For anyone watching the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games last Friday, the events definitely had a futuristic look to them.
And they should as Paris last hosted the Summer Games in 1924 — 100 years ago.
There has understandably been a lot of technological and social advances over that time span.
Viewers were treated to a Parade of Nations via a caravan of boats down the River Seine, a robotic horse and rider carrying the Olympic flag and a torch relay that ended with a ride on a hot air balloon — all amid a downpour.
Much of the fanfare was fizzled by the inclement weather, though the Eiffel Tower, fitted with sparkling electric lights, produced on dazzling cue.
The boat carrying the United States team included 592 athletes (642 entries) from 46 states, California included (123 athletes).
More than 200 national Olympic committees are represented in Paris. Host France’s contingent of 573 athletes approaches that of Team USA.
The United States is looking to build on its 113 medal count at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics — 24 more than runner-up China. The Americans won 39 gold medals in Japan — one more than the 38 snared by the Chinese.
The Yanks got off to a roaring start with five medals in the first full day of the 2024 Olympic competition, including gold in the men’s 4×100 freestyle swimming relay (three-peat) and silver in the women’s 4×100 freestyle swimming relay. Also, Katie Ledecky (four gold, one silver at the Rio Games and two gold and two silver in Tokyo) captured bronze in women’s 400 freestyle swim final. Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook took silver in the women’s synchronized three-meter springboard event in diving.
Team USA took the early lead with 20 medals (three gold, eight silver, nine bronze) through Monday’s schedule. Japan led with six gold medals.
Golden Games
The 2024 Paris Games are expected to cost upward of $10 billion. That’s a staggering number considering that many venues already built and in place are being used.
But this is a different world now and the 2024 Paris Games are being called the first true post-COVID Olympics. A new Olympic era has dawned for a new generation of athletes.
Despite the relative obscurity of some Olympic sports, if one looks deep enough, there are quite a few ties that bind us to the Games.
Rower Azja Czajkowski is from Imperial Beach by way of Bonita Vista High School (Class of 2018). She started to develop an interest in crew as a high school sophomore and now she’s in Paris representing her country.
Czajkowski drew the attention of national team coaches during a star-studded career at Stanford University where she earned honors as a two-time Pac-12 Conference athlete of the year.
Stanford won NCAA championships in 2022 and 2023.
“We are so proud that one of our own Barons is not only representing Bonita Vista High School but our nation in this year’s Olympics,” Bonita Vista High School principal Lee Romero said.
Czajkowski, who will compete in a two-person boat, was part of the San Diego Rowing Club’s junior program and is the club’s third graduate to advance to the Olympics, joining Tom Peszek in 2012 and Sally Scovel in 2000.
Both of Czajkowski’s parents have rowing backgrounds. Her father John rowed at the U.S. Naval Academy while her mother Katrine rowed at Georgetown University.
Azja has excelled since getting in her first boat. She earned honors as the San Diego Rowing Club’s novice women’s MVP in 2016, was varsity captain for the San Diego Rowing Club’s 2017-18 season and participated in the Junior World Rowing Championships in Trakai, Lithuania in 2017.
Her learning curve continued at Stanford while competing in the varsity eights. She earned U.S. Rowing’s U23 Co-Athlete of the Year award in 2022 and finished her college career as four-time national scholar-athlete.
Why did she choose Stanford?
“Stanford is academically rigorous, athletically accomplished, and beautiful. The student body is incredibly hard working and motivated, and I am honored to contribute to this community.”
She’s planning to return to her roots to coach the junior program at the San Diego Rowing Club to give back to that community as well.
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Water polo is a sport dominated by Californians, Santee native Alex Bowen included foremost among them.
The former Santana High School superstar (Class of 2011) ranks as the San Diego Section’s all-time scoring leader, ditto for that at Stanford University.
Bowen, competing in his third Olympiad, scored two goals in the Americans’ 12-8 loss to Italy in their opening Group A match on Sunday. He rebounded with three goals in Tuesday’s 14-8 win over Romania as the Americans evened their opening mark to 1-1.
Additional preliminary-round matches are against Greece and Montenegro. Quarterfinals are Aug. 7, followed by semifinals on Aug. 9. The bronze medal match is scheduled Aug. 10, followed by the gold medal match Aug. 11.
The U.S. men’s water polo timeline includes five Olympic medals, including one gold medal and two silver and bronze medals each. However, Team USA’s latest Olympic medal was silver at the 2008 Beijing Games, so more work needs to be done.
The six-foot-five Bowen represents the newest generation of U.S. men’s water polo players and follows in icon Terry Schroeder’s mighty footprints as a three-time Olympian (2016, 2020, 2024).
Schroeder’s teams won silver in 1984 (Los Angeles) and 1988 (Seoul).
“Alex Bowen was an amazing student-athlete here at Santana as I had him in my AP European history class his sophomore year,” Santana High School athletic director Lucas Phillips said. “He could arguably go down as the greatest Santana athlete of all time when his career is all said and done. He definitely was a huge piece of putting Santana water polo on the map.
