Last month, hundreds of athletes from all over the world flocked to compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Although the Olympics are an annual event, this year was more groundbreaking than ever before.
For the Summer 2024 Olympics, the International Olympic Committee released a new rule requiring an even split between the number of male and female athletes. This year’s games also saw athletes setting new records and winning medals for their countries for the first time.
There were four additional sports at the Paris Olympics: skateboarding, sport climbing, surfing and the internet’s favorite – break dancing.
Four countries won their first ever Olympic Medal: Albania (Chermen Veliev won bronze in Men’s 74kg Freestyle Wrestling), Cape Verde (David de Pina won bronze in Men’s 51kg Boxing), Dominica (Thea Lafond won gold in Women’s Triple Jump) and Saint Lucia (Julien Alfred won gold in Women’s 100 Meter). Cindy Ngamba got the first ever medal for the Refugee Olympic Team, winning bronze in Women’s 75kg Boxing.
13 Wolfpack athletes also competed in the 2024 Summer Olympics. North Carolina State University has ties to 10 swimmers, one basketball player, one tennis player and one track and field runner. Out of those 13 athletes only three ended up competing for the United States. Not to mention the two swimming coaches affiliated with the Wolfpack.
First is Ryan Held who competed, and won gold in, the Men’s 4×100 Meter Freestyle Relay. Held swam for NC State’s men’s swimming team from 2014-2018 and is quite the decorated athlete. He is a four-time NCAA Champion, 25-time All-American, 23-time ACC Champion, ACC Most Valuable Swimmer (2017 and 2018) and now two-time Olympic Gold Medalist.
Another member of the Wolfpack, Katharine Berkoff, also won gold swimming the Backstroke leg of the 4×100 Meter Medley Relay. Berkoff swam for NC State for five years, including the extra year of eligibility she got from the season that was thrown off by the COVID-19 pandemic. Similar to Held, she is a decorated Wolfpack swimmer. Berkoff is a five-time NCAA Champion, 30-time All-American, six-time ACC champion and two-time Olympic Medalist.
Wolfpack athletes showed up and showed out in the pool and on land. Former NC State student McKenzie Long ran the 200 Meter at the Summer Olympics. Although Long only spent a year at NC State, she is still very much a part of the Wolfpack community.
There were two Wolfpack athletes who competed for Hungary – David Betlehem, who took home bronze in the Men’s 10km Marathon swimming, and Bettina Fabian, who placed fifth in the Women’s 10km Marathon swimming. Both Betlehem and Fabian will be joining the Wolfpack as freshmen this year.
NC State swimmers Bartosz Piszczorowicz and Kacper Stokowski also competed in the Summer 2024 Olympics representing Poland.
Piszczorowiz swam in the Men’s 4×100 Meter Medley Relay and 4×100 Meter Freestyle Relay. He swam for the Wolfpack for his junior and senior seasons, taking home two All-American titles and two ACC Champion titles.
Stokowski competed in the Mixed 4×100 Meter Medley Relay. He swam for NC State for the past five years, becoming a two-time NCAA Champion, 20-time All-American and nine-time ACC Champion.
Incoming freshman Kaii Winkler competed for Germany, swimming the Men’s 100 Meter Butterfly. As the third best recruit in the 2024 high school class, NC State was ecstatic to receive his commitment for this upcoming season.
Andreas Vazaios, a former NC State swimmer, competed for Greece in the Men’s 4×100 Meter Freestyle Relay and Men’s 4×200 Meter Freestyle Relay. Vazaios spent three years at NC State, and in that time he became a four-time NCAA Champion, 13-time All-American and six-time ACC Champion. Not to mention that in 2018 he was the ACC Men’s Swimmer of the Year.
Another former NC State swimmer, Nyls Korstanje, swam for the Netherlands in three different events: Men’s 4×100 Meter Medley Relay, Mixed 4×100 Meter Medley Relay and Men’s 100 Meter Butterfly. Korstanje spent all four years of his college eligibility, as well as a redshirt season, at NC State. He racked up one NCAA Champion title, 22 All-American titles and 11 ACC Champion titles. He also won ACC Men’s Freshman of the Year in 2019.
The last swimmer of the list is Sophie Hansson who competed for Sweden, who swam in the Women’s 4×100 Meter Medley Relay, Women’s 100 Meter Breaststroke and Women’s 200 Meter Breaststroke. Hansson was a four-time NCAA Champion, 22-time All-American, 11-time ACC Champion and was named 2019 ACC Women’s Freshman of the Year during her four years at NC State.
Diana Shnaider is a former Wolfpack tennis player who, as an individual neutral athlete, won a silver medal in the women’s doubles event. She is the first ever NC State tennis player to not only just win a medal, but to even appear in the Olympics for the sport. Shnaider only spent one season at NC State, in which she was named Freshman of the Year and helped the Wolfpack beat University of North Carolina for the first time in 25 years.
Lastly is Lorenzo Brown, a NC State Men’s basketball player from 2010-2013. After graduating from NC State he went on to play professionally in Spain, and stayed long enough to gain Spanish citizenship, eventually leading to his appearance this year in the Olympics on behalf of Spain.
Naturally, there are two NC State Swimming coaches accompanying the athletes at the Paris Olympics. Braden Holloway, the current head coach of Wolfpack Swim and Dive, worked as the assistant coach for the Olympic team. He has been named the ACC Men’s Coach of the Year 10 times and along the way he has coached over a dozen Olympians. Additionally, former associate head coach Todd Desorbo, who now works as the head coach at University of Virginia, was in Paris as the head coach of the USA Women’s Swim team.
The Paris 2024 Olympics were an amazing feat of athleticism that showed off not only the prowess of NC State’s Athletics, with a total of four medals won by Wolfpack athletes, but also the United States as a whole. Although no country “wins” the Olympics, the United States did end up coming home with 126 medals in total: 40 gold, 44 silver, and 42 bronze. Which puts the US on the top of the rankings all-around.
