Iowa Olympians and Paralympians going to Paris in 2024

Meet Iowa’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes headed to Paris for Team USA this summer, and check out some of Iowa’s greatest past Olympians.

The 2024 Summer Olympics kick off on July 26 and go through Aug. 11, while the Paralympic Games are from Aug. 28-Sept. 8, 2024. Hosted in Paris this year, the games are a celebration of excellence in athletics and are always tons of fun to tune in to.

Did you know there are several competitors at this year’s Summer Olympics and Paralympics with ties to Iowa? Iowa has a rich history of sending athletes to the Olympic and Paralympic games, with many notable athletes calling Iowa home. Read on to learn more about these gold, silver, and bronze medal-winning Iowans.

Iowa Olympians headed to the 2024 Paris Games for Team USA

Emily Delleman

Emily Delleman is from Davenport and is representing Team USA as part of the rowing team in 2024. She was an All-American rower in 2019 and 2020 while attending Stanford. While she’s been on seven National Teams (including three times on Junior National Teams), this will be her first Olympics. 

Karissa Schweizer

Karissa Schweizer competes in the women’s 5000 meter final on Day Four of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Track & Field Trials at Hayward Field on June 24, 2024 in Eugene, Oregon. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images Sport/Getty Images)

Karissa Schweizer from Urbandale will be competing in this year’s Olympics as part of Team USA for track and field. Schweizer also competed in the 2020 Olympics placing 11th  in the women’s 5,000 meter and 12th in the women’s 10,000 meter races. This summer she will take on both races again, hoping to best her previous runs. She placed third at the women’s Olympic trials earlier this summer. 

Other notable Team USA Olympians with ties to Iowa: 

Tyrese Haliburton

Tyrese Haliburton is originally from Wisconsin but spent two seasons playing for the Iowa State Cyclones before heading to play in the NBA (currently for the Indiana Pacers.) Haliburton will be on Team USA’s men’s basketball team and is the first Cyclone on the team since 1988. 

Spencer Lee

Spencer Lee is originally from Denver, Colorado, but wrestled for the University of Iowa. With his participation in the 2024 Olympics, he will be the 20th Olympian in Iowa Hawkeye wrestling history. He is a three-time NCAA champion looking for gold in the 57-kilogram freestyle division. 

Kenny Bednarek

Kenny Bednarek competes in the first round of the men’s 200 meters on Day Seven of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Track & Field Trials at Hayward Field on June 27, 2024 in Eugene, Oregon. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images Sport/Getty Images)

Kenny Bednarek is from Rice Lake, Wisconsin, but ran track at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa before becoming a pro runner signed with Nike. He was the first American athlete to break 20 seconds in the 200-meter and 45 seconds in the 400-meter on the same day at the 2019 NJCAA Championships in Hobbs, New Mexico. He earned a silver medal in the 200-meter race in the 2020 Olympic Games and is looking for gold in 2024.

Brittany Brown

Brittany Brown will also be on Team USA in track and field. Brown, originally from Claremont, California, was an 11-time All-American and Big Ten Champion while running for the University of Iowa. She ran a personal best of 21.90 in the 200m at the 2024 US Olympic Team Trials in Eugene, Oregon, to qualify for Paris 2024. This will be her first Olympic games. 

Iowa athletes headed to the 2024 Paralympic Games 

The Paralympics are also hosted in Paris this summer running from August 28 through September 8. Iowa is well-represented at this year’s games as well. Read on to see who you can cheer on to a gold medal victory. 

Olivia Chambers

Olivia Chambers is a current student at the University of Northern Iowa, originally from Little Rock, Arkansas. Chambers began losing her eyesight at age 16 and was diagnosed with multiple mitochondrial gene deletion syndrome. She will be representing the USA on the swimming team and is currently ranked number one in the world for the 400-meter freestyle (also holding the current American record in that event. She is a three-time U.S. Paralympic Swimming national champion. 

