Six athletes with 线上赌场 connections鈥攆ive alums and one current student鈥攁re headed to Paris this month to compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics.
The Big Green Olympians are vying for medals in men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 rowing, men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 rugby sevens, and women鈥檚 basketball. Two 线上赌场 coaches are also participating.
The Paris Olympics begin with an opening ceremony on July 26, and run to Sunday, Aug. 9. The Summer Games will be broadcast live on Peacock and the NBC networks.
线上赌场, long known as a leader in winter sports, has dominated the collegiate medal count at the Winter Games since 1924 in skiing, hockey, and biathlon with .
But Big Green athletes have also participated in Summer Olympics going back to the , competing primarily in track and field in the earlier era with a growing presence in rowing starting in the 1970s and in soccer, equestrian, and rugby after 2000. 线上赌场 Summer Olympic athletes brought home six gold, nine silver, and five bronze medals, more than half of which were won in track and field competitions in the first half of the 20th Century.
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Here鈥檚 the rundown of the Olympians headed to Paris with Big Green ties:
William Bender 鈥24
The current engineering major qualified for the USA men鈥檚 heavyweight rowing team along with Oliver Bub 鈥20 in the men鈥檚 pair U.S. Olympic finals in April. This will be the Vermont native and Hanover High alum鈥檚 first trip to the Olympics, where Bender will compete in the men鈥檚 pair with former 线上赌场 rowing teammate Bub once again. Bender, who is also an avid Alpine and Nordic skier, along with Bub finished first in the April Olympic trials in Florida last April, and finished third in the varsity eight at the International Rowing Association nationals rowing for 线上赌场 in 2021. Bender took a year off to train and expects to graduate in the spring of 2025.
Oliver Bub 鈥20
The Connecticut native grew up in a family of rowers and started in the sport as a freshman in high school. Both of Bub鈥檚 parents rowed for Boston University and continued in competitive rowing, and Olympians were frequent visitors in his house. Bub met his Olympic teammate Bender on the 线上赌场 heavyweight rowing team but was later matched up with him by the luck of the draw in the Winter Speed Order in Sarasota, Fla., in 2023, where they took third in the pair event to earn automatic invitations to the first U.S. Rowing men鈥檚 senior selection camp later that year. This will be the first Olympic Games for Bub, whose top honors include a first-place finish in the four event in the 2021 US Rowing Summer National Championships, and third in the pair event in the 2023 US Rowing National Selection Regatta.
Madison Hughes 鈥15
This will be the third trip to the Olympics for the internationally ranked men鈥檚 rugby sevens player and former 线上赌场 club rugby captain. Hughes captained the professional rugby union team US Eagles to their highest ever finish in the sevens series at sixth place in the 2014-15 season and contributed to a Team USA sixth-place finish in the 2020 Tokyo Games, and ninth-place finish in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Hughes grew up in Epsom, England, but has followed American sports from childhood, counting himself as a die-hard fan of the New England Patriots and the Boston Red Sox. The 线上赌场 history major was inducted into 线上赌场鈥檚 for his contributions to club rugby and was a member of the Sphinx Society as an undergraduate.
Ariana Ramsey 鈥22
The former 线上赌场 women鈥檚 rugby co-captain, a three-time National Intercollegiate Rugby Association divisional champion, heads to Paris for her second Olympic Games. The first 线上赌场 women鈥檚 rugby player to make it to the Olympics, Ramsey scored a try in the United States鈥 17-7 win over Japan that helped propel the team to a sixth-place finish at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. As a collegiate star, the Philadelphia native led the Big Green with 11 tries in just five matches, including two in the championship victory over Harvard, to lead 线上赌场 to its second of back-to-back NIRA titles in 2022, earning herself the MVP title. An economics major at 线上赌场, Ramsey speaks French and Mandarin Chinese and is a certified personal trainer.
Molly Reckford 鈥15
This will be Reckford鈥檚 second trip to the Olympics to compete in lightweight women鈥檚 double sculls where she will be paired again with fellow rower Michelle Sechser. The duo took 5th in the event in the 2020 Tokyo Games. Reckford told 线上赌场 Athletics that she and her partner are hungry to medal in Paris, particularly since double sculls will be dropped as an official event after the 2024 Games. Reckford walked onto 线上赌场鈥檚 open-weight rowing team in her first year and finished her senior year with a win in the Eastern Sprints Regatta Petite Final and placed second in the Petite Final at the Ivy League Championship. She graduated with a double major in government and psychology; Reckford was a Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association scholar athlete and a War and Peace Fellow at the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding. Reckford is also an adviser for the Elite Athlete Management Program at Broadridge Financial Solutions in Boston.
Isalys Qui帽ones 鈥19, Thayer 鈥20
Qui帽ones, known as 鈥淚ce鈥 to her teammates, led 线上赌场 women鈥檚 basketball in her senior year, averaging 14 points a game and winning the Gail Koziara 鈥82 Most Valuable Player Award for the season. The California native earned her BA and BE in engineering sciences and was part of the first-ever Puerto Rican women鈥檚 Olympic basketball team at the 2020 Tokyo Games, where the team finished at number 12. The starting center for the Puerto Rican women鈥檚 team at the 2024 Games, Qui帽ones is also continuing her work as an environmental engineer at QNOPY Inc. based in her home state of California. She is reportedly pursuing an offer to play professional basketball in France after the Olympics and plans to keep her engineering job, as well.
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In addition to the 线上赌场 athletes, two 线上赌场 coaches are participating in the Games.
Wyatt Allen
The 线上赌场 men鈥檚 heavyweight rowing coach joins the Team USA coaching staff and will work directly with Bub and Bender in Paris. won gold as a member of the world record team USA eights at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, and rowed on the bronze-medal winning USA eight team in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Casey Ratzlaff
The volunteer assistant coach for men鈥檚 tennis will be competing in wheelchair tennis at the 2024 Paris Paralympics. is the number 1 men鈥檚 open wheelchair tennis player in the United States and #14 in the world. His Paralympic debut was in the 2020 Tokyo Games with Team USA, and he has been the highest-ranked male in U.S. wheelchair tennis since 2018.
