Jump To Top of Page

Olympic Dawgs: Four Bulldogs Win Six Medals

PARIS – Four current and former Bulldogs combined for six medals for Team USA at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games as 33 athletes represented Georgia during 17 days of competition in Paris.

UGA alum Nic Fink collected one gold and two silvers in swimming to lead the Bulldogs in the medal tally. Anthony Edwards played a key role on the United States’ men’s basketball team, scoring in double figures in four-straight games as Team USA went on to win its fifth-straight gold medal. Croix Bethune earned Georgia women’s soccer’s first gold medal in program history following the United States’ 1-0 win over Brazil on Saturday while rising junior Aaliyah Butler snagged a gold medal as a member of Team USA’s women’s 4×400-meter relay squad.

In addition to Georgia’s six athletes, UGA Volleyball Director of Operations David Dantes served as the technical coordinator for the United States men’s volleyball team which secured bronze following a straight-set victory over Italy (25-23, 30-28, 26-24).

Fink earned the first Olympic medal of his career in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke, sharing the silver with Great Britain’s Adam Peaty after both swimmers tied for second with a time of 59.05. He later teamed up with Ryan Murphy, Gretchen Walsh, and Torri Huske to win the mixed 4x100m medley relay in world-record fashion, recording a 58.29 split in the 100m breaststroke to help the quartet clock a 3:37.43 for his first gold medal. On Olympic swimming’s final day, he joined Murphy, Caeleb Dressel, and Hunter Armstrong in the men’s 4x100m medley relay, winning silver with a time of 3:28.01. UGA swimming and diving’s total medal count now stands at 41, including 16 gold, 16 silver, and nine bronze.

Edwards opened the men’s basketball tournament with four-straight double-digit scoring performances for Team USA, including a game-high 26 points in the United States’ 104-83 group play win over Puerto Rico. The Atlanta native tallied eight points while adding one rebound and a steal in nine minutes of play in the United States’ 98-87 win over France in the gold medal game. Edwards is one of three Bulldogs all-time to earn an Olympic medal in men’s basketball and the first to win gold since Vern Fleming in 1984.

Bethune earned the call-up to the U.S. women’s soccer team’s 18-player roster after originally being selected as an alternate. She made her Olympic debut in the United States’ 2-1 victory over Australia, becoming the first UGA soccer player to appear in the Olympic Games. The Americans went on to win gold with a 1-0 win over Brazil in the final match, making Bethune the Bulldogs’ first gold medalist in program history.

Current Lady Bulldog sprinter Aaliyah Butler joined fellow Americans Quanera Hayes, Shamir Little, and Kaylyn Brown in the first round of the women’s 4×400-meter relay. The team clocked a time of 3:21.44 to win the prelims, finishing over three seconds ahead of the next closest competition. The squad qualified for the finals, and Little, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabby Thomas, and Alexis Holmes posted an American-record time of 3:15.27 to help the team capture gold in the final track event of Paris 2024. Georgia track & field now holds 18 Olympic medals in its history, nine of which are gold.

Beyond the medalists, current and former Bulldogs put together impressive performances for the duration of the 2024 Olympic Games. On Georgia’s first day of competition in Paris, former Bulldog swimmer Javier Acevedo had a strong showing in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay, helping Canada place sixth in the event. Two Lady Bulldogs earned top-10 finishes in the women’s high jump as Elena Kulichenko (Cyprus) tied for seventh with a mark of 1.95 meters/6 feet, 4.75 inches and Tatiana Gusin (Greece) cleared 1.86m/16-1.25 to place ninth. Kulichenko was the first female Cypriot athlete to compete in a final in athletics.

Georgia was well-represented in the decathlon as current assistant coach Janek Oiglane and former student-athletes Johannes Erm and Karel Tilga all competed for Estonia in Paris. Oiglane placed fifth in the two-day event with a personal-best 8,572 points while Erm finished sixth (8,569 pts.) and Tilga took 11^th overall (8,377 pts.). On that same Saturday, three-time Olympian Keturah Orji (USA) wrapped up her track & field career with a ninth-place finish in the women’s triple jump, recording a mark of 14.05m/46-1.25 for her third top-10 Olympic result in as many Games.

Incoming and former Bulldogs also competed in tennis, artistic gymnastics, and golf in Paris. Former Bulldog Ellen Perez (Australia) reached the quarterfinals in the tennis mixed doubles alongside her partner Matthew Ebden. The duo earned a 6-3, 6-4 win over Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo and Mercel Granollers before falling 7-6(8), 6(8)-7, 5-10 against China’s Xinyu Wang and Zhizhen Zhang. Rising junior Csenge Bácskay totaled 13.766 points on vault while competing for Hungary, recording a score of 13.900 on her first vault and 13.633 on her second to place 12^th overall in the event. Sepp Straka finished 2-under to tie for 35^th in the men’s golf competition while representing Austria in his second Olympic Games.

Photos/Video/Box Score – 2023 Orange Bowl – UGA 63, FSU 3

Video

Highlights

Full Game

Photos

Box Score

Jump To Today’s Discussion Thread