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Bama News
The list of Alabama athletes set for the Tokyo Olympics
The Tokyo Olympics are set to begin one month from today.
As it stands now, Alabama has 13 current or former athletes headed to Tokyo for the Summer Olympic Games.
Justin Thomas added to the list Tuesday when he became the first Crimson Tide golfer to make it to the Olympics He’s the fifth to make a team representing the United States while athletes from eight other countries have also qualified.
There’s still time for others to join them in Tokyo with exactly one month left before the opening ceremonies, set for July 23. The current list of 13 is down from the 16 with Alabama experience who participated in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
The Tide contingent has been between 10-16 in the past six summer games after 20 went to Barcelona in 1992. The most, however, came in 1984 when 33 Alabama athletes competed in the Los Angeles games. Swimmer Jon Sieben won a gold medal in the 200-meter butterfly for his home country of Australia in those games.
A few more golds could come home, in a sense, to Alabama this summer.
Former softball star Haylie McCleney is a member of the US softball team favored to win after the sport was not part of the games in 2012 and 2016. Baseball is also back and former Tide pitcher David Robertson is on the US team that does not include current Major League players.
Track star Kirani James of Grenada is going for a third medal in the 400 meters after winning gold in London and silver in Rio. At 28-years old, he’s among the older competitors in the speed event.
The current list of former/current Alabama athletes currently set to compete in the Olympics (with an assist from @BamaProUpdates on Twitter)
- Justin Thomas, golf
- Rhyan White, swimming
- Haylie McCleney, softball
- David Robertson, baseball
- Daniel Haugh, track and field
- Shallon Olsen, gymnastics (Canada)
- Merel van Dongen, soccer (Netherlands)
- Kristian Gkolomeev, swimming (Greece)
- Anton McKee, swimming (Iceland)
- Abbas Qali, swimming (Kuwait)
- Diana Petkova, swimming (Bulgaria)
- Kirani James, track and field (Grenada)
- Jereem Richards, track and field (Trinidad and Tobago)
