Nine athletes and one coach will represent Mississippi State University in the Olympics starting next week. Some will compete for Team USA, but many will represent their home countries.
Curtis Thompson, a Mississippi State alumnus, will compete in his second consecutive Olympics for Team USA in the men’s javelin throw. He secured his spot with a throw of 83.04 meters at the Olympic Trials. Thompson, who finished 21st in the 2020 Olympics, is eager to improve on that performance.
Navasky Anderson, another Mississippi State athlete, will make his Olympic debut for Jamaica in the 800-meter race. Anderson earned his spot by winning the 2024 Jamaican Championship and holds the national record for both the indoor and outdoor 800. He was also the NCAA national runner-up in 2022.
Marco Arop, representing Canada, qualified for the Paris Olympics by setting a record of 1:43.52 in the 800 at the Athletics Canada Championships. Arop achieved the No.1 ranking in the world for 2023 and is aiming for his first Olympic gold after winning the 2023 World Athletics Championship.
Nuno Borges, a former top-ranked NCAA men’s singles and doubles tennis player from Mississippi State, will make his Olympic debut for Portugal. Borges has competed at major events such as Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open, and now he is adding the Olympics to his resumé.
Lee Eppie, part of Botswana’s 4×400-meter relay team, helped his team achieve a previous world-leading time of 2:59.11 at the 2024 World Athletics Relays. At Mississippi State, Eppie was part of four of the five fastest indoor 4×400 relay teams in school history.
Ilana Izquierdo, a current midfielder for Mississippi State’s women’s soccer team, will represent Colombia at the Olympics. She recently debuted with Colombia’s senior women’s national football team in the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup, starting in every match. Izquierdo is the 11th Bulldog to make an Olympic team while still an active student-athlete.
Catalina Pérez, a former Mississippi State goalkeeper, will compete in her second Olympics with Colombia after playing in the Rio 2016 Games. Perez has won gold at the Pan American Games and reached the quarterfinals of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Anderson Peters, who competed in the 2020 Tokyo Games, is back for this year’s Olympics to represent Grenada in the men’s javelin. Peters is the second man ever to win back-to-back world championships in javelin in 2019 and 2022, and he recently claimed his fourth Grenadian championship.
Ahlana Smith, making her Olympic debut in women’s basketball for Puerto Rico, is the first Mississippi State women’s basketball player to compete in the Olympics and the first student-athlete to represent Puerto Rico. Smith’s participation marks a record total of nine Olympic athletes from Mississippi State.
Mississippi State will also have one coach at the Olympic Games. Chris Woods will serve as an assistant coach for the Canadian team, helping to coach Marco Arop in track and field.
This represents a record level of participation for Mississippi State, with nine athletes and one coach. The university is aiming for its first gold medal since 2000 when Jude Monye won gold in the 4×400 relay with the Nigerian team.
The Olympics are set to begin in Paris on July 26 and will end on August 11. You can tune into the coverage of the Olympics on the Peacock app, the NBC Sports App and on any NBC station.
