Meet the 2024 Paris Calympians: More members of Team USA
These are the future Cal Bears, Pro Group Cal Bears, and the Team USA Coaches affiliated with Cal.
In case you missed it, part 1 of our 2024 Paris Calympians series was posted back on America’s Birthday featuring the USA Olympians. It turns out that there were a few more 2024 USA Olympians with ties to Cal. This post will also include the other USA Olympians who have publicly commented about attending Cal in the future and those who have moved to Berkeley to train at Cal. Finally, the Team USA coaching staff with Cal connections are listed below.
With the Paris Olympic Opening Ceremony set for Friday, we will have several more “Meet the Calympians” posts this week. The current master list of all the Calympians will be out on Wednesday, and I plan to feature (at the very least) the 1st time international Calympians on Thursday.
Who knew that Cal is USA Badminton U?
In the last post, twins Annie and Kerry Xu were featured as recent Cal graduates (‘20) that will represent Team USA in Badminton. It turns out that 5 of the 7 USA Badminton Olympians in Paris are Cal Bears.
In addition to having both members of the Team USA Women’s Doubles pair (the Xu twin), Cal can also claim both members of the Men’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles pairs. Just like the Xu twins, the following three Calympians are also making their Olympic debuts.
Vinson Chiu
Representing Team USA in both men’s doubles and mixed doubles is 25-year-old Vinson Chiu. Chiu graduated from Cal in the spring of 2022 with a degree in Data Science.
He is partnered with a fellow Cal graduate Jennie Gai in mixed doubles (currently ranked 30th internationally) and yet another Cal Bear Joshua Yuan in men’s doubles (currently ranked 46th internationally).
Chiu and Gai won Silver at the 2023 Pan American Games. The same pair also won Silver at the 2024 Pan Am Championships.
Playing with Joshua Yuan, the Chiu and Yuan partnership has a Silver in 2022 and two Bronzes in 2023 and 2024 in men’s doubles at the Pan Am Championships.
Jennie Gai
Also going to Paris is fellow Cal graduate Jennie Gai (age 23), who completed her degree in Nutrition in December of 2022. Gai has a Gold from the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Mixed Team.
Gai has set up a GoFundMe for her and Chiu, where there are more information about their journey to Paris.
Currently, my partner Vinson Chiu and I are ranked 30 in the world, with a career high of 29. In addition to being the 2022 US Adult National Champions, we are also a top pair in the Pan American region. Our partnership started two years ago, when we won our first tournament together at the 2021 Mexican International Challenge. For the next year and a half, we faced ups and downs as both of us were full-time UC Berkeley students while still training and traveling for competition. Beyond the difficulties of balancing studies, we had little access to high-level training and sparring compared to our Asian and European competition.
In order to pursue this professional career while also not giving up on a quality education, I graduated a semester early in December 2022 (with a B.S. degree in Nutrition!), which allowed us to make the switch to training overseas beginning January this year. Being able to train and spar with world-class players was game-changing: we have made incredible progress since, from a highest ranking of 49 last year to 29 this year.
They have almost met the fundraising goal of $25,000.
Jennie posted the following update this May.
Hello everyone! It’s been a long journey, but I’m so excited to announce that Vinson and I have qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics! Check out this BWF article for the official lists: https://olympics.bwfbadminton.com/news-single/2024/05/10/paris-2024-olympic-games-qualifiers-finalised/
Above all, this absolutely wouldn’t have been possible without everyone’s support. Your donations relieved a lot of financial burden in planning our tournaments and training, which allowed me to focus fully on the Olympic race. I am incredibly grateful for each and every one of your contributions.
Now that we’ve actually qualified, we’ll embark diligently on additional preparations for the Games. Currently, we are training in Indonesia with top players including Marcus Fernaldi Gideon, Hendra Setiawan, and former world number 1 Alvent Yulianto. Additionally, I’m excited to share that Vinson and I were personally invited to train at SCG Academy with Thailand’s top mixed pair, Dechapol and Sapsiree!
For transparency, all funds raised so far have been used in the last 6 months of competitions as we pursued our spot. These next 2 months of preparation will come with additional expenses, and I would deeply appreciate any additional support to help fund our overseas training opportunities. Your donations would directly go towards the following:
May 18-June 2: Training in Indonesia
June 4-9: Indonesia Open, a Super 1000 tournament
June 10-20: Training in Thailand
June 25-30: US Open (Happening in Fort Worth, Texas — come watch!)
July 2-7: Canada Open
July 8-23: Last 2 weeks of preparation at home before flying out to Paris
Once again, thank you everyone for your donations and words of encouragement! Competing in the Olympics was my childhood dream, and I was only able to achieve this with your support. I look forward to showing you my best in Paris!
Joshua Yuan
Also studying at Cal but not yet graduated is Joshua Yuan (age 20). Yuan grew up in San Mateo, CA and was already featured in a story about his Olympic dream back in 2018 while a freshman in high school.
As a nationally-ranked player and hopeful Olympian, Yuan dedicates much of his life to badminton. His badminton career began when his father, David Yuan, wanted to introduce him to a sport he enjoyed.
“I enjoy playing badminton, so I introduced him into the sport,” his father said. “I played when I was … in elementary school. I enjoyed playing with a lot of old people, like 50- to 80- year olds, and I had a lot of fun so I had a very good and enjoyable experience from this sport.”
