Meet the St. Louis area’s 2024 Summer Olympians

PARIS – It’s almost time for the 2024 Summer Olympics . Thousands of the world’s top athletes are bound for Paris, and among them are several stars from the St. Louis region.

The 2024 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony is set for July 26. The games will begin on the same day and run through August 11. This year’s Olympics consist of more than 30 sports with swimming, gymnastics, basketball and track and field among the most popular.

Team USA rosters are now set after the United States Olympic trials ended in late June.

Seven athletes, and potentially an eighth, who were born or raised in the Greater St. Louis Metropolitan Area will compete in this summer’s Olympics. Let’s introduce them…

Napheesa Collier

Napheesa Collier will represent the United States Women’s Basketball team in the 2024 Summer Olympics. This is her second consecutive Olympics bid. Collier will have the opportunity to defend a gold medal she won with the U.S. women’s basketball team in the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Collier, 27, was raised in St. Charles County and Jefferson City. Collier played high school basketball for Incarnate Word Academy in St. Louis County, earning Gatorade Player of the Year honors in 2013 and 2015.

Collier is currently a power forward for the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx. She played college basketball with UConn before her opportunities with the WNBA and Summer Olympics.

Freddie Crittenden III

Freddie Crittenden III will represent the United States Men’s Track and Field team in the 2024 Summer Olympics through the 110m hurdle competition. He is a first-time Olympian. Crittenden qualified for this year’s games after placing second in the 110-meter hurdles at the 2024 U.S. Olympic trials, finishing the competition in 12.93 seconds.

Crittenden, 29, was born in St. Louis and attended McCluer North High School through his sophomore year. He spent four years with the track and field team at Syracuse University, earning two first-team All American honors and four All-ACC team honors.

After college, he earned a silver medal in the 2019 Pan American Games and a gold medal in the NACAC Championships, both for the 110-meter hurdle competition.

Tyler Downs

Tyler Downs will represent the United States Men’s Diving team in the 2024 Summer Olympics through the synchronized 3m springboard competition. This is his second consecutive Olympics bid. Downs will look to build on his finish of 23rd place in the preliminary round of the 3m springboard competition in the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Downs, 20, was born in St. Louis and raised in Ballwin. He graduated an online high school program in 2021 and briefly competed with the men’s swimming and diving team at Purdue University.

Downs is a six-time U.S. junior diving national champion, competing in the U.S. Junior Pan American Games as early as 2015. Last year, he earned a Bronze medal in the 2023 Pan American Games.

Brandon Miller

Brandon Miller will represent the United States Men’s Track and Field team in the 2024 Summer Olympics through the 800m competition. He is a first-time Olympian. Miller qualified for this year’s games after finishing third in the 800-meter race at the 2024 U.S. Olympic trials with a personal best time of 1 minute, 43.97 seconds.

Miller, 22, was born in St. Louis and attended John Burroughs School, where he broke school records and shined as a state champion. He spent two years with the track and field team at Texas A&M, where he earned two first-team All-American Outdoor 800m honors and also broke an American collegiate record and Texas A&M school record in 2022 with a time of 1 minute, 45.24 seconds.

Miller now specializes in the 800m competition for World Athletics and USA Track & Field.

DeAnna Price

DeAnna Price will represent the United States Women’s Field Events team in the 2024 Summer Olympics through the hammer throw competition. This is her third consecutive Olympics bid. Price will look to build on her finish of 8th place for the hammer throw in the 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics.

Price, 31, was born and raised in Troy, Missouri. She attended Troy Buchanan High School, where she earned All-State honors for softball, but also grew a passion for discus and shot put throwing, which led her to Southern Illinois University’s track and field program. While there, she won back-to-back NCAA titles in the hammer throw, which paved the way to more professional opportunities.

