Not sure who to root for in the 2024 Paris Olympics? This kinda exhaustive list will give you an idea if you're looking for some athletes with ties to Austin. These participants either made Austin their home, grew up around Austin, or attended the University of Texas or Texas State. Some are favorites for medals, others have good stories.
Basketball
Yvonne Anderson — Serbia — Texas Longhorn 2008-2012
The Austin basketball entries will take you back at least a decade. Anderson played for Texas basketball during former President Barack Obama’s first term. A professional in Europe since 2013 she debuted for the Serbian team in 2020 and played with them in Tokyo. Her father, Mike Anderson, has served as the head men’s coach at the University of Arkansas, the University of Missouri, and, most recently, at St. John’s University.
Kevin Durant — USA — Texas Longhorn 2006-2007
Durant will play in his fourth Olympics for Team USA in basketball. He has three gold medals and was the MVP of the Tokyo Games basketball tournament. The 35-year-old is one of the most decorated NBA players, with two championships, a league MVP, two Finals MVP awards, and more. He spent one year on the UT Austin campus before becoming the second pick in the NBA Draft. Durant is originally from Suitland, Maryland. Durant now plays for the Phoenix Suns.
Royal Ivey — Coach, South Sudan Men’s Basketball — Texas Longhorn 2000-2004
Former Texas Men's Basketball guard Royal Ivey will serve as head coach for South Sudan in the country’s first Olympic basketball tournament. After the games, he’ll return to Texas as an assistant coach for the Houston Rockets.
Golf
Sara Kouskova — Czech Republic — Texas Longhorn 2018-2022
Kouskova won the 2015 Austrian International Ladies Amateur Championship as a teen. She came to Texas where she was All-Big-12-Conference twice. She later became the first amateur Czech golfer to win a professional tournament. Kouskova competes on the Ladies European Tour (LET) and has been on the Czech national team since 2013.
Scottie Scheffler — USA — Texas Longhorn 2014-2018
Scheffler is the top-ranked pro golfer in the world and will compete for Team USA in golf. He won his second Masters Tournament in April. Scheffler went to UT where he helped the golf team win three Big 12 titles. He grew up in Dallas, where he now lives.
Rowing
Kaitlin Knifton — USA — McCallum High School, Texas Longhorn 2019-2023 — Women’s 4
Kaitlin Knifton is a McCallum High School graduate and will compete for Team USA. She won two national titles at the University of Texas. She danced in high school. Her dad, Matt, owns the Texas Rowing Center right off the hike and bike trail on Lady Bird Lake. She now trains in Princeton, N.J.
Kara Kohler — USA — Austin resident — Women’s Single Scull
Kara Kohler will compete for Team USA in rowing. Originally from Clayton, California, the 33-year-old rowed in college at the University of California, Berkeley. Kohler now lives and trains in Austin.
Daisy Mazzio-Manson — USA — Texas Longhorn 2020-2021 — Women’s 4
Mazzio-Manson is a Yale grad. She transferred to Texas and helped win a national title in her last year of eligibility. She carries on a legacy. Her mother rowed for the U.S. in Barcelona in 1992.
Sophia Vitas — USA — Austin resident — Women’s Double Sculls
Vitas is from Franklin, Wisconsin. She was on four prior U.S. national teams, though this is her first Olympic squad. She attended the University of Wisconsin, but now calls Austin home.
Soccer
Julia Grosso — Canada — Texas Longhorn 2018-2021
Gold medalist Grosso cemented herself in Canadian Olympic history at the Tokyo games, nailing the decisive goal in the penalty shootout to earn Canada the title. She went on to play the last three seasons for the legendary Italian club Juventus. The Vancouver native will return to North America after the games to finish the NWSL season with the Chicago Red Stars.
Swimming and Diving
Angie Coe — Taiwan — Texas Longhorn 2023 to present — 200m individual medley (IM)
Angie Coe (200 IM) will compete for Taiwan. She just wrapped up her freshman year on the 40 Acres where she helped the team win a Big 12 championship. Her sister swims at West Point.
Caspar Corbeau — The Netherlands — Texas Longhorn 2019-2023 — 100m and 200m breaststroke
Caspar Corbeau will represent The Netherlands in his second Olympic games. He won a team NCAA title in 2021 and two national relay championships in 2021 and 2022. He earned a spot on the Netherlands squad in Tokyo in the same events.
Anna Elendt — Germany — Texas Longhorn 2020-2024 — 100m breaststroke, 4x100 medley relay
Anna Elendt will return to her second Olympics competing for Germany. Born and raised in the greater Frankfurt area, Elendt made Austin her college home. While at Texas she set school records in the breaststroke and was an All-American.
Carson Foster — USA — Texas Longhorn 2020-2024 — 200m IM, 400m IM
Foster was an All-American swimmer at the University of Texas. He helped Team USA win a world championship in the 800m relay in 2022. Foster is from Cincinnati, Ohio.