Yuan didn’t begin playing on a court, but rather with his dad in their house.
“We started playing off in our living room,” his father said. “It’s a small place, but it’s enough [because] it has a high ceiling.”
His father then encouraged him to take a chance playing the sport competitively.
“It was in third grade when my dad took me to a gym called Bay Badminton Center,” Yuan said. “I didn’t like it, [but] my parents forced me to continue. It was only until the end of summer camp where I took interest, and I just continued from there.”
Yuan then moved to Synergy Badminton Club, where he receives coaching from Olmympians.
The Yuan and Chiu partnership dates back as far as 2022.
Unfortunately for these USA Badminton Calympians, the USA does not have an official government-supported national team unlike Japan, Korea, or China. The USA has yet to earn an Olympic medal in badminton despite the sport being in the Olympics since 1992.
While all five Cal Bears representing the USA in badminton are long shots to medal, we wish them the best of luck in Paris! Group play begins on Friday, July 26th.
Future Cal Bears?
The rebirth of Cal Women’s Swimming looks quite promising due to a fantastic recruiting class in 2025. Of course, student-athletes can still very well change their mind before matriculating. Nonetheless, two swimmers in that class will be first-time Olympians in Paris.
Alex Shackell (Swimming)
Swimming Schedule: July 27th - August 4th
Alex Shackell placed 6th in 200m Free at the U.S. Swim Trials in her hometown of Indianapolis, IN to earn a spot on the Women’s 4x200m Free Relay. Shackell is the top-ranked recruit of the Class of 2025.
Daughter of a Great Britain Olympic swimmer, Alex joins her brother Aaron on the 2024 Paris Olympic team. Aaron, who made our Part 1 post despite already transferring to Texas, started his collegiate career at Cal but left after one semester. Alex also has a twin brother, Andrew, who is also a swimmer. Andrew had committed to Cal but has since opted to change his commitment to Texas.
Claire Weinstein (Swimming)
Ranked just behind Shackell at No.3 in that Class of 2025 is Claire Weinstein from White Plains, New York. Weinstein is training in Nevada before earning a spot on Team USA by placing 2nd in 200m Free. Weinstein will get to swim in both 200m Free as an individual and on the 4x200m Free relay.
One has to like USA’s chance to medal in Women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay. Chances are good that these two future Cal teammates can team up for a medal in Paris.
Cal Pro Group
Given the great coaching at Cal, particularly for sports like swimming and throwing (track and field), many athletes decide to move to Berkeley to train. While they do not compete for Cal, they do often work on their degrees (and become a Cal alum) and/or help coach a Cal team. While I will not count their medals in my official “Cal Medal count”, these are still affiliated athletes that deserve some love from Cal fans.
Hunter Armstrong (Swimming)
Armstrong swam for a season at Ohio State before following his coach Matt Bowe to Berkeley. While Bowe has since moved on to head the Michigan swim program, Armstrong has stayed in Berkeley to train with arguably the best backstroke group in the world.
Nicknamed the “Magic man” for his fondness of magic, Armstrong is going to his second Olympics this summer. Armstrong placed 2nd behind training partner at Cal, Ryan Murphy, in 100m Back to earn a spot there. Just like in the 2021 Tokyo Games, Armstrong will likely get a prelim swim in the Men’s 4x100 Medley Relay. Hunter Armstrong has a Gold for that event from Tokyo.
Brooks Curry (Swimming)
Moving to Berkeley to train this past year is Brooks Curry, who had spent four years swimming for LSU but technically still has one more year of collegiate eligibility. He considered joining the Cal team this past season but ultimately opted against it. Like Armstrong, Curry is also going to his second Olympic Games.
In 2021, Curry swam in the 4x100m Free Relay and earned a Gold medal. At the U.S. Swim Trials last month, Curry placed 6th in 200m Free to earn a relay spot in the 4x200m Freestyle Relay this time.
Team USA Coaches
Dave Durden (Swimming)
Thanks to the stable of Cal swimmers on Team USA, Cal Director of Swimming Dave Durden will also go to Paris as a member of the USA coaching staff. Durden served as the Team USA men’s head coach for the 2020 Olympic Games in 2021. He was also an assistant coach for Team USA in 2016 when the Cal contingent won 11 medals, including eight Golds.
Chris Oeding (Women's Water Polo)
USA Women’s Water Polo has dominated the last few Olympics, Cal alum Chris Oeding has been there from the sidelines as an assistant coach, including the past two Olympic Games.
A Cal Men’s Water Polo alum (‘94) who won three NCAA titles in college, Oeding was a USA Calympian in 1996 and 2000. He is now the current head coach at Long Beach City College.
Adrienne Martelli (Rowing)
Cal associate head coach for Women’s Rowing for the past two years, Adrienne Martelli will go to Paris as a member of the Team USA coaching staff as the “women’s sweeps coach”. A two-time Olympian, Martelli rowed for Washington collegiately. She has a Bronze medal from London 2012 where she rowed on the quadruple sculls with Calympian Kara Kohler (who is again an Olympian this year).
After five years in Berkeley, Martelli will be heading to Cal’s new ACC rival Clemson as their head coach when she gets back from Paris.
Check back later this week for the full list of 54 Paris “Calympians”, not including the future Cal Bears nor the Pro Group Bears listed in this post.
GO BEARS! GO USA!
Thanks for putting this all together Ruey! Should have a good chance to hit double digits in medals.