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Olympics gold for Tennessee athletes — and other results (updated)

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Darron CummingsAP Photo
Gretchen Walsh reacts to her world record in her Women's 100 butterfly semifinals heat Saturday, June 15, 2024, at the US Swimming Olympic Trials in Indianapolis.
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The 2024 Olympics in Paris have wrapped, and athletes with Tennessee ties often took center stage in both well-established events, like swimming, and brand new Olympic sports, like breaking (not breakdancing).

Hixson’s Olivia Reeves takes gold

Olivia Reeves won the gold medal in weightlifting, marking the first time in 24 years that an American has taken the top spot in the sport.

Reeves lifted 258 pounds in the snatch and 320 pounds in the clean and jerk on Friday, besting her competitors.

Kin Cheung AP Photo

Olivia Reeves of the United States competes during the women’s 71kg weightlifting event.

“Feeling the weight of this competition is different than the others,” Reeves said, according to the AP. “I kind of knew there were going to be tears, good or bad.”

Reeves only failed on one lift attempt, according to the AP, and that was only after the gold medal was secured.

— Miriam Kramer

Cookeville’s Sunny Choi eliminated 

B-Girl Sunny Choi was eliminated during the early rounds of the inaugural Olympic breaking competition.

According to a report from USA Today, Choi couldn’t match the “power moves” of her competitors though she brought “artistry and character” to the stage.

— Miriam Kramer

Gold for a Vanderbilt graduate

Vanderbilt alumna Lily Williams has won an Olympic gold medal, making her the first female graduate of the school to do so.  

Williams’ achieved victory as a part of the American women’s team in the pursuit cycling event. This marked the first time Team USA women brought home the gold in this endurance event, where two teams of four riders race against each other.   

Williams had previously won bronze in the same event at the Tokyo Olympics. While studying at Vanderbilt, she competed on the cross-county and track teams. She cycled to classes and summer internships, including one at WPLN News, but only began cycling competitively five years prior to racing in Tokyo. 

The last and only time a Commodore has won gold was Jeff Turner, who won as a part of the men’s basketball team back in 1984.  

— Cynthia Abrams

Gold and a disqualification 

Team USA picked up more than two dozen medals in just two days during the first week of the Olympics — in sports including gymnastics, shotput and shooting.

Nashville swimmer Gretchen Walsh won gold as part of the 4 × 100 meter medley relay team on Saturday, Aug. 3. That team set a new world record to beat out China and Australia for the top spot on the podium.

Meanwhile, Gretchen’s older sister, Alex, was disqualified for making an illegal turn after initially winning bronze in the 200-meter individual medley.

— Rose Gilbert

A seminfinals win

Nashville swimmer Alex Walsh placed first on Friday, Aug. 2 in her semifinals race. Her win during the women’s 200-meter individual medley came a week after her younger sister, Gretchen Walsh, won silver for Team USA.

Alex Walsh previously won silver during the Tokyo Olympics.

— Marianna Bacallao

Vanderbilt Olympian connects with Flavor Flav

Olympian Veronica Fraley posted on social media that with only 24 hours to go before competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics she couldn’t afford to pay rent.

Rapper Flavor Flav responded, saying that he would pay it “today,” so she wouldn’t have to worry about it “tomorrow.”

— Marianna Bacallao

Zimmerman scores

Already, we’ve seen Nashville SC defender Walker Zimmerman score a goal. That came in the U.S. men’s soccer win against New Zealand on Saturday.

“It’s kind of do-or-die time,” Zimmerman said of the pressure the team feels. “We knew it would come down to the start that we would have, and to get an early goal just was huge. Kind of gave us confidence to really get into the tournament.”

— Marianna Bacallao

Silver medal

Swimmer Gretchen Walsh, a Nashville native, has made an impact. In qualifying, she set the Olympic record in the women’s 100-meter butterfly and then — as a watch party took place at her alma mater, Harpeth Hall — Walsh won the silver medal in the 100-meter butterfly.

“I feel like there was a lot of pressure on me,” Walsh said after the race. “It was definitely a fight to the finish and seeing the 1-2 up there was amazing. I’m so proud of Torri. I’m proud of myself.”

— Tony Gonzalez

Tennessee’s Olympic ties

Here are a few of the Middle Tennesseans who WPLN will be keeping an eye on during the games over the next two weeks:

  • Nashvillian Gretchen Walsh is a major medal hopeful. She entered the Olympics with a newly-set world record in the 100m butterfly during trials.
  • Gretchen’s sister Alex Walsh is competing in her second Olympics. She qualified for the 200m Individual Medley after winning a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
  • Nashville SC’s Walker Zimmerman was chosen for the US men’s soccer team.
  • B-girl Sunny Choi — who was born in Cookeville — is set to become one of the first breakers to compete in the Olympics. Her event is Aug. 9. Learn more about her and her road to the games via this profile from Time Magazine.

Read more: The Nashville Scene, Axios and The Tennessean also have nice breakdowns of the Olympians from across Tennessee.

— Miriam Kramer

WPLN will periodically update this story with results. It was last updated at 10 a.m Sunday, Aug. 11.

Miriam Kramer

Miriam is a news editor at WPLN. Before making the jump to public radio, Miriam was a reporter on the space beat for 10 years. Her work has appeared in Space.com, Mashable and Axios, among other publications. In her spare time, Miriam enjoys running Nashville's greenways, biking, reading, watching Star Trek and building elaborate Lego sets with her husband, two kids and extremely vocal cat.

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