“He is an extremely hard worker and amazing teammate and friend to anyone he meets. He is very humble with all that he has accomplished but, in the pool, he is a fierce competitor. He was the model student-athlete in high school and Santana High School athletics and our water polo community is so proud of him representing Team USA in the Olympics.
“We have been trying to put him in our school Hall of Fame for years, but he continues to play professionally in Europe and represent our country for Team USA. Once his career is over, he will automatically be put in our Hall of Fame. We are just waiting to honor him in person. Not too many high schools have Olympians, let alone a player like Alex who is in his third Olympics. Alex Bowen is amazing!”
Bowen’s parents, Rod and Barbara, were able to fly to Paris thanks to a GoFundMe account to watch their son play.
“It is an amazing experience from a parent standpoint,” said Rod Bowen, who has coached water polo at Santana High School for 30 years. “It is like he is making his major league debut each Olympics since only 13 players are on the roster and it can change year-to-year. It is very emotional in so many ways.
“We are so very proud of Alex and how he represents himself, the USA and his hometown of Santee.
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Surfing, a staple off southland beaches, returns from its debut at the 2020 Tokyo Games along with skateboarding and sport climbing. Breaking (breakdancing) is making its Olympic debut in the 2024 Paris Games.
Chula Vista native Logan Edra, 21, will represent Team USA in the newest Olympic sport after winning three titles and numerous medals since falling in love with the art form at age 7 while watching other San Diego breakers.
She grew up playing soccer, tennis and gymnastics before earning the nickname “B-Girl Logistx” as an emerging breaker.
She attended Wolf Canyon Elementary School and Camarena Elementary School in Chula Vista before being home-schooled after the sixth grade.
At 5-1 she’s one of the smallest athletes in Paris but big in expressing herself in competition.
Skateboarding features 11 athletes with San Diego ties to six national teams (USA, Great Britain, Italy, Australia, Canada and Portugal).
Local fanfare
More than two dozen athletes with ties to San Diego County, along with teams that have trained at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center, are competing in Paris.
Isalys Quinones represented Otay Ranch High School’s girls basketball team on the playing court from 2011-15 before going on to play at Dartmouth College. During her four years as a Lady Mustang, Quinones appeared in 57 varsity games while averaging 11.5 points per game and 8.8 rebounds per game.
She cemented her legacy at Dartmouth by ranking among the top 20 players all-time with 512 career rebounds, highest scoring average (14.0) in the 2018-29 season, highest rebound average (6.5) in 2017-18, 42 steals in 2016-17 to go with blocks in back-to-back years.
Those numbers led her to the Puerto Rican national team where she led the team with 4.7 rebounds per game at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
“It’s always an honor to represent my country but on the biggest stage of the world, it’s just a little bit more special.,” Quinones told the Dartmouthsports.com website. “For such a tiny island to have such a big name in sports always gives me such a proud feeling.
“The same goes for representing Dartmouth. There aren’t many Ivy Leaguers that make it to the Olympics let alone those from Dartmouth, so I am truly honored to be able to represent such minority groups.”
Notable San Diegans in Paris include Poway High School alumnus Kelsey Plum in women’s basketball, 59-year-old German-born Steffen Peters in equestrian dressage and La Costa Canyon High School alum Chase Budinger in men’s beach volleyball.
Plum, daughter of former Helix High School and SDSU football standout Jim Plum, won the gold medal with Team USA in the Tokyo Games. An All-American at the University of Washington (2017 AP women’s basketball player of the year), she won back-to-back WNBA championship in 2022 and 2023 with the Las Vegas Aces and was MVP of the 2022 WNBA All-Star Game.
Peters is competing in his fifth Olympics with one silver medal (2020 Tokyo) and two bronze medals (1996 Atlanta and 2016 Rio) already in his cache. He will be looking for renewed success on his mount Suppenkasper.
Budinger, formerly with the NBA’s Houston Rockets (2009-2012), Minnesota Timberwolves (2012-15), Indiana Pacers (2015-16) and Phoenix Suns (2016) after being named Mr. California Basketball with the Mavericks in 2006, will team with Hermosa Beach’s Miles Evans on the sand courts.
Track and field (athletics to the rest of the world) is synonymous with the Olympic Games. Locals fill Team USA, highlighted by Nia Akins (Rancho Bernardo High School) in the 800-meter run, Chari Hawkins (San Diego resident) in the women’s heptathlon and Harrison Williams (Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center) in the men’s decathlon.
Gabby Scott (Westview High School) will represent Puerto Rico in the women’s 400-meter dash.
The San Diego Wave of the National Women’s Soccer League will send five players to Paris: defender Naomi Girma and forward/midfierlder Jaedyn Shaw with Team USA, goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan with Canada and defender Kaitlyn Torpey and midfielder Emily van Egmond with Australia.
