Record 41 Gators to compete in Paris Olympics (2024)

Anall-timehigh41 Gators, representing 21 different countries, will be competing at the 2024 Olympic Games, eclipsing the previous high of 39 in Beijing in 2008.

That places the University of Florida fourth nationally among collegiate representation behind Stanford (51), University of Southern California (44), and Michigan (42).

Gators will compete or coach in eight different sports: basketball (includes 3×3), diving, golf, gymnastics, soccer, swimming, tennis, and track & field.

In addition to Team USA, Gators will compete for the national teams of Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Canada, Columbia, Egypt, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Liberia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, U.S. Virgin Islands and Venezuela.

The Gators are well representedon the U.S. Olympic team and lead the way with, including five women.

NCAA champion Grace Stark, who is making her first appearance in the Olympics, had one last tune-up meet before the Olympics atlast weekend’s Holloway Pro Classic.

She said her time at UF helped prepare her for track and field’s biggest stage.

“There’s so many amazing girls that I compete with all the time,” Stark said. “There’s always a lot of heat at the meet. There’s always a great girl next to me so it’s definitely really prepared me, having to show up at every meet. Just like the community at Florida, all my teammates are also great. There’s a lot of us going so you just have the expectation of being great every day.”

Stark, who became the fastest 100-meter hurdler in Michigan high school history just six years ago, qualified for the Olympics byfinishing third in the 100m hurdlesby shaving 0.14 seconds off her time, running a 12.31 to improve her own University of Florida school record.

Jasmine Moore, who isthe first U.S. woman to qualify for both the long and triple jump in a single Olympics, joins her on the U.S. team along with 2024 SEC Female Athlete of Year Parker Valby (10,000m), and Anna Hall (heptathlon).

Former Gator Genevieve LaCaze Gregson (2009-12) is making her fourth trip to the Olympic Games, representing Australia in the marathon.

On the men’s side,3-time world champion Grant Hollowayis seeking his first gold medal after qualifying for the Olympics bywinning the 110m hurdles in 12.86 seconds, which was 0.06 seconds off the world record.

Holloway, who won a silver medal in 2020 in Tokyo, Japan, isjoined on the men’s team by Malcolm Clemons(long jump), who is making his Olympic debut.

Clemons, who is fluent in French, also credited UF for his development as a student-athlete.

“I think that being a college athlete you get a really hands on experience leading up into what people would call the pro-life, so I think that I’ve really gotten a great experience from all the mentors that they have at this school from academic to leadership to my coaches and my athletic trainers to just mold me into what I’ve become today athletically, mentally, physically,” he said. “It’s just been a really great experience here and I’m just having the best time.”

The world’s best track and field athleteswill compete Aug. 1-11 (total of 48 events).

A total of 14 Gatorsmade rosters for the Games’ swimming and diving competition, which begins on Saturday.

Five of the 14 are on the U.S. team.

Former Gator Caeleb Dressel made his third-straight Olympic Games and is one of 25 Olympians all-time with seven golds medals.

He will compete in three events – the 4x100m freestyle, the 50m freestyle and the 100m butterfly.

Dressel holds four American records in the 50-meter free (21.04), 100-meter free (46.96), 50-meter fly (22.35) and 100-meter fly (49.45).

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Bobby Finke, whoswept the distance events at the Olympic Trials, will be joined in Paris by bronze winner Kieran Smith (400m free), Emma Weyant (400m IM), who earned a silver medal in Tokyo, andincoming Gator Luke Whitlock(men’s 800m freestyle).

In addition to the athletes, five Gator coaches are in Paris, with one competing for the U.S.: Anthony Nesty, USA men’s swimming head coach; Nic Petersen, USA men’s track and field jumps/multis coach; Whitney Hite, USA swimming assistant/personal coach; Rhyne Howard, USA basketball 3×3 player; and Owen Field, USA coach for Gator gymnast Leanne Wong.

Of the USA Teams with head coaches, Nesty is one of four who won Olympic gold as a competitor.

The opening ceremonies for the 2024 Summer Olympics begin tonight, although former Gator grad Adriana Leon was among Canada’s starters last night in a 2-1 win over New Zealand in Olympic soccer action.

There will bearound 10,500 athletes competingin 329 medal events at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, with the U.S. leading the way with 592 athletes.It’s been a century since Paris hosted the Olympics.

Follow@GatorsOlympicson X (formerly known as Twitter) and @gatorsolympics on Instagram to track the Gators results in Paris.

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to include a total of 41 Gators instead of 40. Also, Nigeria has been removed and Spain has been added among the national teams.