6 Olympic and Paralympic Female Athletes We’re Following at the Games

Jul 31, 2024 | From the Breakroom

By Cooper Lyon, Intern, Events & Experiences
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From selling out arenas to securing major endorsement deals, female athletes have been making waves across the US in the past year. Nowhere is that more evident than Team USA, which has the highest number of female athletes at the summer games with 315 participants. Many of them have already delivered unforgettable performances. Here are the athletes we’ll still be following long after the games are over.

Sunny Choi

Breaking, Team USA | Queens, NY
@_sunnychoi

Hitting the Olympic scene for the first time this summer is the new sport breaking (better known as break dancing), which originated during the early hip-hop scene in the Bronx during the 1970s. Former gymnast-turned-breaker Sunny Choi will be one of the first Americans to represent Breaking at the Olympics.
Choi discovered breaking during her time at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and it was love at first freeze. She began participating in international competitions while continuing to juggle her studies. Before committing to breaking full time, Choi graduated from college and pursued a career in marketing and project management before ultimately leaving her position to focus on the sport after placing second at the World Games in 2022. Earning gold at the 2023 Pan American Games, Choi automatically punched her ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Hezly Rivera

Gymnastics, Team USA | Oradell, NJ
@hezrivera

The US women’s gymnastics team has been turning athletes into household names throughout the last decade with gymnasts like Gabby Douglas and Simone Biles breaking records and bringing new life to the sport. Newcomer Hezly Rivera has the potential to be the next standout as the youngest member across all events for Team USA.

With her teammates being four veterans to the games, Rivera is the only newcomer for Team USA women’s gymnastics this year.

Coco Gauf

Tennis, Team USA | Delray Beach, FL
@cocogauff

With the Tokyo Olympics falling in the middle of a global pandemic, many athletes were unable to compete after testing positive for COVID-19. One of the impacted athletes was Team USA women’s tennis player Coco Gauff, who tested positive after securing her spot on the team, forcing her to withdrawal from her Olympic debut.

With the pandemic behind us, Gauff is making her Team USA debut this summer at the Paris games. She was runner-up at the French Open in 2022 and won her first Grand Slam singles title at the US Open in 2023. Gauff has positioned herself as a prominent figure in the tennis world by winning the US Open at only age 19, the first American teenager to hold this title since Serena Williams. Her Olympic debut has already been historic as she broke Venus Williams’ record for being the youngest American woman to win a singles match at the games.

Casey Kaufhold

Archery, Team USA | Lancaster, PA
@crazy.casey.04

When your parents own Lancaster Archery Supply, a leading archery supply store, it’s assumed that you’ll most likely pick up the sport. So, it’s no surprise that Casey Kaufhold picked up the bow and arrow at an early age. She took part in her first World Championship at age 15 and in her first Olympic games in Tokyo during 2021, where she finished 17th individually. But that was just the beginning.
After snagging a silver medal at the 2021 World Championships, Kaufhold put her improvement on display by qualifying for the 2024 Paris games shortly after. Now at 19, Kaufhold is competing in her second Olympics. This time around she entered the games as number one in the world, making her the first US recurve woman in history to hold that spot in the rankings.

Emily Oberst*

Wheelchair Basketball, Team USA | Brookfield, WI
@emily_oberst

Emily Oberst’s journey to the Paralympic games is marked by impressive achievements. After being diagnosed with bone cancer at age 12 and undergoing surgery for treatment, Oberst’s athletic career was turned upside down. Oberst’s impressive collegiate career proves cancer was no match for her, especially now as she makes her Paralympic debut.
After cancer treatment, Oberst was rendered unable to maintain physical strength for extended periods of time, leading her to switch to wheelchair basketball instead of the traditional version of the sport. Oberst was played collegiate basketball at the University of Illinois where she was a 3x All American, won a National Championship in 2017 and was named the MVP of her team in 2018. Post graduation, Oberst competed in the Women’s Wheelchair Basketball World Championships twice, bringing home a bronze medal in 2023. She also competed in the Para Pan American Games during 2023 in Santiago, Chile. Oberst may be a newcomer to the Paralympics, but she is certainly not a newbie in the realm of wheelchair basketball.

Leanne Smith

Para Swimming, Team USA | Salem, MA
@l.smith.88

Leanne Smith was diagnosed with dystonia, a rare neurological muscle disease, in 2012. One year later, the former gymnast took up swimming after losing the use of most of her limbs and being confined to a wheelchair.

Despite winning only one silver medal at the Tokyo games, Smith brought in the biggest medal haul for a US swimmer since 2010 at the 2022 World Para Championships.

Two months after this tremendous feat, Smith had a new challenge to face after being rushed to the ER and admitted to the ICU for a respiratory infection. She considered letting her triumph in 2022 be her swan song, but Smith decided to give rehabilitation her all and made her return at the 2023 World Para Championships, bringing home a bronze medal. She continued her training journey, pushing through her progressive disease, and landed a spot in the 2024 Paralympics in Paris.

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Sunny Choi (@_sunnychoi) • Instagram photos and videos

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Hezly Rivera (@hezrivera) • Instagram photos and videos

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Coco Gauff (@cocogauff) • Instagram photos and videos

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