opening Ceremonies I plan on publishing an official summary of Iowa’s participants in Paris, but between now and then please feel free to reach out and let me know if I’ve left anyone off this preliminary list of confirmed/possible competitors.
A special shout out also goes to Matt Weitzel in the UI athletic department communications office for helping to cull a bunch of the names on this list. This project would’ve been even more of a bear to undertake were it not for his assistance.
That’s all I’ve got for the time being.
Hopefully this will be a helpful guide to Hawkeye fans out there as the Olympics get closer and closer by the minute.
Again, please let me know if I’ve accidentally omitted any athlete in any sport. In my opinion, anyone who makes it to this point in their athletic career deserves to be recognized for their efforts if at all possible.
So, get excited folks!
We’re just 35 days from the first event in Paris, and I for one cannot wait.
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