Price broke the USA Track & Field Indoor Championships hammer throw 25-pound record with a distance of 85.4 feet in February 2021. Later that year, ahead of the 2020 Summer Olympic Trials, she set a personal best and an American record with a distance of 80.31 meters (263 feet, 5 inches). She placed second in this year’s Olympic trials to qualify with a distance of 244 feet, 6 inches.

Emily Sisson

Emily Sisson will represent United States Women’s Marathon team in the 2024 Summer Olympics. This is her second consecutive Olympics bid. Sisson will look to build on her finish of 10th place in the 10000m final in the 2020 Summer Olympics, this time instead in a marathon competition.

Sisson, 32, was born in Milwaukee also raised there and in Nebraska before she moved to the St. Louis region in high school. She transferred over to Parkway Central High School and won two cross country state titles. Sisson then ran for Providence College, making her mark as a two-time NCAA champion and setting a collegiate indoor record for women in the 5000-meter race of 15 minutes, 12.22 seconds.

Sisson has regularly trained to run half marathons since her college days, though first focused on smaller distances to make her Olympics debut. She won the 10000m race in the 2020 Summer Olympic Trials with a time of 31 minutes, 3.82 seconds to qualify for the grand stage. Sisson finished second in the women’s U.S. Olympic marathon trials with a time of 2 hours, 22 minutes, and 42 seconds to qualify for the Olympics as a longer-distance runner.

Jayson Tatum

Jayson Tatum will represent the United States Men’s Basketball team in the 2024 Summer Olympics. This is his second consecutive Olympics bid. Tatum will have the opportunity to defend a gold medal he won with the U.S. men’s basketball team in the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Tatum, 26, was born and raised in St. Louis. He played high school basketball for Chaminade College Preparatory School in Creve Coeur, rallying the program to back-to-back Final Four state appearances and earning a state championship to close out his high school career.

Tatum spent one season with Duke University before joining the NBA’s Boston Celtics, where his basketball career continues to evolve. He secured his first NBA title in June after seven years in the league, five which have led to All-Star appearances. Tatum plays a balanced game, averaging around 27 points, eight rebounds and four assists per game over has last five NBA seasons.

Jayden Ulrich

Jayden Ulrich appears on track for an opportunity to represent the United States Women’s Field Events team in the 2024 Summer Olympics through the discus competition. She would be a first-time Olympian.

Ulrich, 21, was born and raised in the Metro East and attended East Alton-Wood River High School, where she was a three-time state champion between shot put and discus. She now attends the University of Louisville, where she set a new personal best in shot put last year with a distance of 18.66 meters in the NCAA East Regional Championship.

Ulrich finished second in the discus throw in discus and placed 17th in the shot put in this year’s Olympic trials. Ulrich did not immediately secure an Olympic bid after the trials, but could qualify after the performance helped her jump to 25th in the world rankings. According to the St. Louis-Post Dispatch , the discus team will not be formally announced until July 8, though it appears Ulrich is on track for Paris.

Honorable mentions

The following athletes have hometown or collegiate ties somewhat close, but just outside the St. Louis Metropolitan Area.

• Jordan Poulter , a University of Illinois alum, will represent the United States Women’s Volleyball team.
• Karissa Schweizer , a Mizzou alum, will represent the United States Women’s Track team through the 5000m competition.
• Rachel Tozier , from Pattonsburg, Missouri, will represent the United States Women’s Trap Shooting team.
• Ryan Held , from Springfield, Illinois, will represent the United States Men’s Swimming Team through the 4x100m freestyle relay competition.
• Anna Peplowski , from Germantown Hills, Illinois, will represent the United States Women’s Swimming Team through the 4x200m freestyle relay competition.

The following St. Louis-area athletes made it to the Olympic trials, but came just short of qualifying.

• Sydney Schoeck , a 15-year-old Chesterfield native, competed in the 200-meter backstroke and 400 individual medley at the Olympic trials.
• Mason Meinershagen , a 2023 graduate of Oakville High School, track and field Olympic trials for pole vault.

For a full list of Team USA Olympians for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, click here .

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