Erin Gemmell — USA — Texas Longhorn 2023 to present — 200m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle relay
Gemmell just finished her freshman year at the University of Texas where she won a Big 12 conference title and All-American recognition. Gemmell is from Potomac, Maryland.
Alison Gibson — USA — Austinite, Texas Longhorn 2016-2020 — 3m springboard
Alison Gibson competed in synchronized diving for Team USA in the Tokyo Olympics, finishing 8th in the 3m event. The 25-year-old grew up in Austin and attended UT where she won an individual NCAA diving title and was an All-American.
Luke Hobson — USA — Texas Longhorn 2021 to present — 200m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle relay
Hobson holds the U.S. record for the 200m freestyle. He won the Olympic trials in that event. He is originally from Reno, Nevada, and just finished his junior year at UT Austin where he’s won five NCAA Championships in 200m freestyle, 500m freestyle, and 800m freestyle relay.
David Johnston — USA — Texas Longhorn 2020-2024 — 1500m free, open water 10K
Johnston will compete for Team USA in swimming. Johnston was part of UT Austin's 2021 NCAA National Championship Team. He is originally from Dallas.
Drew Kibler — USA — Texas Longhorn 2018-2022 — 4x200m freestyle relay
Kibler will compete again for Team USA in freestyle swimming. He swam in the relays at the Tokyo Olympics. Kibler won a national team championship, as well as multiple individual titles while swimming at UT Austin. He is from Carmel, Indiana, originally, but now lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Hubert Kos — Hungary — Texas Longhorn 2024 to present — 200m backstroke, 100m butterfly, 100m backstroke
Kos won the 200m backstroke at last year’s World Championships. This will be his second Olympic games for Hungary. The new transfer to Texas will join his coach Bob Bowman from Arizona State.
Aaron Shackell — USA — Texas Longhorn 2024 to present — 400m freestyle
Future Austinite Aaron Shackell will compete for Team USA in swimming. Shackell is from Carmel, Indiana, and began his freshman year attending the University of California, Berkeley before leaving school to concentrate on the games. He is transferring to UT Austin after the Olympics. His 17-year-old sister also made the Olympic swim team. Their father swam for Great Britain in the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.
Bob Bowman — Assistant Coach, France — Texas Longhorn head men’s swimming and diving coach
A big 2024 for Bowman continues. He won his first NCAA Men’s Championship at Arizona State University, then was named to replace the legendary Eddie Reese as the Longhorns head coach. He coached Michael Phelps to 23 Olympic gold medals.
Carol Capitani, Assistant Coach, USA — Texas Longhorn head women’s swimming and diving coach
Capitani just finished her 12th year in Austin coaching the Texas swimming program. She led Team USA women at the 2023 World Championships. She is a 10-time winner of Big 12 Coach of the Year honors.
Matt Scoggin, Assistant Coach, USA — Texas Longhorn diver 1981-1985, coach 1994 to present
Matt Scoggin returns to his sixth Olympic games — his fifth as diving coach. After retiring from elite competition after the 1992 Barcelona games, Scoggin took the job as men’s and women’s diving coach at UT and has never looked back. Scoggin's divers have won more than 20 individual NCAA titles and over 40 individual conference titles.
Tennis
Lulu Sun — New Zealand — Texas Longhorn 2020-2021 — Women’s Doubles
Lulu Sun helped Texas win a NCAA Championship in her one year of collegiate competition. In June at Wimbledon, she became the first New Zealander to reach the quarterfinal of a major tournament in 35 years. She was born in New Zealand to Croatian and Chinese parents, and raised in Switzerland. With many national eligibility options to choose from, she will compete for New Zealand. She is currently ranked 55th on the Women’s Tennis Association tour.
Track and Field
Mariam Abdul-Rashid — Canada — Texas Longhorn 2015-2019 — 100m hurdles
Abdul-Rashad will make her Olympic debut in Paris. She won the Canadian championship in the 100m hurdles. While at Texas, she was a second-team All-American.
Rhasidat Adeleke — Ireland — Texas Longhorn 2020-2023 — 400m, mixed 4x400m relay
Adeleke was an NCAA champion in the 400m and an All-American for Texas. She is the first Irish woman to finish the 400m in under 50 seconds. She was born in Dublin and holds seven individual Irish records.
Julien Alfred — Saint Lucia — Texas Longhorn 2018-2023 — 100m, 200m
During her time at UT Austin, Alfred became the fastest collegian ever in the 60m indoor race. She was a two-time indoor and two-time outdoor NCAA champion. She won the 60m gold at the World Indoor Championships in March. She finished just out of the medals at the World Outdoor Championships last year in the 100m and 200m.
Valarie Allman — USA — Austinite — Discus
Allman is the reigning gold medalist in the discus from the Tokyo Olympics. She earned a silver at last summer’s World Championships. The 29-year-old was an All-American at Stanford before moving to Austin to train and volunteer as a coach at UT Austin.
