Olympics Preview: Storylines, Schedules, and the Ultimate Guide to the Michigan Wolverines in Paris

jay

23 Jul 2024 • 10 min read

In 2021, 29 Michigan Wolverines alumni traveled to Tokyo to compete in the Olympics. They won 10 medals, including a gold for Maggie MacNeil and gold for a Canadian women's soccer team with Shelina Zardosky and Jayde Riviere. With the Paris Olympics starting this Friday, the question is: can the 2024 class beat that?

Forty-three athletes with Michigan ties will compete at these Olympics, plus two coaches. They are spread over 14 sports and 22 countries. If you're a Michigan fan, there is something worth watching almost every day.

To help you, I've compiled The Ultimate Guide to the Michigan Wolverines at the 2024 Olympics. It's big. Schedules, bios, notes on how the competitions actually work, TV info, it's all there. It will be updated daily, and I'll also be writing some columny stuff.

Some Wolverines are gonna win some medals in Paris. Two weeks, a ton of events that are convenient for eastern time (especially if you work from home), and medal hopefuls ready to become household names.

Three Big Stories

Parris Takes Paris, with Four of his Friends

Myles Amine travelled to Tokyo as part of a San Marinese Olympic delegation that had never won a medal at any Olympics. In 2021 they won three, including Amine's bronze. He was named the San Marino flag-bearer for the closing ceremony.

Amine's back, one of five Michigan alumni who will be wrestling this year. And he will once again be a top candidate for a medal, after repeating his bronze performance at the 2023 World Championships in Belgrade. His biggest competition at 86kg freestyle (assume freestyle until I say otherwise) will be the USA's David Taylor and Iran's Hassan Yazdani, who went Gold-Silver at both the Tokyo Olympics and 2023 Worlds.

Stevan Micic (Serbia) also competed in Tokyo, losing in the first round. This time around, he comes in as the reigning world champion at 57kg after beating Rei Higuchi of Japan in Belgrade. Micic will look to avenge his previous Olympic performance, against basically the same group of guys he beat at Worlds last year, though without the benefit of a home crowd.

I said Mason Parris (USA) in the subhed but narratively starting with the returners made more sense. Anyways, Mason Parris also won bronze at the 2023 Worlds, in the heavyweight (125kg). Parris is the reigning national champ, and I spent more time that was worth it worried that his old rival, Gable Steveson, would return and try his hand at Olympic glory once more as his WWE career is going ok at best. Alas, he didn't, Parris won the trials, and now he'll see if he can improve on his performance in Belgrade.

The final Wolverine freestyle wrestler in Paris will be Austin Gomez (Mexico), who will compete in his first Olympics at 65kg. Gomez only spent one year at Michigan, coming for his final season equipped with degrees from both Iowa State and Wisconsin.

There is one Greco-Roman wrestler with Michigan ties: Adam Coon (USA) won multiple heavyweight medals at NCAA Championships, tried his hand at football including a stint on the Titans practice squad, then re-committed himself to wrestling and qualified for the Olympics, also as a heavyweight, 130kg.

The bottom line here is that if I had to pick a sport where I thought a Michigan athlete would medal, and I couldn't pick swimming for some reason, I'd pick wrestling. Three athletes will compete who have medaled at the most recent World Championships, and Coon is sort of a wild card as he has not been at a top-level international for a while. The question is, can one of them get Gold?

Paris-Orly 🛫 Willow Run ➡️ Freshman Year

Four athletes that we're counting as Wolverines have not ever actually suited up for Michigan. They haven't even attended a practice. That's because four incoming freshmen will take a stop in Paris before coming to Ann Arbor, three swimmers and one basketball player.

The headliner here, especially if you're aware of my whole deal, is Syla Swords. If you don't already know, Swords will arrive on campus this fall as the highest ranked recruit in the history of Michigan women's basketball. She's a McDonald's All-American, a legit star in the making, and despite only being 18 has been a regular presence on the Canadian women's national team for this entire Olympic cycle. She will more than likely start at least two of Canada's group games, if not all three.

Canada is, frankly, an underdog when it comes to medal contention. They barely qualified, and their group – France, Australia, and Nigeria – will be tough to get out of. They are on-paper better than France, but with some home crowd juice I think Canada will sneak through the group stage as one of the top-ranked third place teams. And once you're in the knockouts, it's any given gameday.

The other pre-Wolverines are all swimmers: Rebecca Diaconescu (Romania), Jon Jøntvedt (Norway) and Lorne Wiggington (Canada). Diaconescu holds the Romanian record in the 200 free, but this will be her biggest international appearance in that event. Jøntvedt came in 24th at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in the 800 free, and will compete in that event (against another Wolverine, that's a preview for the next subhed) in Paris. Wiggington will compete on Canada's 4x200 free relay team.

I can't say with any confidence which of the swimmers has the best chance at stealing a medal, but if I had to pick one I'd say Wiggington. Granted, Canada came in 10th at Worlds this year, with Wiggington on the team. But if my options are "individual in first Olympics" and "guy on team" I know what I'm picking.

Oh Gosh There Are So Many Swimmers

FIFTEEN athletes with Michigan ties will swim at these Olympics. (I guess 16 if you count triathlete Sophie Linn (Australia) but per Olympics parlance that is a different sport.) Fifteen is too many to preview here, but go check out the swimming bios. Let's stick to headliners.

Maggie MacNeil (Canada) won one of two golds for Michigan athletes in Tokyo, in the 100m butterfly. She transferred to LSU eventually, but she is still one of the best swimmers in Michigan history. She should contend for a medal, but an upset would be required for her to take gold. (Of course, the same was true in Tokyo.) She also won two relay medals with Canada at the previous Games, and will be on the 4x100 medley relay team.

