Thread: 2024 Paris Olympic Games

Japan beats U.S. U23s in final Olympic soccer warmup game

The United States heads to its first men's Olympic soccer tournament since 2008 off a performance it would rather forget.

Shota Fujio converted a penalty kick in the sixth minute, Mao Hosoya added a goal in the 69th and Japan won 2-0 in an under-23 game Tuesday night in the Americans' last warmup match.

"Since we started this process eight months ago, this was I would say the lowest performance by far that we had," U.S. coach Marko Mitrovic said. "I strongly believe that this group can do much better than they showed today."

Japan was awarded the penalty kick when Koki Saito flicked the ball off the right arm of defender Bryan Reynolds at the edge of the penalty area. Fujio sent the penalty kick to Patrick Schulte's right as the goalkeeper jumped to the left.

Japan scored its second goal after intercepting John Tolkin's throw-in. Shunsuke Mito dribbled toward the goal, and his pass deflected off defender Jonathan Tomkinson and Schulte then Hosoya tapped in the rebound from four yards.

"Obviously, it wasn't the game that we wanted to end kind of this journey on going into the Olympics," said American midfielder Paxten Aaronson, the younger brother of national team midfielder Brenden Aaronson. "The guys know that one game doesn't define us."

Bay Area's Daniela Moroz is a kiteboarding sensation

East Bay daughter of Czech immigrants aims for gold in new Olympic event

Moroz, a 23-year-old Lafayette native who is a six-time world champion in the sport and a favorite to win the gold in August, thought about her immigrant parents.

In the early 1980s, they independently escaped former Czechoslovakia and started over in the Bay Area. They stumbled upon the Cal Sailing Club at Berkeley Marina, where they first fell in love with windsurfing, then, each other.

“They were the ones that got me into the sport,” Daniela said. “They left their lives and left everything behind to chase the American dream and completely started new lives when they came to America.

“For me, to be going to the Olympics now, it feels like a culmination of that American dream.”

Daniela’s mother, Linda, was 19 when she and some friends put their most valuable possessions into a backpack, told their families and friends they were going on vacation and then hopped on a bus to Yugoslavia.

They didn’t plan on returning home.

Tired of living under communist rule, Linda and her friends sought asylum in Yugoslavia, where they were soon transferred to an old military prison in Austria and held in a refugee camp for six months.

“Nobody knew if it would even work,” Linda said. “It was scary because you left with the feeling like you might never be able to go back once you leave. But there was just something that I really wanted to experience, the freedom that other parts of the world experienced.”

While in the refugee camp, she passed the time while learning English until she and her friends were put on a plane to San Francisco. There, they’d live in the house of one of her friend’s uncles.

Linda got a full-time job cleaning houses and enrolled at San Francisco Community College.

USRowing Announces Olympic Games Paris 2024 Roster

USRowing is pleased to announce the full roster that has been nominated to represent the United States at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

The U.S. qualified 12 crews for the Olympics including the women’s single sculls, men’s single sculls, women’s double sculls, men’s double sculls, lightweight women’s double sculls, women’s quadruple sculls, women’s pair, men’s pair, women’s four, men’s four, women’s eight and men’s eight. The U.S. leads the way with Romania in qualifying the most boats to race in Paris.

Of the 42 athletes who will be competing in Paris, 17 are returning Olympians with three Olympic medals amongst them. Thirty-eight have competed on previous senior national teams, while four will be making their senior team debuts.
Megan Musnicki, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in the women’s eight in 2012 and 2016, will be competing at her fourth Olympic Games, having raced the eight in Tokyo as well.

Kara Kohler will be racing at her third Olympics. Kohler won bronze in the women’s quadruple sculls in 2012 and raced the single at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Justin Best, Charlotte Buck, Olivia Coffey, Claire Collins, Liam Corrigan, Ben Davison, Clark Dean, Michael Grady, Nick Mead, Molly Reckford, Regina Salmons, Michelle Sechser, Jessica Thoennes, Kristi Wagner, and Madeleine Wanamaker will be racing at their second Olympics, having all competed in Tokyo.

