Hawkeyes at the 2024 Olympics Preview

Dun, dun, duh-dun, dun, dun, dun, duh-dun, dun, (HORNS), (HORNS), and lots more (HORNS)…

Ladies and gentlemen, they’re here!

It’s finally time for the 2024 Summer Olympics, which means I now have the awesome opportunity to combine my professional responsibilities with one of my great personal interests.

This is your official Iowa Hawkeye Olympic preview, and I’m absolutely thrilled to be able to bring it to you.

Over the next few weeks, a total of ten past and/or soon-to-be Hawkeyes will lay it all on the line in Paris – competing across eight different sports and for six different countries.

(In fact, one of them has already begun competition with a bang in the days leading up to Friday’s Opening Ceremony.)

The following rundown will highlight all ten athletes – including a brief history of their accomplishments at Iowa (when applicable), their competition schedule in Paris, and any other fun little nuggets I might think up along the way.

Look, this is easily one of my favorite events on the sports calendar, and all the more so because it only comes around every four years. So, here’s hoping all of you finish reading this article feeling not only well informed about every single Hawkeye Olympian in 2024, but as pumped up as I am for the incredible 16 days of competition that awaits us.

Now let’s dive into it – going in chronological order from the first moment you’ll be able to see each of these Hawkeyes make their 2024 Olympic debuts.

Cloé Lacasse, Canada (Women’s Soccer)

The first entry of the bunch comes to you via our friendly neighbors to the north, as Canadian women’s soccer player Cloé Lacasse is now the first Olympian in the history of the women’s program at Iowa .

Lacasse (2011-14) – who currently plays professionally in England for Arsenal – isn’t exactly a stranger to Hawkeye-related ‘firsts’ either.

The former two-time All-Big Ten First Team forward not only helped Iowa to its first NCAA Tournament berth in school history back in 2013 but remains tied atop the program’s leaderboard in career points (112) to this day.

Team Canada also happens to be the defending Olympic champions from Tokyo.

Additionally, because it’s just too wild of a story not to include, I highly encourage you to check out the first big Canadian women’s soccer headline of the Paris Games in which a drone was used to spy on an opponent’s practice, ultimately resulting into two Canadian coaches and one ‘analyst’ being sent home before the team had played its first match – a 2-1 win over New Zealand on Thursday in which Lacasse scored the match-tying goal just before halftime:

Following its opening victory, Canada will play two more Group matches against France (July 28 ^th at 2:00 p.m. CDT) and Colombia (July 31 ^st at 2:00 p.m. CDT) respectively.

Should the team advance out of group play, quarterfinals are scheduled for August 3 ^rd and semifinals three days later on August 6 ^th , with the medal matches to be held on August 9 ^th (bronze) and 10 ^th (gold).

Aurélie Tran & Cassandra ‘Cassie’ Lee, Canada (Women’s Gymnastics)

Speaking of Hawkeyes on Team Canada (all of whom are incredibly polite, I’m sure), a pair of gymnasts bring the overall tally to three.

Aurélie Tran and Cassandra ‘Cassie’ Lee haven’t officially stepped onto campus in Iowa City just yet, but the two 18-year-old incoming freshmen will do so mere weeks after making their Olympic debuts.

Tran automatically qualified for Team Canada by winning silver in the all-around competition earlier this summer at the country’s national championships, while Lee (11 ^th in the all-around) would officially be named to the squad a few weeks later .

Beginning this school year the two Canadian kids will help to build the program foundation for brand-new Iowa women’s coach Jen Llewellyn , and will do so alongside a third compatriot of theirs who will also be present in Paris – fellow incoming freshman and Team Canada ‘traveling reserve’ Sydney Turner.

Olympic competition for the women will open with team qualification rounds on July 28 ^th , followed by the team finals on July 30 ^th .

Things will reconvene two days later for the individual all-around final on August 1 ^st , with individual apparatus finals to be contested from August 3-5 ^th .

Peter Jok, South Sudan (Men’s Basketball)

Shifting over to the hardwood, one of the greatest shooters in Iowa men’s basketball history is now an Olympian as a part of one of the greatest stories at this year’s summer Games.

Peter Jok (2013-17) will represent South Sudan – the youngest nation in the world (circa 2011) – after helping the country qualify for Paris as its fifth-leading scorer at last summer’s FIBA World Cup.

