Once every four years, the world follows the most coveted multi-sporting event — the Summer Olympics. And come the end of July, some of the Thunderbirds will grace the Olympic stage in Paris.
Twenty-one UBC students and alumni are attending the Games, which run from July 26–August 11, of which three are attending the Paralympic Games from August 28–September 8.
The Thunderbird representation will be strongest in the swimming events, with seven athletes having connections to UBC. The 4x100m medley relay will see future and current UBC students Finlay Knox and Blake Tierney, both of whom train in Vancouver, team up for Canada. Knox and Tierney will also take on individual events, with Knox set to compete in the 200m medley, and Tierney in the 100m and 200m backstroke.
On the women’s side, third-year student Emma O’Croinin is also one to watch. Setting a personal best in the qualifying event for the 200m freestyle, she will be an integral member of Canada’s 4x200m freestyle relay team.
Outside of the pool, the inaugural marathon race walk mixed relay features a UBC kinesiology alum and current student team up, in Evan Dunfee and Olivia Lundman. The pair look strong, with Lundman already having made her mark on race walking after being the NAIA 5000m champion three years in a row and Dunfee holding the men’s Canadian records in the 3000m and 5000m.
Other disciplines that UBC athletes will be competing in include rugby sevens (Piper Logan and Florence Symonds), rowing (Kristen Kit, Jessica Sevick and Kristina Walker), athletics (Rowan Hamilton in hammer throw and Kieran Lumb in the 1500m) and volleyball (Fynn McCarthy). All three Paralympians from UBC will compete in men’s wheelchair rugby (Travis Murano, Byron Green and Travis Hirschfield).
But not all UBC athletes are competing for Canada — swimmer Karen Tam will represent Hong Kong, Abigail Raye will wear Belgium colours in field hockey and future T-Bird swimmer Kayla Sanchez is representing the Philippines.
Robin D’Abreo, UBC Athletics’ director of athletics, operation and team support, shed some invaluable light on the Olympic experience, as he competed in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
“The Olympics are the pinnacle of amateur sport in any nation," he said. "It's often the pinnacle of a significant commitment and a significant number of years of really hard work and preparation that have led to that point. So I think it's pretty special to that reason.”
For current varsity athletes, D'Abreo said elements of collegiate sport are replicated at the Olympics.
“The nerves you feel in the moment are quite similar because it represents the highest level of pressure you’d have felt at that point,” he said. "The one thing that changes is the scale and the significance of the competition."
The Thunderbirds will kick off their respective campaigns on July 28, where Tierney will take on the 100m backstroke.
A previous version of this story misspelled the name of volleyball player Fynn McCarthy. The Ubyssey regrets this error.
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