Olympics 2024: These Maryland athletes are headed to Paris

The quadrennial festivities begin Friday under a setting sun along the magical River Seine in the heart of Paris, France. Thousands of Olympic athletes will fill national delegation boats for a first-of-its kind nearly 4-mile parade signaling the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Games.

That will usher in 16 days of competition. Here’s every Maryland athlete competing in the 2024 Summer Olympics:

Basketball

Kevin Durant, Suitland

The Prince George’s County native is gearing up to compete in his fourth Olympic games, having helped lead Team USA to a gold medal in his previous three tries. Durant is considered to be one of the greatest basketball players ever. In 2021, the Phoenix Suns forward was named to the NBA’s 75th anniversary team honoring the best 75 players of all time.

Durant won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award in 2008 and in 2014 was named the league’s Most Valuable Player. He’s a two-time champion with the Golden State Warriors, named Finals MVP for both, and a four-time scoring champ. He arrived at USA Basketball’s training camp with lingering calf soreness but is expected to be ready Sunday against Serbia.

Alyssa Thomas, University of Maryland

Thomas is a 10-year veteran of the WNBA and the league’s all-time leader in regular season triple-doubles (9). She graduated from Central Dauphin High School in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, before an accomplished four-year career at Maryland, where she was named Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year three times and graduated as the Terps’ all-time leader in eight statistical categories.

The Connecticut Sun’s 6-2 forward arrives with a shred of international competition but is eager for her first Olympic games. Thomas was a member of the 2022 USA World Cup Team, averaging 9.9 points en route to a gold medal in Sydney. In 2013, she was one of six college athletes to participate in the national team minicamp. In 2012, she was selected to the USA 3×3 World Championship team but was unable to participate and withdrew.

Boxing

Jahmal Harvey, Oxon Hill

Harvey made history in 2021 as the first American male to win an elite world title since 2007. He was just 18 at the time. Now 21, the 5-6, fast-paced boxer brought home gold at two international tournaments in 2023, including the Santiago Pan American games, where he punched his ticket to Paris.

Football was Harvey’s first love. Then his coach opened a boxing gym, recruiting his players to come workout. Harvey, then an undersized running back, said that he was the only one to start taking fighting seriously, beginning at 13.

According to his Team USA bio, Harvey’s favorite boxer is Terence Crawford, a similarly undersized boxer who ascended from amateur prodigy to a household name. Crawford fell short of an Olympic bid in 2008. Harvey has a chance to reach greater heights.

Fencing

Tatiana Nazlymov, Bethesda

Nazlymov is a third-generation fencer, practically born into the sport. Her grandfather, Vladimir Nazlymov, won three Olympic gold medals for the former Soviet Union, and her father, Vitali Nazlymov, is a former NCAA individual champion at Penn State.

Vitali opened the Nazlymov Fencing training academy with his wife in Bethesda in 2018. Congruently, Tatiana climbed the mountain of USA National Women’s Saber fencing rankings to become a star of the sport.

The Princeton rising sophomore will compete in both the individual and team events for women’s saber, having qualified in March with the third most national points of U.S. competitors. Tatiana is ranked 21st globally in women’s saber fencing.

Field hockey

Grace Balsdon, University of Maryland

Balsdon helped Team Great Britain take bronze at the Tokyo Games and returns to Paris as a reserve. In 2016, her one season as a Terp, the native of Canterbury, United Kingdom, was named Big Ten Defender of the Year.

Leah Crouse, University of Maryland

Crouse is part of a contingent of Terps set to compete in Paris. She grew up in Virginia Beach, graduating from Frank W. Cox High School before playing at Duke then transferring as a graduate student to Maryland. In 2022, her lone season in College Park, Crouse made All-Big Ten second team, started all 22 games and finished with a team-best five game-winning goals.

Team USA did not qualify for the Tokyo Games but went on a historic run at the Olympic qualifier in Ranchi, India, earlier this year. The No. 15 seed Americans were among the lowest ranked teams before pulling off upsets over India, New Zealand and Japan — including a two-goal fourth quarter in the semifinal — to qualify for Paris.

Crouse can play the trumpet and has medical school aspirations, having studied biology, neuroscience and chemistry. But first, she’ll be a key cog in seeking America’s first medal in the sport.