The 2017 First-Team All-Big Ten honoree and his teammates aren’t just a good story either.

After taking the United States down to the wire just last Saturday in an eventual one-point win for the Stars and Stripes , it should be clear by now that the South Sudanese are more than capable of advancing beyond group play – where they’ll be paired with the U.S., along with Puerto Rico and Serbia.

Jok & South Sudan will begin their Olympic journey on July 28 ^th at 10:15 a.m. (CDT) against Puerto Rico, followed by tilts with the United States (July 31 ^st at 2:00 p.m.) and Serbia (August 3 ^rd at 8:15 a.m.) in the days thereafter.

Advance out of group play and the quarters, semifinals and medal games will be contested every other day spanning August 6 ^th , 8 ^th and 10 ^th .

Megan Gustafson, Spain (Women’s Basketball)

Long before somebody named ‘Clark’ (or something) was setting a new standard of greatness for an Iowa women’s basketball player it was Megan Gustafson (2015-19) who was busy rewriting the record books first.

OK, maybe it was only like a year before…but still, it’s kind of nuts that ‘lightning’ somehow struck Iowa City twice within that short of a span, isn’t it??

The 2019 Naismith Award winner for National Player of the Year still ranks top 25 in NCAA history in both points (25 ^th ) and rebounds (14 ^th ) and is currently in the midst of her sixth WNBA season after joining the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces this offseason.

A naturalized Spanish citizen as of earlier this year – you can learn more about the how/why of that process in this great article by Owen Siebring of Iowa News Now – Gustafson helped the women’s national team qualify for the Olympics back in February.

Now, she’ll be one of its catalysts in Paris, where the Spanish women enter the tournament as third-best gold medal favorites (+2200) according to DraftKings – albeit a distant third to the heavily favored United States (-1800).

One of four teams in Group A, Spain will tip things off on July 28 ^th against China at 2:00 p.m. CDT before closing things out with games against Puerto Rico (July 31 ^st at 6:30 a.m.) and Serbia (August 3 ^rd at 4:00 a.m.).

The quarters/semis/finals for the women will run on alternating days to those of the men – in this case on August 7 ^th /9 ^th /11 ^th respectively.

Tomi Taiwo, Nigeria (Women’s Basketball)

A teammate of Gustafson’s for one season in Iowa City, Tomi Taiwo (2018-22) would go on to appear in 102 games for the Hawkeyes as a rotation player before spending her extra COVID year at TCU to conclude her college career.

Now, Taiwo – a nearly 39 percent career three-point shooter – will get the chance to represent Nigeria on the Olympic stage in what will be the third such appearance in the history of its women’s national team (2004, 2021).

Just as Gustafson did with Spain, it was in February earlier this year that Taiwo helped D’Tigress squad officially qualify for Paris .

Nigeria opens Group (B) play on July 29 ^th against Australia (4:00 a.m. CDT) followed by games against host France (August 1 ^st at 10:15 a.m.) and Canada (August 4 ^th at 6:30 a.m.).

Eve Stewart, Great Britain (Rowing – Women’s Eight)

Another first-time Olympian for a Hawkeye program comes in women’s rowing, where Eve Stewart (2016-19) is set to represent Great Britain in the Women’s Eight discipline.

As a collegian the Dutch-born Stewart helped Iowa to reach three-consecutive NCAA Championships , including a ninth-place finish in 2019 – the highest in program history.

Now, she’ll compete for international rowing powerhouse Great Britain on the sport’s grandest stage – where the Brits have won 31 total gold medals in their history, including at least one in every Olympics from 1984-2016 .

Heats for the Women’s Eight will take place on July 29 ^th (5:00 a.m. CDT) with the Repechage and Final rounds to be held on August 1 ^st (3:10 a.m.) and August 3 ^rd (3:50 a.m.) respectively.

Brittany Brown, United States (Track and Field – Women’s 200 meters)

Our first Hawkeye who’ll be representing the Stars and Stripes in Paris is women’s 200-meter runner Brittany Brown (2014-18).

The 29-year-old Brown qualified for the U.S. team courtesy of her second-place finish at Olympic Trials less than a month ago out in Eugene, Oregon.

Her 21.90-second personal best from that race makes Brown the fourth-fastest woman in the World this year at the 200-meter distance – meaning she is absolutely a threat to win a medal.

