Swimmer and Diver Alex Axon is one of the Buckeyes headed to the Paris 2024 Olympics. Credit: Courtesy of Ohio State Athletics
Disclaimer: Story was written Friday, July 19 — prior to the Olympic Games — in order to be featured in the Buckeye Bound special edition.
Ohio State is gearing up to make Olympic history.
Twenty-four current and former Buckeyes — the second-most in school history — will represent 10 different countries across nine sports during the 2024 Paris Olympics Games, according to a July 10 press release from Ohio State. The games will take place from July 26 to Aug. 11.
The Canadian Olympic team features the most Buckeyes of any country with eight, while the United States trails close behind with seven competing Ohio State athletes.
Two Buckeye fencers will compete for Team Canada in the form of Fares Arfa — a 2017 Buckeye graduate who has already represented his country in the Pan-American games twice, but never competed in the Olympics — and Eleanor Harvey, another 2017 Ohio State graduate who’s a two-time Olympian. Harvey holds the record for Canada’s best-ever Olympic result in an individual fencing event with a seventh-place finish, according to the Canadian Olympic Committee’s website.
Incoming Buckeye freshman artistic swimmer Scarlett Finn and swimmer Emma Finlin, who qualified for the 10km marathon, will jump into the pool for team Canada in Paris. In 2023’s Pan-Am games, Finn helped Canada win bronze in the mixed team artistic swimming event, while Finlin finished sixth overall in the 10-kilometer open water race.
Additionally, 2018 Ohio State graduate Duan Asemota will run the 100 meter and 4×100 meter dashes for the Canadians while Nichelle Prince, a 2017 Buckeye graduate, will headline the women’s soccer team. The Kansas City Current forward won gold with Team Canada during the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan, bronze in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and is ninth all-time in assists during international play.
Ohio State sophomore swimmers Tristan Jankovics and Alex Axon will both compete for Team Canada in the 400m individual medley. Axon will also compete in the 200×4 freestyle relay and said the close relationships he’s developed with his teammates have helped him feel more comfortable in France already.
“[Jankovics] and I are actually roommates and training partners,” Axon said. “We support each other all year long and so we’ve been with each other through all those hard sets and early mornings, so I’m thankful to have teammates like that.”
Wrestler Kyle Synder, a 2018 Ohio State graduate who won gold at the 2016 games in Rio and silver during the 2020 Tokyo games, is returning for his third Olympic games and is set to participate in the 97 kg freestyle wrestling event.
Synder was a four-time All-American and three-time NCAA champion as a heavyweight with the Buckeyes and will look to reclaim his gold medal in Paris after a falling to Russian wrestler Abdulrashid Sadulaev in the Olympic championship four years ago.
Swimmer Hunter Armstrong, who swam for the Buckeyes from 2020-22, will compete in his second Olympic games for Team USA in the 100m backstroke and 4x100m medley relays, respectively. During the 2020 Olympics, Hunter won gold for the United States in the 4x100m medley relay.
Three air pistol athletes from Ohio State were also selected to the 2024 Olympic team for Team USA. On the men’s team, recently graduated Henry Leverett is a one-time Olympian and finished 22nd in the 25m rapid-fire pistol event at the 2020 Tokyo games.
On the women’s team, incoming Buckeye freshman Ada Korkhin will compete in the 25m sport pistol and will be joined by recently graduated Buckeye shooter Katelyn Abeln, who will participate in both the women’s 25m sport pistol as well as air pistol events. Khorkin said she has been incorporating new techniques into her training to adjust to competing on one of the world’s biggest stages for sports.
“Sometimes I’ll even listen to cheering in my headphones,” Korkhin said. “Recently, I’ve been trying to simulate different competitions when I’m at the range to prepare myself for the finals of events, which can get loud.”
Ohio State sophomore Ruby Remati and incoming freshman Keana Hunter are the final two Buckeyes selected to Team USA and will compete together in the artistic swimming team event.
Notably, two Buckeyes are competing for Team France in the Paris Olympics; specifically, 2014 Ohio State team rowing national champion and two-time Olympic rower Elodie Ravera-Scarramozzino will compete in the women’s double sculls and 2018 Ohio State graduate fencer Maximilien Chastanet will spar in the men’s individual foil event.
Chastanet’s Ohio State career consists of multiple significant accomplishments, including winning the 2016 men’s foil NCAA Championship and tying for third place at the 2017 NCAA Championships, according to the Ohio State Athletics website.
Recent graduate Ohio State diver Ciara McGing will represent Ireland in the women’s 10-meter platform dive, while her teammate sophomore Lena Hentschel was selected to participate in the women’s synchronized 3m springboard event for the German national team.
The final two Buckeyes jumping into the pool in Paris are 2022 Ohio State graduate swimmer Kristen Romano, who’ll compete for Puerto Rico in the 200m individual medley, and Buckeye sophomore Tomas Navikonis, who’s set to represent Lithuania in the 4x200m freestyle relay.
Ohio State junior Leah Bertrand will be one of just 17 athletes representing Trinidad and Tobago in Paris, competing in both the 100m and 4x100m relay. Bertrand said she is thrilled to compete in her first Olympics and is hoping to make her country proud.
“This was a serious dream of mine for a few years now,” Bertrand said. “To finally achieve it was just so exciting, but I am also so grateful to do this.”
To round out the list of Buckeyes selected to the Olympics, a three-time team rowing national champion [2013-15] and 2017 Ohio State graduate Aina Cid was elected to participate in the women’s coxless pair for Team Spain, while 2020 Buckeye graduate and 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year Sade Olatoye will represent Nigeria in the women’s hammer throw.