Rowing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 will take place July 27-August 4. The Paralympic Games Paris 2024 are scheduled from August 28 to September 8, with Para rowing events beginning August 30. The complete Paralympic team will be nominated by July 1.

USRowing would like to thank our national team sponsors including our Official Boat Supplier for the U.S. Senior, Under 23, and Para Rowing National Teams, Filippi Lido; our Official Apparel Provider, 776BC; our Official Partner, Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc., our Exclusive Supplement Supplier, Thorne HealthTech; our Official Performance Electronics Outfitter, Nielsen-Kellerman; the National Rowing Foundation; and TrainingPeaks, the Official Training and Coaching Software of USRowing’s High Performance Team.

2024 Olympic Team Roster in the link above

Beth Yeager Selected To U.S. Olympic Field Hockey Team

Beth Yeager didn't exactly get a good night's sleep Sunday. Not with what she knew was coming first thing Monday.

She might not have slept well Monday night, though for different reasons. This time, she might have been too excited.

Yeager got the news early Monday that she'd dreamed about, for this past year when she took off from Princeton and for the entire time she's played the sport of field hockey: She is now officially a member of the United States Olympic Team.

"It's been pretty stressful," she said after she got the news. "The coaches weren't making any promises to anyone. I feel very grateful to my coaches and teammates and all the people who've been supporting me. My first reaction was that I was relieved. Being excited settled in after that."

Yeager has been a member of the U.S. Women's National Team since her senior year in high school. She then played her first two seasons at Princeton, earning first-team All-American honors both years while also being a Honda Award finalist as a sophomore.

She withdrew from school this year to compete in the Olympic qualifying events (she will be back in school this fall and will be one of Princeton's captains). The U.S. team, who missed the last Olympic Games, finished second in the Pan Am Games to Argentina, who won the automatic bid by winning the championship.

This left the Americans in need of earning its spot through the last qualifying tournaments, which in their case was in India, where the team reached the finals, earning one of the three spots from that event.

Yeager was a key part of that 16-team squad, but it didn't guarantee her a spot on the Olympic team. The final evaluations came the last three weeks at the FIH Pro League in Belgium and England, and Yeager scored twice in those games.

"The full centralized group of 28 athletes have worked exceptionally hard this year and made the final selection difficult," said USA head coach David Passmore. "While the results weren't what we wanted during the European leg of FIH Hockey Pro League, we have diligently reviewed video and performance analysis while choosing a group of athletes we feel can push for a quarterfinal berth in Paris."

The American team will begin its final training in Charlotte June 17 and then will head first to Ireland for more training and scrimmaging against Japan and some club teams. Then it will be into the Olympic Village before its first game in Pool B on July 27 against Argentina. The other Pool B teams are Australia, Great Britain, Spain and South Africa.

"The initial emotion is overwhelming," Yeager says. "When we qualified for the Olympics, it was kind of a state of shock. This is a little different. This was a little more relief and gratitude. And then excitement.

Yeager is the fifth Princeton field hockey player to reach the Olympic Games, following Katie Reinprecht (2012, 2016), Julia Reinprecht (2012, 2016), Kat Sharkey (2016) and Michelle Cesan (2012 alternate).

"We're so proud of Beth and so excited for her," says Princeton head coach Carla Tagliente. "She's such a great teammate in addition to being a great player, and she is so deserving of this amazing opportunity."

Field hockey competition at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 will be held at the Yves-Du-Manoir Stadium, which also hosted track and field during the 1924 Olympics.The stadium is located in the city of Colombes – located about five-and-a-half miles west of the Olympic Village. Women's field hockey joined the Olympic program in 1980. College field hockey plays an instrumental role in Team USA's development on the world stage; in history, Team USA has had nearly 70 college field hockey Olympians from 23 different schools.