The 11-time All-American and Iowa school record holder at 200 meters isn’t a stranger to big international stages either – having won silver in the event back at the 2019 World Championships as well as finishing seventh in the 100-meter World Championship final a year ago.

Round 1 heats for the 200 will be run on August 4 ^th (3:55 a.m. CDT).

Advance through those and semifinals are set for the following day (August 5 ^th ) at 1:45 p.m.

Make it all the way to the final and Brown will get her chance to race for gold on August 6 ^th at 2:40 p.m.

Spencer Lee, United States (Men’s Freestyle Wrestling – 57 kilograms)

In all likelihood Iowa’s biggest star at the 2024 Games, Spencer Lee (2017-23) will finally get his chance to realize a lifelong dream as he competes for an Olympic title in men’s freestyle wrestling.

The three-time NCAA champion and two-time Hodge Trophy winner (college wrestling’s ‘Heisman’) has seen his senior-level international debut delayed over and over again by injury.

Thankfully, he’s healthy now and raring to go against a deep field of competitors at 57 kilograms – which he earned the right to be amongst after going a combined 8-0 at the U.S. Olympic Trials and World Olympic Qualifier respectively.

I’ll have much more on Lee in some wrestling-centric previews that’ll be published closer to his date(s) of competition, so stay tuned for those.

Speaking of dates though, action at 57 kilograms will kick off in the early morning hours of August 8 ^th (4:00 a.m. CDT).

Lee will (hopefully) have two matches within the span of about 90 minutes – and if he wins both he’d wrestle his semifinal later that same morning around 11:15 a.m.

Go 3-0 on Day 1 and the Hawkeye legend would wrestle for gold the following day (August 9 ^th ) at 12:55 p.m.

Any repechage (consolation) matches would also be contested earlier on August 9 ^th (starting at 4:00 a.m.), with a potential bronze medal match being held just prior to that for gold.

Kennedy Blades, United States (Women’s Freestyle Wrestling – 76 kilograms)

Prior to Tuesday of this week the final athlete on this list wouldn’t have been included on it at all.

That’s because the announcement was quite literally just made that one Kennedy Blades will be a Hawkeye as of the 2024-25 season.

I wrote all about the magnitude of that decision earlier this week on the site , but it’s safe to say that the phenomenally talented 20-year-old gives Iowa-affiliated Olympians another great chance at a medal in Paris.

Like Lee, I’ll have more on Blades closer to when she’s set to take the mat at 76 kilograms.

For now, just know this:

To make the U.S. Women’s Freestyle team the Chicago native had to knock off a 10-time(!) World/Olympic medalist in Adeline Gray – which she’d do in a 2-0 sweep in their best-of-three Olympic Trials final back in April.

So yeah, she’s pretty good.

Blades’ schedule in Paris will take on a similar look to the aforementioned Lee’s – starting at 4:00 a.m. (CDT) on August 10 ^th with a potential quarterfinal to follow shortly thereafter.

A subsequent semifinal would take place just before noon (11:55 a.m.).

Repechage action gets underway early on August 11 ^th (4:20 a.m.) only this time the medal matches will be right on its heels.

Athletes will compete for bronze at 6:20 a.m. just before the 76-kilogram Olympic final is contested at 6:45 a.m. – a bout that will conclude the entirety of the wrestling competition at this year’s Games.

Everyone ready?

I know I’m coming at you guys with a lot of information here, but I just can’t help it.

Like I said a few (thousand) words ago, I love the Olympics.

I’m going to try like heck not to miss a single thing over these next few weeks, but for Iowa fans out there I want to make sure that you’re able to catch as many Hawkeyes in action as possible.

So, hopefully this preview will be of some help in that regard, as well as giving folks an introduction to some of these former/soon-to-be Iowa athletes with whom they might be less familiar entering Paris 2024.

Aside from this article, I’d also recommend visiting the NBC Olympics page in order to find all of your TV/streaming information for each event.

Elsewhere, you can check out the entire schedule of events for Paris here , as well as search for and learn more about individual athletes here .

The University of Iowa has also created its own page that is well worth a visit.

Anyway, that’ll do it from me.

Be sure to check back in closer to the wrestling dates (August 8-11) for additional content on both Spencer Lee and Kennedy Blades – and I may be back to update things with some other Hawkeyes throughout the next 16 days as well.

The 2024 Paris Olympics are finally here, folks.

Have an absolute blast and thanks again for reading.

‘Till next time.

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