Brooke DeBerdine, University of Maryland

The Lancaster, Pennsylvania, native and Maryland graduate is the first Terp to start 100 career games. In 2022, she won the Maryland Student-Athlete of the Year Award and the Big Ten Medal of Honor. Now, she’ll make her Olympic debut with Team USA.

DeBerdine, a midfielder, made her first international appearance with the United States U21 team in 2016 at the Junior World Cup in Santiago, Chile. She later played in the 2022 Pan American Cup Reserve, also in Santiago, helping her country earn fourth place. DeBerdine will compete in Paris alongside her younger sister, Emma.

In an interview with USA Field Hockey, Brooke recalled yelling across Maryland’s locker room, “Good morning, sister Emma.” Brooke will soon be able to do the same from inside Yves-du-Manoir Stadium.

Emma DeBerdine, University of Maryland

DeBerdine has a lengthy international competition resume that includes tours with the U17, U19 and U.S. Rise women’s national teams from 2017 to 2019. She would later compete in the 2021 Junior World Cup as well the 2022 Pan American Cup and 2023 Pan American Games. This summer will be the Terps alumna’s Olympic debut, alongside her older sister, Brooke.

The younger of two DeBerdine sisters started all 21 games her freshman year at Maryland. She earned third-team All-America honors and was named to the All-Big Ten first team. She switched from forward to midfield early in her college career, showcasing more of an all-around skill set.

Kelee Lepage, University of Maryland

Lepage began playing field hockey reluctantly in third grade because her mom forced her into attending a camp. Now 26, hailing from Honey Brook, Pennsylvania, having enjoyed a four-year career at Maryland that included a trio of Big Ten titles and reaching a pair of NCAA championship games, Lepage will soon compete on the sport’s grandest stage.

She was named to the U.S. National Team in 2020 but has endured two concussions and a toe injury since. A now-healthy Lepage was part of an improbable week-long run in the Olympic qualifying tournament in January that ended with a 2-0 loss to Germany in the final.

Nike Lorenz, University of Maryland

The Terps alumna will captain Team Germany in Paris. This summer marks Lorenz’s third Olympics, having helped her home country earn bronze in 2016 and finish sixth in 2021. In her lone season at Maryland, Lorenz was a 2018 All-Big Ten second-team honoree.

Lorenz grew up in Mannheim, Germany. She attended University of Mannheim and was named the Best Young Player at World League Semifinals in Johannesburg in 2017.

Gymnastics

Khoi Young, Bowie

Young, a traveling alternate for the Paris games, is considered by many to be a rising talent in the sport for pommel horse and vault. The 21-year-old NCAA all-around champion won two silver medals at the 2023 Artistic Gymnastics Championships and a bronze with Team USA.

The 5-foot-4 Young was born on New Year’s Eve in 2002 and grew up in Bowie. When he was 13, Young told a reporter that he wanted to compete in the Olympics. With a standout career at Stanford, where he’s on pace to graduate in 2025, and in international competition, that dream feels more and more attainable.

Young is a two-time NCAA team champion and three-time All-American. At the 2023 Winter Cup, he posted the highest combined score on vault (29.554) and recorded an event-best 14.802 on Day 1.

Skateboarding

Ruby Lilley, Ocean City

Lilley was raised on a farm with seven siblings, Angora rabbits, sheep, chickens, goats, dogs and ducks. It was at the Ocean Bowl skatepark in Ocean City where Lilley honed her craft. She left ballet and competitive ballroom dancing at age 10 to follow the lead of her skateboarding older brothers.

Skateboarding made its Olympic debut at the Tokyo Games. Lilley, now 17 residing in Oceanside, California, made her X Games debut in 2022, won silver in 2023 and will make her Olympic debut in Paris. She’s currently No. 11 in the world rankings.

Swimming

Phoebe Bacon, Chevy Chase

Bacon made her Olympic debut in Tokyo, placing fifth in the 200 backstroke. She’ll compete in the same event in Paris, having grabbed the second roster spot by besting reigning world champ Clair Curzan by a fingernail — 0.07 seconds.

The 21-year-old from Chevy Chase is a four-time U.S. national team member with a silver medal in the 200 backstroke at the world championships. This past season at Wisconsin, Bacon was the 200 backstroke NCAA champion and an All-Big Ten selection. She was the conference’s Swimmer of the Year in 2023.