Matt Stutzman

Archery athlete Matt Stutzman poses for a portrait during the 2024 Team USA Media Summit at Marriott Marquis Hotel on April 17, 2024 in New York City. (Mike Coppola/Getty Images Sport/Getty Images)

Matt Stutzman of Fairfield will be making a repeat appearance in the 2024 Paralympics. He competed in the 2012 and 2016 games, winning a silver medal in archery in the 2012 games. Stutzman was born without arms and uses his feet for archery, and holds the world record for the longest accurate shot in the sport. He also won the gold medal in his event at the 2022 World Para Archery Championships held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Originally born in Kansas City, Kansas, Stutzman now lives in Fairfield with his family.

AJ Fitzpatrick

AJ Fitzpatrick will be competing in the 2024 Paralympics as the youngest member of the men’s wheelchair basketball team. The 19-year-old from Cedar Rapids was born with joint contractures and has used a wheelchair for most of his life. A current student at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, he earned the Intercollegiate Division All-Rookie Team honors and competed in the ParaPan American Games in Santiago last year. 

Jeromie Meyer II

Jeromie Meyer II is another member of this year’s Paralympic men’s wheelchair basketball team. Originally from Woodbine, Meyer had been an active basketball player, football player, and wrestler before being struck by a car and paralyzed from the waist down at the age of 10. He picked up the sport of wheelchair basketball and has since become a world champion gold medalist. This will be his first Olympic appearance. 

Justin Phongsavanh

Justin Phongsavanh is a javelin thrower from Des Moines. He has earned one Olympic medal already, a bronze in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Gunned down in a fast food parking lot in 2015, a traumatic event that left him paralyzed from the waist down, Phongsavanh has taken his previous athletic interests (track and field, wrestling, and rugby) and channeled them into his javelin-throwing career. At the last US Paralympic Team Trials – Track and Field, he set a world record, throwing the javelin 33.29 meters in the men’s F54/F57 wheelchair division with a distance of 33.20 meters, almost four feet farther than the previous record.

Former Olympians from Iowa

Shawn Johnson East

Shawn Johnson of the United States poses with her silver medal after placing second in the Women’s all around Gymnastics event in the NBC Today Show Studio at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 15, 2008 in Beijing, China. (Kristian Dowling/Getty Images Sport/Getty Images)

Shawn Johnson East is perhaps one of the best-known Iowa Olympians of recent memory. Originally from the Des Moines area, Johnson East is a gymnast who competed in the 2008 Olympic games, winning a gold medal for her balance beam performance. She was a silver medalist as part of Team USA and for all-around and her floor exercise. While those are her only Olympic achievements, Johnson East was the 2007 all-around world champion and earned other accolades as a gymnast before retiring from the sport in 2012. She also happens to be the “Dancing with the Stars” Season 8 champion as well. 

Dan Gable

Dan Gable is another well-known Iowan with ties to the Olympics. The folkstyle and freestyle wrestler and coach is actually considered to be one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. Originally from Waterloo, Gable competed in the 1972 Olympics where he earned gold. He’s also a two-time NCAA national champion, a world champion, was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame, and has been awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom. 

Lolo Jones

Lolo Jones reacts after competing in the first round of the women’s 100 meter hurdles on Day Eight of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Track & Field Trials at Hayward Field on June 28, 2024 in Eugene, Oregon. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images Sport/Getty Images)

Lolo Jones has been an Olympic competitor in two different sports and is one of only a few athletes who have competed in both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. She is a hurdler and a bobsledder originally hailing from Des Moines. Jones specializes in the 60-meter and 100-meter hurdles and was favored to win the 100-meter hurdles in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing but tripped on the final hurdle, coming in 7th place. Competing in the 2014 Winter Olympics, her team placed 10th in bobsledding. Jones continues to race today, appearing most recently at the 2024 Drake Relays. She has also made several charitable contributions to her alma mater Roosevelt High School in Des Moines. 

