The famed Olympic torch is moving closer and closer to Paris.
With just about two weeks to go until the 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, Team USA rosters are officially set. There will be nearly 600 American athletes that compete in Paris in 2024, including dozens with ties to Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.
Cincinnati will be well represented in Paris, with area-athletes competing in soccer, swimming, track and field, volleyball and more.
Here are the athletes with ties to Cincinnati that will be competing in the upcoming Summer Olympics:
Rose Lavelle, women’s soccer
Mount Notre Dame High School alum and one of Cincy’s favorite daughters Rose Lavelle will compete in her second Olympics in 2024. The U.S. women’s soccer team won the bronze medal in Tokyo in 2021. Lavelle scored one goal in the last Olympics, and she’s one of eight returning players from that squad. This year, the U.S. is a slight favorite to win gold, barely edging out Spain.
Nina Castagna, women’s rowing
Castagna is a Walnut Hills and University of Washington graduate. She’ll be the coxswain for the women’s coxed eight, a boat that earned gold for the U.S. in every Olympics from 2004 to 2016.
Ramez Diaa, men’s swimming and diving
Diaa, an incoming University of Cincinnati freshman, has qualified for the 10-meter dive in Paris this summer, according to the Bearcats’ swimming and diving account on X, formerly Twitter, and will compete for his native Egypt.
Annette Echikunwoke, women’s track and field
Echikunwoke, a native of Pickerington, Ohio and a UC alum, qualified for the Paris Games by having the farthest hammer throw (74.68 meters) at the U.S. Olympic Trials. She won the 2017 NCAA Indoor Championships national title in the weight throw and still holds the school record in four of the five throwing events she competed in at UC.
Carson Foster, men’s swimming and diving
Foster, a graduate of Sycamore High School and the Mason Manta Rays swim club, will be competing in the 200-meter individual medley (IM) and the 400-meter IM. Foster’s older brother Jake, also a graduate of Sycamore and the Manta Rays, failed to qualify for the Olympics this year and retired from swimming. He’ll enter medical school at the University of Texas.
Max Holt, men’s volleyball
Holt starred in volleyball for Purcell Marian and his club team, the Cincinnati Attack, before heading to Penn State for college. The 6-foot-10 middle blocker was an alternate in the 2012 London Olympics and was on the active roster for 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and 2021 in Tokyo. In Rio, Holt and the U.S. secured a bronze medal, with Holt finishing second in the tournament with 20 blocks.
Piper Kelly, women’s sport climbing
Kelly is originally from Indianapolis, but she graduated from Xavier in 2023.
Jordan Thompson, women’s volleyball
Thompson is originally from Edina, Minn., but she chose to play her college volleyball at the University of Cincinnati. The outside hitter was a member of the U.S. national team since 2019, and this will be her second Olympics. She won gold in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Miles Robinson, men’s soccer
Robinson, originally from Massachusetts but currently a player for FC Cincinnati, will participate in the Olympics as one of the veterans on the U.S. soccer team. He’s the first FC Cincinnati player to participate in the Olympics while on the team.
Other Ohio Olympians: Lebron James, Molly Bruggeman, Morelle McCane
Other Ohio natives set to participate in the games so far include:
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Lebron James, originally from Akron, who is looking for his third gold medal with the U.S. men’s basketball team.
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Molly Bruggeman, a graduate of Chaminade Julienne High School in Dayton, has made her first Olympic rowing team at 31 years old.
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Morelle McCane from Cleveland will compete in women’s boxing.
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Lee Kiefer from Cleveland will compete in women’s fencing.
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Hunter Armstrong from Dover, Ohio, about an hour south of Cleveland, will compete in men’s swimming. He will compete in the 100-meter backstroke and the 4×100-meter free relay.
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Trevor Bassitt from Bluffton, Ohio, about two hours northeast of Cincinnati, will compete in the men’s 400-meter hurdles.
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Marcus Christopher from Canton will take part in men’s BMX freestyle.
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Kelly Elmlinger, from about an hour-and-a-half north of Columbus in Attica, Ohio, will compete in the paratriathlon.
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McKenzie Long from Ironton, Ohio, which is just a few miles north of where Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia meet, will compete in women’s track and field.
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Katie Moon from Olmsted Falls, a suburb of Cleveland, will compete in women’s pole vault.
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Marcus Tupuola is originally from Carson, Calif., but he went to college at Notre Dame College in Cleveland. He’ll compete in men’s rugby.
Nineteen Indiana natives have been named to U.S. Olympic rosters so far, according to the Team USA roster, including Mason Parris, a wrestler from Lawrenceburg.
Three Kentucky natives have made the games, including Mariah Denigan, a swimmer from nearby Walton.
Six Ohio State athletes have qualified for the red, white and blue, though just one of them hails from Ohio. The aforementioned Armstrong will compete in swimming. Ruby Remati, originally from Andover, Mass., will compete in artistic swimming. Katelyn Abeln, Ada Korkhin and Henry Leverett will participate in shooting, and Kyle Snyder will wrestle. Thirteen University of Kentucky alums have qualified, including basketball superstars Bam Adebayo, Devin Booker and Anthony Davis.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Are there any Cincinnatians going to the 2024 Paris Olympics?
