Eleven former Auburn Tigers were competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics
Sunisa Lee (USA) Gymnastics
During her Auburn Career, Suni Lee was a rockstar. In 2022 the Tigers and Lee came in second place in the All-Around championship in Fort Worth, and won the Balance Beam title outright. Prior to her time at Auburn she was a bronze medalist in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics for the uneven bars event. This time around she has won Gold in the Women’s team all around and two bronze medals, one in the individual all around and another in the uneven bars event. All of this and more has led to her becoming the third most decorated United States Olympic Gymnast of all time, per Yahoo Sports. She is by the far the greatest Auburn Olympian we have ever seen.
Marcelo Chierighini (Brazil) Men’s Swimming
This is not Marcelo’s first time around the block on the Olympic stage. He has put up a top five finish in the 4x100m freestyle relay previously. A decorated swimmer in his collegiate career, he was a 22-time All American and a National Champion. In his showing in the Paris Olympics he posted another top ten finish in the 4x100m freestyle relay.
Tim Puetz (Germany) Men’s Tennis
Tim won his doubles event in both the first and second round but fell short in the quarterfinals, against Czechia. Tim has never won a medal in his Olympic career.
Emily Hallifax (France) Diving
Emily and her partner came in last of 8 total teams posting a total score of 234.84 points.
Valerie Tarazi (Palestine) Swimming
Valeria came very close to winning her heat, coming 0.05 seconds in second place. She lost to a swimmer competing for Indonesia.
Kanyinsola Ajayi and Favour Ashe (Nigeria) Men’s 100m and Men’s 4x100m
Ajayi defeated the defending champion Marcell Jacobs. Favour also was able to advance to the semifinals. That was the subsequent end to their Olympic run this year.
Makanakaishe Charamba (Zimbabwe) Men’s 200m
Charamba put up solid performances getting him all the way to the finals. Once he got there he finished last out of 8 contestants posting a time of 20.53 seconds.
Azeem Fahmi (Malaysia) 100m
Fahmi advanced into the second heat before he also finished last in a pool of 9 contestants, he posted a time of 10.45 seconds.
Donald Thomas (Bahamas) Men’s High Jump
Donald Thomas received a No Mark in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
JT Thor (South Sudan) Men’s Basketball
South Sudan might not have medaled but they pushed the Gold Medaling USA team to the brink. JT was a big part of that hitting a go ahead shot with 20 seconds to go before Lebron James called game with 6 seconds to play.
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