The San Diego Wave of the National Women’s Soccer League will send five players representing the United States, Canada and Australia to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. San Diego Wave goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan, above, will represent Team Canada in the 2024 Paris Summer Games while forward/midfielder Jaedyn Shaw will represent the United States. Photos by Andy Bartotto
Homegrown
The sprawling 155-acre training site overlooking Lower Otay Reservoir continues to serve as a pipeline to the Olympic Games with 21-year-old archers Jennifer Mucino-Fernandez (Chula Vista) and Catalina Gnoriega (San Diego) making the trek to Paris.
The Chula Vista site is home to the Easton Archery Center of Excellence, a 22,000-square-foot indoor shooting range. Other sports with an Olympic tie-in include beach volleyball, BMX, cycling, rowing, tennis, track and field, triathlon.
The U.S. men’s and women’s rugby sevens teams both train on site along with occasional visits from U.S. national and age-group teams in soccer and field hockey.
Four-time Olympian (and native Arizonan) Brady Ellison has spent much time honing his skills at the Chula Vista archery facility and has produced three Olympic medals (silver in 2012 London and 2016 Rio and bronze in 2016 Rio) and six gold Pan American medals as a result.
The center also remains the site for BMX/cycling. Allise (Post) Willoughby, a University of San Diego alumnus, won the silver medal in London and will be competing in her third Olympics.
Canyon Hills High School alumna and San Diegan Megan Valzonis, 26, will represent the United States as a member of the women’s national field hockey team.
The CV elite athletes center continues to maintain a dock on the lake.
San Diegan Nevin Harrison captured the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Games in 200m canoe sprint and is returning for more.
The Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center also serves as a home base for the U.S. Paralympic Team. The 2024 Paralympic Games follow in Paris Aug. 28 to Sept. 8.
Two former SDSU Aztecs set to compete in Paris Summer Olympics
Special to the East County Californian
Two former San Diego State University athletes are set to compete at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games.
Former Aztec track and field star Shanieka Ricketts Thomas (2011-14) will represent Jamaica in the triple jump, while Xander Schauffele (2013-15) will play for the United States in men’s golf.
Ricketts, the flag bearer for Jamaica at the Opening Ceremony, is set to begin the qualifying flights for the triple jump on Friday, Aug. 2, at 9:15 a.m. PDT at the Stade de France with the finals slated for Saturday, Aug. 3 at 11:20 a.m. PDT.
Ricketts was a three-time NCAA triple jump champion (2013-14 outdoor, 2014 indoor) and a two-time runner-up finisher (2012 outdoor, 2013 indoor) while at San Diego State.
She qualified for Paris after winning the Jamaican Senior National Championships with a mark of 14.50 meters (47-07.00). A member of the Aztec Hall of Fame, Ricketts will look to improve on her 2020 Tokyo Olympics where she came in fourth place — one rung off the podium — at 14.84m (48-08.25). Ricketts also tied for 13th at the 2016 Rio Olympics at 14.02m (46-00.00).
The third men’s golf competition at the Olympics, meanwhile, will take place Aug. 1-4 at Le Golf National. The competition will feature four 18-hole rounds beginning at midnight PDT each day with the victory ceremony slated to follow on Aug. 4.
Schauffele is the defending Olympic champion in men’s golf after capturing the stroke play event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics at 18-under 266, one stroke ahead of Slovakia’s Rory Sabbatini.
Schauffele became just the fourth men’s golf player in Olympic history to capture a gold medal while competing in his first Olympic Games and the second American, joining Charlie Sands in 1900. The other gold medal winners in the event include George Lyon (Canada) in 1904 and Justin Rose (Great Britain) in 2016.
Schauffele captured his second major of the season by winning The Open at 9-under 275 at Royal Troon Golf Course in Troon, Scotland, on July 14-21.
In the four major appearances this season, Schauffele had two wins, tied for seventh at the U.S. Open and came in eighth at The Masters. In 30 career majors, Schauffele now has two victories, two runner-ups, eight top-5s and 15 top-10s. He now has nine PGA Tour victories.
Schauffele was a third-team All-American in 2015 from both Golfweek and GCAA, while also finishing as a three-time all-Mountain West selection and seven-time MW Golfer of the Week. He finished his three-year Aztec career with two individual titles, 16 top-5 finishes and 21 top-10 showings.
Also representing SDSU in Paris will be former track and field star and current Long Beach State head coach, LaTanya Sheffield. This will be the fourth Olympic Games of her career, all as a member of Team USA, with 2024 representing her first as the head women’s coach. She previously served as Team USA’s sprints, hurdles and relays coach at the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Her Olympic debut came as a finalist in the 400m hurdles at the 1988 Games in South Korea.
A 1993 inductee into the San Diego State Hall of Fame, Sheffield established an American record in 1985 and still holds the Aztecs’ program record in the event at 54.64 seconds. She was the 1985 NCAA Champion in the 400m hurdles and a two-time All-American in her time on Montezuma Mesa.
A San Diego native, Schauffele attended Scripps Ranch High School where he won the 2011 California State high school golf championship. He won the California Amateur Championship in 2014. He earned Third Team All-American honors all years at SDSU.
