The Tokyo Olympics had more than 70 athletes with connections to Texas competing, winning medals, and setting records. Texas athletes won an astounding 29 medals which would have put us in 11th place between France and Canada.
A few athletes, like Josh Green and Marcell Jacobs, with ties to Texas, competed for other countries. Other Team U.S.A. athletes like breakout swimmers Lydia Jacoby and Erica Sullivan will be attending the University of Texas this fall. Hook Em’ Horns!
Here is a list of notable winning athletes from notable major cities and universities around Texas.
HOUSTON
The Houston area won 13 Olympic medals in Tokyo – 3 gold, 6 silver and 4 bronze. If you made Houston its own country and inserted it into one of those Olympic Medals Tables, H-Town would have finished 20th in medal count.
Houston had three players on the baseball team that won silver, so we’re counting that as three medals. And, then there are gymnast Jordan Chiles and weighlifter Sarah Robles, neither of whom grew up in Houston, but both moved to Houston to live full-time. We’ll just go ahead and say they have Houston citizenship.
But, hey, we didn’t totally cheat. For instance, we didn’t count women’s soccer player Kristie Mewis, who plays for the Houston Dash, because she doesn’t live in Houston full-time.
AUSTIN
Current and former University of Texas student-athletes accounted for a total of 9 medals, including 5 gold, during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. If these athletes were competing as a separate country, Texas would have ranked in 17th place among all nations in the number of gold medals earned and tied for 26th in the number of total medals won.
Kevin Durant paced Team USA to a gold medal in Men’s Basketball. Ryan Crouser won his second-straight gold medal in the men’s shot put, posting an Olympic-record throw of 23.30 meters. Chiaka Ogbogu helped Team USA Volleyball claim its first gold medal in Olympic history. Ariel Atkins became the third former UT Women’s Basketball player to earn a gold medal in Olympic competition with Team USA. Current UT senior Julia Grosso converted the decisive penalty kick to lead Canada to victory in the gold-medal match in Women’s Soccer. Softball’s Cat Osterman became a three-time Olympic medalist, leading Team USA to a silver medal.
Texas A&M athletes such as Athing Mu won gold medal after competing in the women’s 800m event. silver medalist, Fred Kerley, also from Texas A&M, won a medal for the Men’s 100-Meter in track & field.
DALLAS
Ariel Atkins is the Team U.S.A. shooting guard who graduated from Duncanville High School in 2014 and University of Texas in 2018. She added “Olympic gold medalist” to her career accolades.
Vincent Hancock, from Fort Worth, became the first skeet shooter to win three Olympic gold medals.
Brian Burrows won a bronze medal mixed team trap shooting. He owns Ironwood Axe Throwing in Denton, Texas.
The Dallas Maverick’s Josh Green won the bronze medal for his home country of Australia.
We celebrate and congratulate all the athletes from around the world that competed in the Tokyo Olympics.
To our Texas athletes – Thank You!
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