Lynnzee Brown to become Haiti’s first artistic gymnastics athlete at Paris Olympics 2024
All roads lead to Paris for Lynnzee Brown, who will write history as Haiti’s first Olympic gymnast when she competes at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
Born in Missouri, USA, she is eligible to represent Haiti through her father, who was born there. In doing so, Brown will become the first Haitian athlete to compete in the Olympic artistic gymnastics competition.
Upon her confirmation in the Haitian Olympic Team in June, Brown said on X (formerly Twitter), “I’m at a loss for words that I have been given this opportunity. I hope to represent and make the Haitian Federation proud. I thank them for pushing me to go after what I once was too scared to try.”
Brown has earned 20 Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA) All-America honours in her career, making her international elite debut at the 2023 Pan American Championships in Medellin.
She represented the University of Denver as a collegiate gymnast, and is now working at Pennsylvania State University as the women’s gymnastics team assistant coach.
Brown’s mother passed away in 2019, and the gymnast cites her as a huge inspiration for making it to Paris. She told the University of Denver in 2021, “My mother passed away two years ago, and it was always her dream for me to go to the Olympics. She got to watch me in 2019 win my national championship.
“I think this would be for her, and it’s one of my main motivators right now, just to do all of the things she wanted me to do and be successful.”
Lynnzee Brown of Haiti competing in 2023.
Brown making history for Haiti
This will be the 12th sport that Haiti has competed in at the Olympic Games, as they go to Paris looking to add to their two medals.
In fact, it was a century ago at Paris 1924 that the nation clinched its first ever medal: the bronze in the shooting men’s team free rifle, won by Ludovic Valborge, Astrel Rolland, St Eloi Metullus, Ludovic Augustin and Destin Destine.
Four years later, Silvio Cator won silver in the men’s long jump at Amsterdam 1928, and to this day he holds the national record and has the national football stadium in Port-au-Prince named after him.
Brown is already writing history with her presence under the Haitian flag, and 100 years on from Haiti’s first Olympic medal, could add a third in the nation’s history.