Michigan athletes in 2021 Olympics
We're only a month away from the summer Olympics happening. I've been hearing different names bouncing around about current and former UofM athletes who are going. Can anybody add to this list:
Amanda Chidester '12 - USA - Softball
Jake Mitchell '24 - USA - Men's Swimming
Ellen Tomek '06 - USA - Women's Rowing
Michael Hixon Grad Student - USA - Men's Diving
Maggie McNeil '22 - Canada - Women's Swimming
Siobhan Haughey '19 - Hong Kong - Women's Swimming
Jamie Yeung '19 - Hong Kong - Women's Swimming
Myles Amine '20 - San Marino - Wrestling
Stevan Micic '19 - Serbia - Wrestling
Uche Eke '20 - Nigeria - Men's Gymnastics
Grace Luczak (rowed at M in '08 then transferred to Stanford) - USA - Women's Rowing
Track and field still hasn't done their qualifiers and swimming is still in progress and Men's Gymnastics hasn't named its team (Sam Mikulak will likely get in) so there should be some students/alums coming from those trials.
GO (Red, White and) BLUE!! (more foreign students/alums than I would've thought but nevertheless I'll pull for them)
Also - hurrah for the nonrev sports!
Some like Myles Amine are Americans with close relatives from those countries so they can compete for them. The Amines are all from metro Detroit.
I'll be watching to see if graduating HS Senior, Hobbs Kessler at AA Skyline will make the US Olympic team in the 1500M run in track. He's heading for Northern AZ in the fall but is a native Michigander.
Nick Willis who's now in his mid to late 30s, a U-M track alum, has always run for his native New Zeeland can make it in yet another Olympics. Nick still lives and trains here in the AA area.
Does Northern AZ have a good long distance running program? It seems like an odd choice for an elite, olympic level athlete.
I read something that he's also a very high end/world class rock climber and Northern Arizona has a top program
Yes. They have won 4 of the last 5 NCAA D1 Cross Country titles
*For those unfamiliar, Hobbs Kessler is the high school 1500M runner referred to by "MRunner73".
How many parsecs does it take Hobbs to make the Kessler run? I'll show myself out.
Hobbs beats Han Solo by 2 full parsecs, say 11 or 12.
‘They come and they go, Hobbs, they come and they go’, but sportswriters, like MRunner73, will always be around.
Kessler broke the HS 1500M record that was held by Alan Webb.
Webb ran at Michigan for one year before turning pro; a one-and-done track athlete.
Alan Webb ran the eighth fastest mile of all time. Since he ran 3:46.91 in 2007, no one has run a faster mile. When he ran his time, it was the fastest since El Guerrouj and Ngeny ran the first and second fastest miles of all time in the same race in 1999.
So yeah, expectations for Kessler are high.
Do either Wagner's have a shot at the German b'ball team?
Germany hasn't qualified yet. So far its USA, Japan (host), Iran, Australia, Nigeria, Argentina, France and Spain but there are still four spots left in qualifier tournaments.
Not up-to-date (we were watching swimming qualifiers the other day - really fun!), but there is also this site:
This post got me thinking about Olympic performance by university. Wikipedia, as always, came through with the perfect summary.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_universities_with_Olympic_medals#Top_10
I was really surprised by the utter dominance of the California schools.
Never mind :)
I hope someone is advising them to avoid food truck burritos. You never know when they'll be laced with steroids.
An Olympic Hopeful Says Her Burrito Is To Blame For Her Positive Drug Test
Wait, I thought that softball had been eliminated from the Games?
Baseball and Softball are back for this year. I think there are only 6 teams in the baseball tournament. Yes the USA is one of them along with Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Israel and one qualifier from a qualifying tournament still to be played. The USA team is a group of Triple A players who are not on any major league team's 40 man roster and a few former major leaguers who are free agents.
I FUCKING LOVE THE OLYMPICS
Thanks, this is a great post! Go (Red White and) Blue!!
Tiffany Porter and Cindy Sember are in the UK trials for 100M hurdles. They were 2nd and 3rd in the 60m hurdles at the Euro Indoors.
Felix Auebock (sp?) - Austria - Swimming. I think he graduated a couple years ago.
Siobhan Haughey - Hong Kong - Swimming. Also graduated a couple years ago. [Edit: you already got her]
On a side note, pissed at NBC for not showing Jake Mitchell's time trial to make the qualifying time. [He finished second in Trials in the 400M freestyle, but didn't have the FINA A Standard. Swam by HIMSELF in a time trial -- smashed his PR to get the standard and will likely go to the Olympics. ]
Patrick Callan (swimming, rising sophomore?) placed 6th in the 200 Free, we'll have to wait and see if he will get an invite. [USA usually takes the top 6 for relays, but they can only take 26 men total, and he would probably be the first one to get cut.
She didn't qualify for the semis but freshman Ziyah Holman ran the 400m at the trials.
Shannon Osika had the third fastest time in 1500m prelims; she was third in her heat and Elle Purrier won her heat with a slower time, so she has some work to do to make the olympic team, but good job so far.