4 U.S. athletes on an unlikely path to Paris
During the 2024 Paris Olympics, fans will marvel at athletes’ world-class skills but also at the grit and tenacity that helped them reach the highest level of competition.
The United States is sending 592 athletes to Paris to compete in 44 sports. Competitors range from established stars like swimmer Katie Ledecky and gymnast Simone Biles to first-time Olympians. They will arrive with life stories and rigorous training regimens sure to intrigue spectators. A few even have connections to France.
Here are four U.S. athletes who overcame obstacles or quickly raced to the pinnacle of their sport to represent the United States in Paris.
Suni Lee, a Minnesota native who won the women’s all-around gymnastics Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in 2021, has battled a rare kidney disease during her quest to repeat as an Olympic champion. After her diagnosis in early 2023, Lee, 21, took six months off from gymnastics training to manage her illness.
Now in remission, Lee clinched a spot on the 2024 U.S. Olympic team in June and is headed to Paris. “This comeback was so much more than my return to elite gymnastics,” she wrote on a 2023 Instagram post. “It was me proving to myself that I can overcome hard things, and to hopefully inspire others to never let life’s setbacks stop you from going after your dreams.”
A breakout star of the U.S. Olympic Trials, 16-year-old Quincy Wilson earned a spot on the 4×400-meter men’s relay team, becoming the youngest male track athlete ever to represent the United States at the Olympics.
At the Olympic trials, Wilson, who attends high school in Potomac, Maryland, broke a decades-old record in the 400 meters for sprinters under 18. Then he topped his own record-breaking time in a subsequent sprint.
“Only 23 men have run a faster 400 in 2024, all of them older than Wilson,” the Athletic reports, adding that he’s poised for a long career and may have many more Olympic appearances in front of him.
Despite his success at the trials, Wilson knows running in the Paris Olympics will be “a different game.” He told reporters: “I’m not running high school [races] anymore. I’m running with the big dogs.”
Victor Montalvo, the reigning World Games gold medalist in breakdancing, once had no reason to believe he would ever represent the United States in the Olympics. Paris will be the first time breakdancing, or “breaking,” will be an Olympic sport. Montalvo, 30, of Kissimmee, Florida, hopes to win the sport’s first Olympic gold medal.
Montalvo told Esquire he’s eager to represent the sport started in 1970s New York with roots that reflect that city’s multicultural heritage. “Breaking was inspired and influenced by Kung Fu, gymnastics, and a lot of African and Indian dances,” he told KSL Sports. “It’s all of that mixed in one.”
He will showcase a sport he describes as “new, evolved, refreshed, and refined.” Montalvo added, “I just can’t wait to showcase it at the Olympics. They thought it was stuck in the ’80s. Hopefully we’ll change that [perception].”
Middle- and long-distance runner Weini Kelati, 27, is competing for the U.S. Olympic team a decade after seeking asylum in the United States. Born in Eritrea, Kelati came to the U.S. in 2014 to compete in an international athletics competition. She never got on the plane home. Instead, Kelati went to live with relatives in Leesburg, Virginia, enrolled in school and competed in cross-country and track.
She won state and national championships in high school, then raced for the University of New Mexico before turning pro in 2020. Kelati, who became a U.S. citizen in 2021 and trains in Flagstaff, Arizona, is the American record holder in the half marathon and won the 10,000 meters at the 2024 U.S. Olympic trials.
“It’s an honor every time I go out and put the USA gear on,” she told the Washington Post. “I feel like I’m going to be out there and have the best race of my life.”