Emelia Chatfield — Haiti — Texas Longhorn 2020-2024 — 100m hurdles
She just finished her last year at Texas where she was a second-team All-American and won indoor and outdoor conference championships in the hurdles.
Ryan Crouser — USA — Texas Longhorn 2014-2016 — Shot Put
Crouser will compete for Team USA in track and field. He is the reigning Olympic, World Indoor and Outdoor champion in the shot put. The 31-year-old won the Olympic golds in 2016 (Rio De Janeiro) and 2020 (Tokyo). Crouser is from Boring, Oregon, and now lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Tara Davis-Woodhall — USA — Texas Longhorn 2018-2021— Long Jump
Davis-Woodhall is returning to the Olympics for Team USA in track and field. She placed sixth in the long jump in Tokyo. Davis-Woodhall is from Agoura Hills, California. While competing for the University of Texas in 2021, she broke a 36-year-old NCAA long jump record that still stands (7.14 m or 23 ft. 5.1 in.). Davis-Woodhall is married to Paralympian Hunter Woodhall.
Fred Kerley — USA — Taylor High School — 100m, 4x100m relay
Kerley will return to compete for Team USA in track and field. He won a silver medal in the 100m dash in Tokyo. He won the 2022 World Championship at that distance. The 29-year-old will run in the 100m and 4x100m relay in Paris. Kerley attended Taylor High School, before going on to South Plains College in Lubbock. He later transferred to Texas A&M where he would set the NCAA record in the 400m in 2017. He now lives in Miami.
Anicka Newell — Canada — Texas State 2012-2015 — Pole Vault
Anicka Newell returns to her third Olympic games for Canada. She won two conference championships while at Texas State. Rio was her first international competition. She made the finals in Tokyo and is looking to improve her results in Paris. She’ll be the second woman from Texas State to compete at three Olympic games. Brigitte Foster-Hylton competed for Jamaica in 2000, 2004, and 2008.
Leo Neugebauer — Germany — Texas Longhorn 2019-2024 — Decathlon
Leo Neugebauer was a force while at Texas. He broke his own collegiate and German national record while winning his second NCAA decathlon championship last month. The total (8,961 points) was the sixth-best all-time in any decathlon competition. He was also the 2024 USTFCCCA National Field Athlete of the Year.
Ackelia Smith — Jamaica — Texas Longhorn 2021 to present — long jump, triple jump
Smith has won back-to-back NCAA long jump titles at Texas. She won the NCAA outdoor triple jump last month, as well. After competing for her native Jamaica, she’ll return to UT for her senior year.
Lanae-Tava Thomas — Jamaica — Texas Longhorn 2022-2023 — 200m
Thomas was a first-team All-American in the 200m at Texas as a graduate student. She transferred from the University of Southern California.
Stacey-Ann Williams — Jamaica — Texas Longhorn 2019-2022 — 400m, 4x400m relay
Williams won a bronze medal in Tokyo in the 4x400m mixed relay. She returns to the Olympics to represent Jamaica for a second time. While at Texas she was an All-American and won five Big 12 individual championships.
Gabby Thomas — USA — Austinite — 200m
Thomas won a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics in the 200m. She also won a silver medal there in the 4x100m relay. Thomas is from Northampton, Massachusetts. She graduated from Harvard and turned pro. She moved to Austin to be coached by former-Olympian Tonja Buford-Bailey. While in town, she earned her master’s degree in epidemiology.
Edrick Floréal — Assistant coach, Great Britain, Ireland, Saint Lucia — Texas Longhorn Head Coach 2018 to present
Floréal guided Texas to the Men’s Indoor NCAA Championship in 2022 and the Women’s Outdoor NCAA title in 2023. He will work on the coaching staff for Great Britain, Ireland and Saint Lucia while in Paris. Floréal competed in the 1988 Seoul games and the 1992 Barcelona games for Canada.
Jim Garnham — Assistant coach, Germany — Texas Longhorn assistant coach 2020 to present
Garnham specializes in coaching jumps and the decathlon at Texas. He’ll be helping Leo Neugebauer and the German team in Paris.
Volleyball
Chiaka Ogbogu — USA — Texas Longhorn 2013-2017
Ogboku was a gold medalist with Team USA volleyball in Tokyo. Ogbogu is from Coppell, Texas, and attended UT Austin. She has gold medals representing the USA in Nations League tournaments and won seven league championships with her professional clubs in Europe. Ogbogu now lives in Austin and will join the League One Volleyball pro team after the Olympics.
Avery Skinner — USA — Austinite
Skinner will compete for Team USA in volleyball. Skinner is from Katy, Texas, and attended the University of Kentucky. Skinner now lives in Austin and if her surname sounds familiar, it’s because her sister is Madison Skinner — two-time NCAA champion at Texas.
Erik Sullivan — USA men's volleyball team leader — Texas Longhorns volleyball associate head coach
Sullivan has been an assistant for Texas volleyball for 14 seasons. He helped the Longhorns win three national championships. Sullivan went to the 2000 and 2004 Olympics as a player with the men’s team.
