LSU athletes head to Tokyo for the Olympics

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - LSU will have 24 representatives ( 22 athletes and two coaches) at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The games will officially begin on Wednesday, July 21.

Twenty-four Tigers will compete at the Olympic Games! #Tokyo2020 https://t.co/hZHPW4xGNw pic.twitter.com/E118SMdU0l
— LSU Tigers (@LSUsports) July 15, 2021

The 24 athletes heading to the games will represent 12 countries.

Seven of the 24 will be competing for the United States Olympic Team. The U.S. group will feature student-athlete, Brooks Curry, who will compete in swimming. Other Team USA athletes are alums of LSU with Sylvia Fowles (WBB), Michael Cherry (T&F), Vernon Norwood (T&F), JuVaughn Harrison (T&F), and Aleia Hobbs (T&F). Howard Dobson is an assistant coach for Team USA softball. Fowles will be looking to win her fourth straight gold medal as a member of Team USA women’s basketball. Harrison will be competing in two events at the Olympics – the high jump & the long jump – and is the first man to double in those two events for the United States since Jim Thorpe did so in 1912.

Current student-athletes will be competing for their home countries are Anne Tuxen (Norway/diving), Juan Celaya-Hernandez (Mexico/diving), and Favour Ofili (Nigeria/track & field). Newly hired LSU swimming head coach, Rick Bishop, will serve as the leader of Hong Kong’s national team at the Olympics.

Two LSU stars Allysha Chapman (soccer) and Amanda Sanchez (softball) will be the first LSU athletes in action in Tokyo on July 21. Chapman will suit up for the Canadian soccer team. This will be Olympic appearance No. 2 for Chapman as she played a role in Canada winning bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Sanchez is LSU softball’s first-ever Olympian and she will suit up for Mexico in Tokyo.

The current world record holder in pole vaulting Mondo Duplantis will make his Olympic debut with the hopes of bringing home LSU track and field’s second gold medal in the Olympic games.

Track and field will have six other representatives in the Olympics. Richard Thompson, a 4×100 meter relay gold medalist at the 2008 Games, will run for Trinidad & Tobago’s relay team. Three other LSU athletes will suit up for T&T as well with Kelly-Ann Baptiste, Semoy Hackett, and Akanni Hislop; Baptiste will be making her fifth career appearance at the Olympics. Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake will represent Great Britain for the second time at the Olympics, and Damion Thomas will make his Olympic debut for Jamaica.

In tennis, Michael Venus and Neal Skupski will be competing in doubles. This will be Venus’ second-straight Olympic competition and he will be representing New Zealand. Skupski will be making his Olympic debut while representing Great Britain.

Madelene Sagstrom will be LSU’s first-ever golfer to represent her home country at the Olympics. She’ll play for Sweden from August 4-7 at the Kasumigaseki Country Club. Sagstrom has over $1.5 million in career earnings with eight top 10s on the LPGA Tour; she won her first title in 2020 at the Gainbridge LPGA event.

Duop Reath will play basketball for Team Australia in Tokyo. Reap played two years at LSU from 2016-18 and appeared in 64 total games while averaging 12.3 points per game. Australia’s first game at the Olympics is on July 25 versus Nigeria.

Full List By Sport:

Softball

Amanda Sanchez – Mexico

Howard Dobson – USA (Assistant Coach)

Women’s Basketball

Sylvia Fowles – USA

Women’s Golf

Madelene Sagstrom – Sweden

Men’s Basketball

Duop Reath – Australia

Swimming

Brooks Curry – USA – 400 freestyle relay