Team USA’s Olympic champions returning to the classroom after Paris 2024
Whether it's high school, university or even medical school, these five Team USA athletes will be returning to the classroom after clinching Olympic gold at Paris 2024.
Elite athletes dedicate their lives to working their way to the top and competing amongst the best athletes in the world. But being great requires balance.
For many, that balance comes in the form of an education somewhere along the way to the top.
Ahead of the Olympic Games Paris 2024, Team USA announced that 75 per cent of their Olympians in Paris competed at the collegiate level at some point along their way to the Olympics, with 15 of their sports teams made up of 100 per cent collegiate or former collegiate athletes.
With many athletes now returning back to the classroom, we take a look at five Team USA Olympic champions who will be returning to their studies after standing on top of the world in Paris.
Quincy Wilson
After making headlines as Team USA’s youngest male track Olympian at Paris 2024, Quincy Wilson returned to high school in Maryland with his gold medal, where before Paris, he set the American high school record in the indoor and outdoor 400m.
After clinching gold in the men’s 4x400m relay at the Games, the 16-year-old took to X to post a selfie with his hardware, captioning the photo: “Dang, I really got school in 2 and a half weeks #Gold #OlympicGamesParis.”
Wilson first made headlines at the U.S. Olympic Trials, where he broke the under-18 400m world record twice in the span of three days, after the previous record had been upheld for 42 years. He clocked a 44.66 in round one and 44.59 in the semi-finals, then went on to break his own record again a few weeks later with a 44.20 in Gainesville, Florida, making him the third fastest American to run the 400m this year.
That time would have been fast enough for him to qualify for the 400m individual finals in Paris this year, but at just 16, Wilson likely has at least a couple more chances to make an individual Olympic final in his career.
Torri Huske
After walking out of Paris as the most decorated American athlete of the Games (tied with Regan Smith), Torri Huske (pictured at the top) is returning to Stanford University as a redshirt junior that upgraded her title of Olympic silver medalist from Tokyo 2020, to six-time Olympic medalist and three-time Olympic champion.
The 21-year-old Virginia native amassed an incredible five medals in Paris, including golds in the 100m butterfly, 4x400m medley relay and 4x100m mixed medley relay. In both relays she helped Team USA clock new world records, and in the 100m butterfly, Huske touched the wall 0.04 seconds ahead of teammate and world record holder Gretchen Walsh.
Jordan Chiles
Paris 2024 team gold medalist Jordan Chiles announced that she would be returning to the University of California at Los Angeles for the 2025 NCAA season after winning her first Olympic gold in Paris.
Becoming a Bruin after Tokyo 2020, Chiles was the leading point scorer on her team through the 2022 season with three perfect 10s. The following year, she solidified her spot as one of the best gymnasts in the NCAA, taking the collegiate title on uneven bars and floor exercise, also taking second place in the all around by just 0.05 points behind Utah’s Maile O'Keefe.
Chiles will return to the California school as a nine-time All-American with eight career perfect 10s to her name.
Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles, Hezly Rivera, Jade Carey and Sunisa Lee of Team United States celebrate after winning the team gold at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on July 30, 2024.
Jack Alexy
Opening the U.S. men’s 4x100m freestyle relay final, 21-year-old Jack Alexy lit the fire that would become a gold medal finish in the race at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
Now a senior at the University of California, Berkeley, Alexy added to his gold with a silver in the 4x100m medley, stacking his trophy cabinet alongside two NCAA team championship titles, 14 All-American honors and the 2024 800m freestyle National Championship title.
He has been a major contributor to the school’s national championship titles and has clocked four of Cal’s top-nine fastest swims in individual events including in the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle, and the 100m backstroke.
Lee Kiefer
Kiefer became the first American fencer to ever clinch Olympic gold when she took the individual foil crown at Tokyo 2020, and incredibly repeated the feat in Paris, also adding a team title to her second individual gold.
A graduated student-athlete from the University of Notre Dame, Kiefer and husband Gerek Meinhardt took a hiatus from medical school at the University of Kentucky to focus on their training for Paris, but now plan to return to studies now the Games have wrapped.
The most recent Olympics marked Kiefer's fourth Games and Meinhardt’s fifth, and the pace of their lives does not look like it will slow down any time soon.