Recap: University of Iowa Athletes Capture Four Medals at Paris Olympics
PHOTO: Stephen Mally/hawkeyesports.com
Eleven Hawkeyes competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics, including Team USA’s Spencer Lee, a silver medalist in freestyle wrestling.
For two weeks this summer, Paris was home to the world’s top athletes for the 2024 Olympic Games. Among them were 11 Hawkeyes who represented their countries—and the University of Iowa—proudly on the global stage.
Three Iowa alumni and one current student-athlete took the Paris podium, and the UI placed among the top 10 American universities and tied for first in the Big Ten in Olympic individual medalists. Kennedy Blades and Spencer Lee (21BS) became the first pair of Iowa wrestlers since 2000 to win medals at the same Olympics with their silver performances, while track and field star Brittany Brown (17BA) and rower Eve Stewart (20BA, 21BA) delivered bronze finishes.
Here’s how all 11 Hawkeyes performed in their Olympic debut.
Silver Medalists
Photo courtesy Kennedy Blades
Kennedy Blades | sophomore | USA freestyle wrestling
Blades, who joins the Hawkeye wrestling team this season, became the first women’s wrestler in school history to medal at the Olympics with a silver in the women’s 76-kilogram freestyle event. At age 20, the Chicago native is considered a rising star of the sport.
Coached by U.S. Women’s National Coach Terry Steiner (93BA), the unseeded Blades burst onto the Olympic scene with a dominating back suplex for five points that led to an 11-0 win by technical superiority over fourth-seeded Catalina Axente of Romania. Blades next defeated fifth-seeded Milaimys Marin Portillo of Cuba, the eventual bronze medalist, 4-3 in the quarterfinal and top-seeded Aiperi Medet Kyzy of Kyrgyzstan 8-6 in the semifinal.
In the gold medal match, Blades lost to the reigning world champion Yuka Kagamiof of Japan 3-1. Although disappointed to fall just short of gold, Blades is looking forward to training under Iowa coaches and fellow Olympic medalists Clarissa Chun and Tonya Verbeek this fall on the road to the next Summer Games. “I haven’t even stepped foot on campus, and [Hawkeyes are] already supporting me,” Blades told The Des Moines Register. “It’s just an amazing feeling. 2028 in LA is next.”
Photo courtesy Spencer Lee
Spencer Lee (21BS) | 2017-23 | USA freestyle wrestling
Lee wanted nothing but gold, but with a silver in the 57-kilogram men’s freestyle event, he becomes part of an elite class of 11 Hawkeye men’s wrestlers who have reached the Olympic podium. He joins gold medalists Terry McCann (1960), Ed Banach (1984), Lou Banach (1984), Randy Lewis (1984), and Tom Brands (1996); silver medalist Barry Davis (1984); and bronze medalists Chris Campbell (1992), Terry Brands (2000), Lincoln McIlravy (2000), and Thomas Gilman (2020).
“I was disappointed in not bringing home the gold for the United States. I am, however, proud to bring a silver medal back to the United States and the University of Iowa,” Lee posted on Instagram. “I also want to thank the Hawkeye Wrestling Club and all the fans for the incredible support. To see so many fans travel for Team USA and myself was an honor. I also want to thank my coaches and teammates for training me and giving me the best opportunity for success.”
At the Olympics, Lee’s maternal grandmother—a native of France—watched him compete live for the first time. She and his family cheered him on to a 3-2 victory over China’s Zou Wanhao in the round of 16 and two wins by technical superiority: a 12-2 victory over Kyrgyzstan’s Bekzat Almaz Uulu in the quarterfinal and a 14-4 defeat of Uzbekistan’s Gulomjan Abdullaev in the semifinal. Lee fell in the gold medal match to top-seeded Rei Higuchi of Japan, the country that dominated this year’s Olympic wrestling events.