Morgan Taylor

Morgan Taylor’s history with the Olympics goes way back to the 1930s. Taylor, originally from Sioux City, competed in football and track and field while studying at Grinnell College. He won three Olympic medals in the 400-meter hurdles (the first person to do so!), including gold in 1924, and bronze in both 1928 and 1932. He was also the flag bearer for the United States when competing in 1932. 

Frank Irons

Frank Irons might be the first Iowan to compete in the Olympic games. He was a long jumper from Des Moines. He won the gold medal in the 1908 Olympics in London, England. He competed again in 1912 and came in 9th place. 

Frank Wykoff

American runner Frank Wykoff during the 4×100 meter relay race at the Olympic Games on August 8, 1936 in Berlin, Germany. (KEYSTONE-FRANCE/Gamma-Rapho Keystone/Getty Images)

Frank Wykoff is a triple gold medal winner who is also originally from Des Moines. Wykoff competed in the 4×100 relay and his biggest claim to fame is being the first man to ever win three Olympic relay gold medals, all in world record time. He competed and won during the 1928 (Amsterdam), 1932 (Los Angeles) and 1936 (Berlin) games. He later went on to become a teacher and administrator who worked for the Los Angeles County School System until retiring in 1972. 

Jennifer (Simpson) Barringer

Jennifer (Simpson) Barringer is the first US woman to earn an Olympic medal in the 1500-meter race. She won the bronze medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics. She also previously competed in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. This middle-distance runner, and former steeplechase competitor, is originally from Webster City but grew up in Florida. 

Sabin Carr

Sabin Carr grew up in Dubuque and competed as a pole vaulter. A world record holder, Carr competed in the 1928 Olympic games in Amsterdam where he won the gold medal. 

Mike Burton

Mike Burton is another Olympian from Des Moines. He is a swimmer with three Olympic championships and is a former world record holder in two freestyle distance events. Nicknamed “Iron Mike,” he won two gold medals, in the 400-meter freestyle and the 1,500-meter freestyle, during the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Then in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, he became the only American ever to repeat as the 1,500-meter freestyle gold medalist, in a world record time for the swim no less. 

Kenneth Sitzberger

Kenneth Sitzberger was an Olympic diver originally from Cedar Rapids. He won a gold medal at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo on the springboard. After finishing his career as a diver, he went on to work as a sports commentator for ABC. He married fellow Olympic diver Jeanne Collier but died at age 38 of a brain hemorrhage under mysterious circumstances. 

Jon Koncak

Jon Koncak is yet another Cedar Rapids native. The 7-foot-tall basketball player was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks where he played for a decade before moving to the Orlando Magic. He was on the 1984 Olympic men’s basketball team that played and won gold in Los Angeles. He retired in 1996 with career totals of 3,520 points and 3,856 rebounds.

Natasha Kaiser Brown

Natasha Kaiser-Brown of the USA runs in the Women’s 4×400 meters relay race at the 1992 Summer Olympics at Montjuic Stadium on August 7, 1992 in Barcelona, Spain. (David Madison/Getty Images Sport/Getty Images)

Natasha Kaiser Brown grew up in Des Moines and quickly gained fame for her abilities as a sprinter. Specializing in the 400-meter run, Kaiser Brown won a silver medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona in the 4×400-meter relay. She won gold as a world champion in that same race in 1993 and took silver as a solo runner in the 400 meter. She came back to Iowa and coached track for several years at Drake University before moving on to coach at the University of Missouri where she still coaches today.

Amanda Weir

Amanda Weir is from Davenport and has earned several Olympic medals as a swimmer. She began swimming at a young age and started setting records at a young age as well. Her first of many spring freestyle age-group records for USA Swimming was at age 12 when she swam the 50-yard freestyle in 23.17 seconds. Weir was on the 2004, 2012, and 2016 US Olympic swim teams. She earned two silver medals at the 2004 Games (for the 4×100 freestyle and 4×100 medley) and a bronze medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She also won a silver medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay at the 2016 Summer Olympics. 

This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.