Camryn Rogers - Gold, Mykolas Alekna - Silver, Kitty Lynn Joustra - Bronze
Paris 2024 Calympians can get four more medals in the final 24 hours of competition
Since our last Medal Count Update, California Golden Bears at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games have earned a set of Paris 2024 Medals!
In addition to Swimming and Rowing, “Calympians” have now added (Track and) Field as well as Water Polo to the list of sports where they have earned those precious Paris 2024 Olympic Medals!
It is somewhat surprising that the lone (so far) individual Gold by the Calympians in this Olympics is from Track and Field rather than swimming.
Camryn Rogers (Canada) — Women’s Hammer GOLD
Camryn Rogers won the NCAA Women’s Hammer Throw title three times while breaking the NCAA record. She won the World Title last year after graduating but staying in Berkeley to train. Now, Rogers is an Olympic Gold Medalist.
https://x.com/CalTFXC/status/1820926819400319369
With her best throw of 76.97m, Rogers won her first Olympic medal which turned out to be Golden for the Golden Bear. Rogers’ top throw bested those of American Echikunwoke (75.48m) and Chinese Zhao (74.27m).
Rogers’ medal added to the Canadian Calympian haul after her fellow countrywomen Sydney Payne and Caileigh Filmer won Silvers in Women’s Eight rowing. The Canadian women’s water polo squad with two Cal Bears (Emma Wright and Kindred Paul) finished 8th overall to miss the podium.
SF Chronicle has a fun story on what Camryn Rogers did after winning the gold.
Mykolas Alekna (Lithuania) - Men’s Discus Silver
Mykolas Alekna set a new World Record back in April. He broke his father’s Olympic record on his second throw of the final. The Lithuania native threw a 69.97m that beat his father Virgilijus Alekna’s record of 69.89m from the 2004 Athens Games.
Out of nowhere, Roje Stona of Jamaica broke Alekna’s fresh record with a throw of 70.00m. Alekna could not beat that throw in his last few attempts and finished with a Silver.
In his two NCAA championship appearances while competing at Cal, Alekna also has not yet found a way to peak at the championships. While he also owns the NCAA record, Alekna only has a 2nd and a 3rd place in the NCAA championships. That is something that the 20-year-old will likely work on.
Kitty Lynn Joustra (Netherlands) - Women’s Water Polo Bronze
Cal alum Kitty Lynn Joustra starts at center for the high-scoring Dutch Women’s Water Polo team. The Netherlands narrowly lost their semifinal match to Spain in penalty shootout despite two goals from Joustra.
Facing a Team USA that was a Gold medal favorite in the Bronze match, Dutch managed to erase the early USA advantage then won with a game-winning goal with just a second left. Sabrina van der Sloot scored the basically buzzer-beater to help the Dutch come back from a 9-6 final quarter deficit to take an 11-10 victory.
This was Kitty Lynn Joustra’s second Olympic game but first Olympic medal.
Here is the Cal Medal Count with less than 24 hours of competition left in Paris:
GOLD MEDALS: 4
USA Mixed 4x100m Medley Relay (Ryan Murphy - Final Backstroke in a WORLD RECORD swim, Abbey Weitzeil - Prelim Freestyle)
USA Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay (Jack Alexy)
Camryn Rogers (Canada) - Women’s Hammer Throw
SILVER MEDALS: 8
USA Women’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay (Abbey Weitzeil - Prelim)
USA Men’s 4x100m Medley Relay (Ryan Murphy - Final Backstroke, Jack Alexy - Prelim Freestyle)
New Zealand Men’s Four (Ollie Maclean)
Netherlands Men’s Eight (Olav Molenaar)
Canada Women’s Eight (Sydney Payne, Caileigh Filmer)
Mykolas Alekna (Lithuania) - Men’s Discus
BRONZE MEDALS: 4
Great Britain Women’s Eight (Rowan McKellar)
USA Men’s Eight (Christian Tabash)
Ryan Murphy (USA) - Men’s 100m Backstroke
The Netherlands Women’s Water Polo (Kitty Lynn Joustra)
We will note the One Gold and Two Silvers from Men’s Swimmers Hunter Armstrong and Brooks Curry who are training at Cal but never competed for the Bears. Cal Women’s Swimming commits Alex Shackell and Claire Weinstein have also earned One Gold and Two Silvers in Paris.
Two more events to note as Cal can add as many as FOUR more medals to the count above.
11:15 AM PT Saturday, August 10th - Women’s 1500m: Cal alum Georgia Bell (Great Britain)
Injury forced Georgia Bell to retire from competitive running while studying at Cal. Bell quit running when she graduated from Cal in 2016 until she was inspired to try again while watching the delayed Tokyo Games in 2021. The 30-year-old first-time Olympian ran 3:59.49 to earn second place in her semifinal and a post in the 12-women final. With a personal record of 3:56.54, Bell certainly needs to get that down to around 3:50 to get on the podium.
1:35 AM PT Sunday, August 11th - Men’s Water Polo Bronze Medal Match: USA (Cal alumni Luca Cupido, Johnny Hooper, Adrian Weinberg) vs. Hungary
Recent Cal graduate Adrian Weinberg has been brilliant as the starting goalkeeper for Team USA. In addition to this unreal goal that he scored across the length of the pool, Weinberg has been brilliant in front of the cage. The three-time NCAA champion Weinberg stopped two shots in the quarterfinal penalty shootout against Australia to lead Team USA to the semifinal. Johnny Hooper scored a goal before receiving a red card for getting into a fight where he also suffered a broken nose. Luca Cupido showed the same great positional defensive versatility as when he led Cal to an NCAA title; he is also one of the top USA assist guys in feeding the center position where Stanford alum Ben Hallock roamed.
Team USA had too much power play futility (5 for 14 on shots despite an extra player) in their semifinal 10-6 loss to Serbia. Weinberg’s 15 saves were not enough. USA would now play for its first men’s water polo bronze since 2008 against Hungary who lost to Croatia in the other semifinal.
Best of luck to the remaining Calympians to close the Paris 2024 Games on a high note!
GO BEARS!
Bell made bronze with a personal best 3:52.61. She looked pretty happy about it.