Following his silver medal win, Lee told reporters he was unsure whether he would compete in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics—especially after his struggle to return to international competition after knee injuries. “We’ll see, man,” he said. “I’m still figuring out whether I want to keep wrestling or if I want to figure something else out for my life.”
Bronze Medalists
Photo courtesy Brittany Brown
Brittany Brown (17BA) | 2014-18 | USA track and field
After winning both her round 1 and semifinal heats, Brown gave a bronze medal-winning performance in the women’s 200-meter final. With a time of 22.20 seconds, she became the first woman from Iowa’s track and field program to win an individual Olympic medal. Brown’s USA teammate Gabby Thomas took home the gold, while Brown narrowly beat the fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-place finishers by 0.02, 0.03, and 0.04, respectively.
Brown has faced injuries and health issues on the road to Paris, and she uses her international platform to raise awareness of endometriosis. “This one’s for my team, all the people who believed in me,” she told reporters after earning her first Olympic medal. “For all the women who deal with health issues. For any athlete that’s reached out to me and said: ‘I am not looked at, the coaches don’t pay attention to me.’ For all the dark-skinned girls who look like me. It’s not about me: It’s about the people who look like me, who resonate with my story. I’m just so grateful I can be here and be in this moment.”
Photo courtesy Eve Stewart
Eve Stewart (20BA, 21BA) | 2016-20 | Great Britain rowing
Making history as the first Hawkeye to compete in Olympic rowing, Stewart helped Great Britain win a bronze medal in the women’s eight with a time of 5:59.51 in the 2,000-meter race. Her team finished less than one second behind silver medal-winning Canada and five seconds behind gold-winning Romania.
“My job is to provide a link from seats seven and eight—individuals who provide the rhythm—and send that up the boat,” Stewart, who sits in the boat’s sixth seat, told Iowa Magazine before the race. “When you have eight people, oars, a boat, and you’re in the water, it can be really tough to sync together.”
While at the Olympics, Stewart met USA women’s rugby standout Ilona Maher, paraded before fans in Champions Park at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, and celebrated the closing ceremony with teammates at the Stade de France. “Living on cloud nine at the moment,” Stewart wrote on Instagram. “This week has been a dream.”
More Hawkeye Olympians
Photo courtesy Megan Gustafson
Megan Gustafson (19BBA) | 2015-19 | Spain basketball
The former Iowa women’s basketball legend led Spain to a pair of one-point victories in its first two games, including a 90-89 overtime victory over China in the team’s Olympic opener and a 63-62 win against Puerto Rico that earned Spain a spot in the quarterfinals.
Gustafson tallied a team-high 29 points along with eight rebounds, four steals, and two blocks in the triumph against China. She again led the team in scoring with 18 points and 13 rebounds in a 63-62 win against Puerto Rico and with 21 points in Spain’s 79-66 loss against Belgium in the quarterfinals. Early in the Olympic women’s basketball tournament, FIBA ranked her as one of the best-performing athletes.
Gustafson, who also plays for the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, recently became a naturalized citizen of Spain. While at the Olympics, she joined fellow Spaniards on a rainy boat ride for the opening ceremony, wore sneakers in honor of her fan-favorite corgi, Pancake, and took a photo with fellow Hawkeye Olympian Brittany Brown (17BA).
Photo courtesy Peter Jok
Peter Jok (23BS) | 2013-17 | South Sudan basketball
Jok contributed 11 points and six rebounds to help South Sudan’s Bright Stars upset Puerto Rico 90-79 in their Olympic debut. The historic victory was the first for South Sudan, a newly formed nation that gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after a civil war. It was also only the second time since 1996 that an African team won an Olympic men’s basketball game.
Next in the group stage, Jok scored seven points in South Sudan’s 103-86 loss to eventual gold-winning United States and five points in a 96-85 loss to eventual bronze medalist Serbia. During the Olympics, Jok averaged 7.5 points and 5.2 rebounds per game and shot 46% from three-point range.