Erin Gemmell, Potomac

Gemmell’s swimming career is no accident. Her dad, Bruce Gemmell, coached both Katie Ledecky to Olympic dominance through the Rio Games and Erin’s older brother, Andrew, who swam at the London Olympics. Paris is Erin’s turn. All three swam under Bruce at Nation’s Capital Swim Club.

The Potomac native is a middle-distance swimmer competing in the 4×100 freestyle relay in Paris. She was a two-time gold medalist at the 2019 Junior Championships and a four-time Big 12 champion at the University of Texas.

Chase Kalisz, Bel Air

The Bel Air native and Fallston graduate brought home silver in his Olympic debut, racing the 400 individual medley at the 2016 Rio Games. In Tokyo, Kalisz captured his first gold medal in the 400 IM under the watchful eye of his mentor and predecessor from North Baltimore Aquatic Club, Michael Phelps, who was up in NBC’s broadcast booth during the race.

Kalisz placed second to Carson Foster in the U.S. Olympic Trials but will have a chance to defend his gold in Paris. At 8 years old, Guillain-Barre syndrome left Kalisz paralyzed for about eight months, which he spent in the ICU. The setback motivated his return to the pool and his ascension to the international stage.

Katie Ledecky, Bethesda

Ledecky is a titan of the sport. With seven gold medals (10 total) and 21 world championship titles, she is one of the most dominant athletes ever — male or female. The Bethesda native made her debut at the 2012 London Games where, at 15 years old, she won her first gold medal in the women’s 800 freestyle.

Ledecky has earned internet lore for videos of international competition in which she regularly builds such a lead that her competitors are out of the broadcast frame. In Paris, she’ll compete in the 200 freestyle, 400 freestyle, 800 freestyle, 1,500 freestyle and 4x200m freestyle. If Ledecky were to win two gold medals, she would break Jenny Thompson’s all-time record for female swimmers.

Ledecky’s conquests recently earned her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor a civilian can receive from the U.S. government.

Track and field

Thea LaFond, Silver Spring

At the 2011 Class 3A outdoor championships, the John F. Kennedy High School senior from Silver Spring won four events: 100-meter hurdles, high jump, long jump and triple jump. She also won the 3A indoor title in high jump with a then-personal-best 5-8 and captured a state title in the 55 hurdles at 8.39.

LaFond went on to compete at Maryland, predominantly in the triple and high jumps. In Paris, she will represent her home country of Dominica. LaFond, who also competed in Rio, won gold with a national record of 15.01 at the 2024 World Indoor Championships in Glasgow.

Chioma Onyekwere, University of Maryland

The Terps alumna will represent Nigeria. She secured her ticket in June with a 59.43-meter discus throw at the Nigerian Championships in Benin City.

Onyekwere’s name is scribbled all over the Maryland history books. She finished her college career as the school record holder in the discus (178-7) and second on the all-time list in shot put (55-3.50). She also broke a 14-year-old program record in the weight throw at the 2016 Big Ten Outdoor Championships, throwing 69-5.5 to finish second in the event.

Masai Russell, Potomac

At the Bullis School, Russell was an eight-time national champion in the sprint relays and shuttle hurdle, a two-time national record holder in the 4×200 and shuttle hurdle, Gatorade Maryland Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year in 2018, and the list goes on. Utter dominance from the Potomac native landed her at University of Kentucky, where Russell was an 11-time All-American.

She qualified for the Paris Games after finishing first at the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 100-meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 12.25. That scorching time that had her screaming in utter elation, having broken a 24-year-old trials record. It was also the fastest time in the world this year.

Isabella Whittaker, Laurel

Whittaker will compete in the U.S. 4×400 relay pool. The Penn graduate, planning to use her final year of eligibility at Arkansas, starred out in her first college meet, coming from Mount de Sales to record Penn’s second-best times in the 200 (23.76) and 400 (53.54). In 2022, she suffered a stress fracture in her back, sidelining her for six months.

This year, she broke two 34-year-old records in the 400. Her indoor time (51:69) was then the race’s second-fastest time in the world. Her outdoor time (50.17) finished a tick faster.

Whittaker comes from a track family . Her dad, Paul, was a middle distance runner. Jill, her mom, was a hurdler. And her younger sister, Juliette, will accompany her to France racing in the 800.

Juliette Whittaker, Laurel

The Stanford record book is littered with the name Juliette Whittaker. The 2022 Mount de Sales graduate holds the program’s top time in the indoor mile and the 800. She has competed with each of the top-two 4×400 teams as well as the indoor and outdoor distance medley relay.

