With the Friday, July 26, opening ceremonies officially starting the 2024 Paris Olympics, athletes will be lifting, kicking, throwing, shooting, dribbling, rowing, dancing, running, and swimming as they compete on the world stage.
About a dozen athletes with connections to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be part of the Olympics. …
Football (Soccer)
USA forward Taylor Booth, 23, a native of Eden, Utah, has been playing in the Netherlands for FC Utrecht as a midfielder. This is the first USA men’s team to go to the Olympics since 2008. Booth has played on several teams in Europe. This is his first Olympics.
Rugby Sevens
Make Unufe, 32, is a wing on USA’s men’s rugby sevens team in the Paris Olympics. He played football at Provo High School in Provo, Utah. He’s been on several USA teams that have earned medals. Unufe was on Team USA during the 2016 Rio Games.
In men’s rugby sevens, on July 27, France defeated Fiji, 28-7, to win the gold medal. Ponipate Loganimasi, a 26-year-old player for Fiji, is a returned Latter-day Saint missionary and took home a silver medal.
Stephanie Rovetti, 32, is a flyhalf and wing for USA’s women’s rugby team, and this is her first Olympics. From Reno, Nevada, Rovetti played basketball for Brigham Young University and was on the 2014 Sweet 16 team. Rovetti switched to rugby and was part of the 2018 Club Sevens National Championships.
Pistol Shooting
Alexis “Lexi” Lagan, 31, is competing for Team USA in women’s air pistol. The Nevada native started Olympic shooting while attending the University of Utah; after graduating, she moved to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. At the Tokyo Games, she competed in three different events. Recently, she won silver in women’s air pistol and bronze in women’s sport pistol at the 2023 Pan American Games and silver at the 2023 USA Shooting National Championship in women’s sport pistol.
Basketball
Jimmer Fredette, 35, is part of USA’s four-person 3-on-3 basketball team. It’s the first time the U.S. has sent a men’s 3-on-3 team to the Olympics. He was named the USA Basketball’s 2023 3x3 Male Athlete of the Year. The game is played on a half-court with a 10-minute game clock, and the first team to 21 points wins.
Athletics (Track and Field)
Whittni Morgan, 26, is racing in the 5,000 meters (or 5K) for Team USA. She’s the 2021 collegiate cross-country national champion and a former BYU runner. The Panguitch, Utah, native had knee surgery last fall. She was fifth at the Olympic trials and qualified after two higher-finishing runners chose to focus on other races.
After coming in fourth in 2021 for the Tokyo Olympics trials for the 3,000-meter steeplechase, 25-year-old Courtney Wayment was second in this year’s competitive trials to represent Team USA. The Brigham Young University collegiate champion is from Kaysville, Utah. The steeplechase includes hurdles and a water obstacle.
Kenneth Rooks, 24, and James Corrigan, 22, are both racing in the 3,000-meter steeplechase for Team USA. Rooks is a returned missionary who served in Uganda and Utah, is a former NCAA champion at BYU, and won the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the U.S. Olympic trials. During the 2023 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, he fell in the finals and came from behind to win the race.
The Paris Olympics will be the third for Australia’s Nagmeldin “Peter” Bol. The 30-year-old was fourth in the 800-meter race in the Tokyo Olympics after holding the lead until being passed in the last 200 meters by the trio who ended up on the podium. While in Tokyo, Bol still set an Australian record for the 800 meters, He also raced in the 2016 Rio Olympics. His family is originally from South Sudan, and his family emigrated to Australia when he was a child.
Conner Mantz, 27, and Clayton Young, 30, were first and second in the USA trials in the marathon. Both are former BYU runners and Latter-day Saint returned missionaries. Mantz, a two-time NCAA cross-country champion from Smithfield, Utah, served in the Ghana Accra West Mission. Young, of American Fork, Utah, served Spanish-speaking in the North Carolina Raleigh Mission.
For more information on each of these athletes and how to watch their events during the 2024 Paris Olympics, check out the full article on Church Newsroom here.
And for more inspiring stories about this year’s Olympians and Paralympians, you can read these articles below:
► ‘That’s what love sounds like’—BYU coach cheering her athlete on to the Olympics will make you cry
► Paralympian and Ireland’s ‘Dancing with the Stars’ winner says these scriptures changed his perception of possible
► 2 Olympics-bound runners boldly testify of faith on CNN: ‘There is more to this life than running’
► Advice from an Olympics-bound runner to help you succeed in life’s marathon
► Latter-day Saint runner qualifies for the Olympics 6 days before his temple marriage