With the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games starting next week, what athletes from the primary school you follow are headed to Tokyo to compete?

My school (Denver) will have two alums there - Swimmers Bailey Andison will swim for Canada, and alum Adriel Sanes will swim for the US Virgin Islands.

We'll also have an alumnus as head coach of Team USA basketball, as Gregg Popovich got his masters degree at Denver in the late 70s, but did not play sports there.

I don't care anymore...F the Olympics.

Yeah I'm old and remember when the Russians and East Germans were the evil team. They had women (loosely defined) that could beat the crap out of most men.

Now we have spoiled brats pushing me over team.

Cincinnati has three.

https://www.fox19.com/2021/07/06/uc-brea...ded-tokyo/

Former college competitor, current New Mexico State assistant coach competing In women's discus.

https://kvia.com/sports/nmsu/2021/07/08/...in-discus/

NAU has Junior (and 5000m NCAA runner up) Luis Grijalva competing in the 5000m for Guatelmala.

Former Lumberjack Brooke Andersen is throwing the hammer for the USA

TCU has three. Our best chance for a medal is Ronnie Baker in the 100 meter dash.

Omaha has a guy playing for the Iranian basketball team. It'll feel a little weird to cheer for Iran in anything, but it'll be fun to watch Rostampour play again.

The Olympics have always been awful and overrated; what started out as a way for rich people to compete amongst themselves and exclude the lower class rabble has somehow gotten worse. Shameless money grabs (well, except for the host country, who is left with the bill and a higher rate of VD), sports no one really cares about, and Bob Costas forcing you to be sad for any competitor that ever knew someone that died? SIGN ME THE EFF UP!

That said, JMU has three alumni in the Games this year: https://jmusports.com/news/2021/7/14/wom...mpics.aspx

(07-15-2021 08:06 AM)AssyrianDuke Wrote:  The Olympics have always been awful and overrated; what started out as a way for rich people to compete amongst themselves and exclude the lower class rabble has somehow gotten worse. Shameless money grabs (well, except for the host country, who is left with the bill and a higher rate of VD), sports no one really cares about, and Bob Costas forcing you to be sad for any competitor that ever knew someone that died? SIGN ME THE EFF UP!

That said, JMU has three alumni in the Games this year: https://jmusports.com/news/2021/7/14/wom...mpics.aspx

One thing I hope for with streaming services is we can get games from start to finish rather than 5 minute snippets with 5 minute "human interest" interviews and 5 minutes of commercials. NBC would do full water polo games on some of their alternate channels and it was actually pretty fun to watch. You wouldn't know if you had a slow part of the game bookended by The Costas Show.

Recent NDSU alumnus Payton Otterdahl will compete in the shot put after throwing a career best to place 3rd at the trials. In 2019, Payton swept both indoor throwing titles(shot put and weight throw) at the DI indoor championships, becoming only the second man to do so. He's currently a volunteer throwing coach for NDSU and competes for Nike. I would be surprised but not shocked if he medals. My guess is that he'll finish in the 5th-10th range.

ODU has 3 former athletes in the Olympics/Paralympics:

-Stephanie Roble, who graduated in 2011, is considered a medal candidate in sailing along with teammate Maggie Shea. Roble led the Monarchs to several women's and coed national championships, was a two-time All-American, a three-time team MVP and served as team captain as a senior.

-Maggie Simmermacher, the 2017 Conference USA Golfer of the Year, will represent Argentina.

-Terry Hayes, a 1997 graduate who played lacrosse for the Monarchs, will participate in the Paralympics on the fencing team. The Paralympics will also be held in Tokyo.

And one alumni, Caine Wilkes who did not compete in any sports in college but will represent the US in weightlifting for the first time at the age of 34

USNA 2020 grad Regine Tugade-Watson will run for Guam.

USNA 2006 Brad Snyder will represent the U.S. in the Paralympics - Paratriathlon this time as he's already got seven medals from '12 and '16 swimming events. (Snyder was blinded by an IED in Afghanistan in 2011)

Rice has two for now, but may still have a third. Stay tuned.

Ari Ince is throwing the women's javelin for Team USA. She actually was a pole vaulter mostly during her Rice career, but switched to the javelin after her college track and field career was over basically. We also have a paralympic swimmer who is currently a member of the Rice swim team (she swims in a few meets too, which is kind of cool - dual meets mostly).

But the most interesting Olympian perhaps will be Erica Ogwumike, the younger of the three Ogwumike sisters who are trying to play for the Nigerian women's basketball team. Nneka has been told by FIBA she can't play. Chiney can play but has to pay a fee of like $6000. Erica can play for free. I suspect Nneka and Chiney's presence is what has helped Erica make the Nigerian team (but the final rosters won't be known for sure until Sunday).

It's an interesting story for sure. There is also a 4th sister who also played for Rice (Olivia) but she had a series of concussions and ended up retiring from competitive basketball. The two oldest sisters are Stanford grads. It's a pretty cool family - the parents were born in Nigeria but live in Houston now.

James Hall

UTEP has 8 alums in the Tokyo Olympics, including a current UTEP athlete, plus another that is an incoming athlete.

https://utepminers.com/news/2021/7/2/tra...tokyo.aspx

Mturn: do you know how he became paralyzed?

An update on the Rice Olympians. Erica Ogwumike has made the Nigerian women's basketball Olympic squad. Her two older (and more well known) sisters - Nneka and Chiney - will not be competing in the Olympics though.

(07-16-2021 04:11 PM)MinerInWisconsin Wrote:  UTEP has 8 alums in the Tokyo Olympics, including a current UTEP athlete, plus another that is an incoming athlete.

https://utepminers.com/news/2021/7/2/tra...tokyo.aspx

Very impressive!

(07-13-2021 09:30 PM)Mav Wrote:  Omaha has a guy playing for the Iranian basketball team. It'll feel a little weird to cheer for Iran in anything, but it'll be fun to watch Rostampour play again.

Your post reminded me that Rice also had an Iranian player back in the day, before he transferred out. So I checked, and sure enough, Arsalan Kazemi is also going to the Olympics. Add that one to your list, Fort Bend Owl.

(07-15-2021 08:06 AM)AssyrianDuke Wrote:  The Olympics have always been awful and overrated; what started out as a way for rich people to compete amongst themselves and exclude the lower class rabble has somehow gotten worse. Shameless money grabs (well, except for the host country, who is left with the bill and a higher rate of VD), sports no one really cares about, and Bob Costas forcing you to be sad for any competitor that ever knew someone that died? SIGN ME THE EFF UP!

That said, JMU has three alumni in the Games this year: https://jmusports.com/news/2021/7/14/wom...mpics.aspx

To each his own. I love the Olympics. Ultimately, I love watching people compete at the highest level with the highest stakes. Now, I get that the IOC is a terrible organization and their bidding process has perfected Chicago-style political corruption (which ironically was used to choose Rio over Chicago for the 2016 Olympics), but the Games themselves are truly great.

I haven't seen a full Illini Olympian list anywhere yet, but I know that there's at least one track athlete, two gymnasts and two golfers heading to Tokyo.