The 800, which she’ll race in Paris, is her specialty. In June, Whittaker, then a junior at Stanford, became the first female athlete to sweep the 800 at the NCAA indoor and outdoor championships since 2017.

Rudy Winkler, University of Maryland

The Maryland track and field assistant coach was ranked seventh in the world in hammer throw at the start of the U.S. Olympic Trials. His throw of 258 feet, 10 inches was good for second place and a spot on Team USA. He’s also the current American record holder at 271-4.

This is Winkler’s third Olympics. He finished 18th in Rio and seventh in Tokyo.

“The one major remaining goal I have in this sport is to get an international medal of some sort,” Winkler told The Baltimore Sun of what could be his last Olympics.

Quincy Wilson, Potomac

Wilson is in a league of his own. At 16 years old, he’s the youngest American male track Olympian ever, competing in the 4×400 relay. In 2022, before turning 15, Wilson clocked a 47.59 in the 400, which broke a 30-year-old under-14 national record. And in January, his 1:01.27 time in the indoor 500 at the VA Showcase set an indoor world record for 18 and under. Outdoors, his 45.19 in the 400 in March was the fastest U.S. time of the year at any level.

Hailing from Potomac out of the Bullis School , the youngster barely old enough to drive and seven months over the age minimum to compete in Paris will add depth to a promising men’s 4×400 relay team. He’ll be 16 years and 200 days old at the opening ceremonies.

Nicole Yeargin, Bowie

Yeargin grew up in Bowie and is a 2016 graduate from Bishop McNamara High School in District Heights. But the Scottish-American will represent Great Britain as one of seven athletes on the women’s 4x400m relay squad. This will be her second Olympics after competing in the postponed, closed-door Tokyo Games as a result of the pandemic. She chose to represent Great Britain in an homage to her mother, Lynn, who is originally from Dunfermline, Scotland.

The 26-year-old who graduated from the University of Southern California has bronze medals from 4×400 races at the World, European and Commonwealth Games.

Trampoline

Jessica Stevens, Ellicott City

In November 2023, Stevens accomplished something that hadn’t been done in 49 years, becoming the first American to medal at the World Trampoline Championships. The Centennial graduate began competing at 8 years old, transitioning from gymnastics. She was 13 when she qualified for the national team and competed at the world championships in Bulgaria at 17.

Trampoline made its Olympic debut in 2000. No American has finished higher than sixth. Stevens, a University of Maryland senior, has her eyes set on making history again.

Volleyball

Aaron Russell, Ellicott City

Coming from Centennial High School absent a boys volleyball team, Russell forged a career in the sport playing with his club team, Maryland Volleyball Program in Rockville, and practicing with the Eagles’ girls team.

Russell, a 6-9 outside hitter, competed in his first Olympics in 2016 at the Rio Games as Team USA captured bronze. He joined the U.S. Men’s National Team in 2015 after his graduation from Penn State and has played for professional clubs around the world, most recently in Poland.

Wrestling

Aaron Brooks, Hagerstown

Brooks (86 kilograms) will make his Olympic debut in Paris after upsetting reigning world champion and 2020 gold medalist David Taylor in a best-of-three series at the Olympic Trials in April. The 23-year-old stunned fans as he defeated a fellow Nittany Lions star 10 years his senior at the Bryce Jordan Center.

At North Hagerstown High School, Brooks was a four-time Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association state champion with 163 wins and two losses.

Helen Maroulis, Rockville

There is only one Maryland public school wrestler, male or female, to become an Olympic champion. Maroulis (57 kg) was born in Rockville and attended Magruder High School before leaving early for the Olympic Training Center in Michigan as a senior.

In 2016, Maroulis, 32, became the first U.S. woman to win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling, downing a legend of the sport in Japan’s Saori Yoshida. She’ll become the first U.S. woman to wrestle at three Olympics when she takes the mat in Paris.

Kyle Snyder, Woodbine

Hailing from Woodbine, Snyder’s resume is among the best of any American wrestler ever , starting with becoming the youngest gold medalist in U.S. Olympic wrestling history at the 2016 Rio Games.

The 28-year-old will represent the U.S. at 97 kilograms in the men’s freestyle competition in Paris — his third Olympic appearance. Snyder, a Good Counsel graduate who starred at Ohio State, has nine Olympic and world medals in the 97-kilogram weight class since 2015.