South Sudan first captured the world’s attention after nearly upsetting the United States in a pre-Olympic exhibition game. Although the team didn’t qualify for the Olympic quarterfinals, NBC named South Sudan’s opening victory as one of the top basketball moments from the Paris Games.
Photo courtesy Cloé Lacasse
Cloé Lacasse (14BA) | 2011-14 | Canada soccer
Lacasse scored Canada’s first goal in its 2-1 victory over New Zealand to open the Olympic women’s soccer tournament.
Canada defeated host country France and Colombia to advance to the quarterfinals despite a six-point deduction from FIFA in the group stage and the ban of its coach due to a drone-spying scandal. The team’s run ended in a penalty shootout loss to Germany.
“Competing in the Olympics has always been a dream of mine, despite the unprecedented challenges we faced,” Lacasse, who plays for the Utah Royals Football Club in Salt Lake City, wrote on Instagram. “As a little girl, I dreamt of representing my country on this stage, and now that dream has come true. I am incredibly proud of our team and what we have overcome. Though the outcome wasn’t what we had hoped for, we can hold our heads high, knowing what we have achieved.”
Photo courtesy Cassie Lee
Cassie Lee | freshman | Canada artistic gymnastics
Lee scored 13.333 on beam and 12.600 on floor, joining forces with fellow Hawkeye Aurélie Tran and three other Canadian teammates to record 162.432 in the women’s artistic gymnastics team final. Their fifth-place finish matches Team Canada’s best Olympic result ever from London 2012 and also marks Canada’s first appearance in the women’s team final in 12 years.
Lee plans to study dentistry at Iowa this fall while competing with the Hawkeye gymnastics team.
Photo courtesy Tomi Taiwo
Tomi Taiwo (22BA) | 2018-22 | Nigeria basketball
Taiwo competed as part of a history-making team for her parents’ home country of Nigeria, which claimed its first Olympic victory in 20 years after beating eventual bronze medal-winning Australia 75-62. Nigeria next lost to eventual runners-up France 75-54 but pulled off a win against Canada 79-70 to become the first African team in Olympics history to reach the quarterfinals. Nigeria then lost to the United States, the eventual gold medal team.
“We didn’t come here just to say we were in the Olympics,” Taiwo told Iowa’s News Now. “We wanted to make some noise. ‘Shock the world’ was our mantra, our motto. It’s something that you only dream of as a little kid, to be playing on such a big stage and to be having this type of international support.”
Following competition, Taiwo watched firsthand as the USA men’s basketball team took home gold, snapped photos with athletes such as former NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony and gold medalist sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson, and celebrated the closing ceremony with her teammates.
Photo courtesy Aurélie Tran
Aurélie Tran | freshman | Canada artistic gymnastics
Tran scored 13.500 on bars and 13.100 on floor at the Olympics to contribute to Canada’s fifth-place finish in the women’s artistic gymnastics team final. The Quebec native, who began gymnastics at age 5, says competing at the Summer Games is like “living in my childhood dream.” Tran will next join her Canadian teammates Cassie Lee and Sydney Turner as a Hawkeye gymnast and major in biochemistry and molecular biology at Iowa this fall. She has interest in a future career in pharmacy, medicine, or sports medicine.
Photo courtesy Sydney Turner
Sydney Turner | freshman | Canada artistic gymnastics alternate
Although Turner did not compete at the Olympics, she supported the Canadian women’s artistic gymnastics team as a traveling reserve athlete. While in Paris, she toured attractions such as the Eiffel Tower and met with Hawkeye gymnastics teammate Gianna Masella to cheer on Canada to a fifth-place finish in the team final. “I love all of the opportunities I get the chance to take up and all the wonderful people I get to meet through gymnastics,” Turner wrote on Instagram.
Turner’s next stop is Iowa City, where she will join her Team Canada teammates Cassie Lee and Aurélie Tran on the Hawkeye gymnastics team and study civil engineering and computer science this fall.