Siobhan Haughey (Hong Kong) also medaled in Tokyo, winning two silvers in individual events; the 100 and 200 free. She's got a packed schedule in Paris, swimming basically every shortish freestyle race: 50, 100, 200, 400. She'll also swim the 100 breaststroke and a relay or three. The oddsmakers say Haughey is slightly more likely to repeat than MacNeil, and if she can medal in the 4x100 free or medley relays, she'll be doing it with another Wolverine: Hong Kong's Natalie Kan will race those relays.

Felix Auböck (Austria) is somehow on his third Olympics. He was 20 years old in Rio, and was able to improve on his 2016 performance with 3 top-10 finishes in Tokyo. His fourth-place finish in the 400 free was his best, and he'll look to improve on that while also competing in the 200 and, along with Jøntvedt, the 800 free (we call that a callback folks).

Those are the three most likely to medal. I would like nothing more than one of the athletes I have not named here to make me look stupid and win a medal..

How to Watch the Olympics

The Guide has TV information for every sport. Some people really hate Olympic coverage, and I understand why. NBC jumps around, USA isn't always focused on one sport, it's just not always obvious what you should be watching. If you're one of those people, I want to make this very, very clear:

Every single event at these Olympics will be shown live on Peacock. If you want to watch an event uninterrupted and unbound by NBC's whims and human interest pieces, open Peacock and find the event. Do you have a cable login but don't want to pay for Peacock? You can also watch everything on the NBC Sports app. I imagine Peacock will have a better interface, but if you can navigate the NBC Sports app, you're in business. If you are having trouble finding an event on real TV, even on the channel the Guide says it's on, I promise it's on both apps.

With that said, I personally will mostly watch the TV broadcasts when available for the sport I want to watch. A quick rundown:

NBC: Lots of swimming, lots of track, a decent amount of gymnastics, lots of team-sport Finals. Yes, they'll do the big nightly compilation of tape-delayed stuff, but they're also doing a ton of live coverage of the sports I just mentioned.
USA: Kind of the catch-all secondary channel. If you want to watch what NBC deems to be the second-most interesting thing on live, there is a decent chance its on USA. For our purposes, we've got field hockey, we've got basketball, we've got soccer, and we've got swimming that's early enough in the day that NBC hasn't switched over from the Today show yet.
CNBC, E!: Overflow. If NBC and USA are already spoken for, some events have been shunted to these channels.
GOLF: What it says on the tin. Ashley Lau of Malaysia will be competing in women's golf, it's all on Golf Channel. Easy.
Peacock: I know I went on my little pro-Peacock rant above, but there's a ton of stuff that is Peacock exclusive. ESPECIALLY team sport matches in sports where the Wolverine we're interested in does not play for the United States.

The Olympics By Day

Most days a bunch of stuff is happening, but here is the event (or two or three) I am most excited for every day of the Olympics (all times Eastern, always, I can't stress this enough):

Thursday July 25: Some sports start early! Jayde Riviere and the defending champion Canadian women's football team take on New Zealand. (11a, Peacock).
Saturday July 27: Four men's gymnasts will represent their nations and the Maize and Blue in Paris: Paul Juda (USA), Fred Richard (USA), Kevin Penev (Bulgaria), and Lais Najjar (Syria). Throughout the first full day of the Olympics, they'll participate in qualifying for both the team event and individual events.
Sunday July 28: She'll have to qualify, but if Maggie MacNeil repeats in the 100 Butterfly final, it will likely be the first medal a Wolverine wins at these Games. (2:45p, NBC)
Monday July 29: There is one alum of a non-varsity sport competing: Alena Olsen played club Rugby and will represent the USA in Rugby 7s. The end of pool play and all knockout rounds will take place on Monday (various times, mostly Peacock). If USA Rugby makes the bronze medal match (1p, E!) that is both their natural place based on world rankings and a huge achievement based on history.
Tuesday July 30: Up to four Michigan swimmers could be participating in the men's 4x200 Free Final: Eduardo Moraes (Brazil), Lorne Wiggington (Canada), and Eitan Ben-Sherit and Gal Groumi (Israel). (3:50p, NBC)
Wednesday July 31: First, the men's gymnastics All-Around final (11:30a, NBC) should feature at least one of the four names from a few bullets ago, my money is on Richard. Second, Siobhan Haughey (Hong Kong) could be competing in the 100 free final (4:15p, NBC). Could definitely be a two-medal day.
Thursday August 1: One of the lightest days of the Olympics. Take your pick in team sports group stages: Abby Tamer and USA Field Hockey will take on GB (11a, USA) and Syla Swords anf Canada will be in a huge group stage match v. Australia (7:30a, Peacock).
Friday August 2: Let's run it back: Take your pick of Abby Andrews and Australian Water Polo v. Canada (8a, Peacock) or see the Wagner brothers try to lock up a knockout rounds bid against host France (3p, Peacock).
Saturday August 3: I'm not going to pretend I am setting a 4AM alarm, but there are three medal events happening in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Paige Baidenhorst (South Africa) could row in the Single Sculls final (4:18a, Peacock), and Abby Dent and the Canadian Eights have a rowing final of their own (4:50a, Peacock). Plus, Mike Woods (Canada) will bike in the Road Race (5a, CNBC). If you want something that is Eastern Time-friendlier, try Ayden Owens-Delerme (Puerto Rico) on the second day of the Decathlon (all day, mostly Peacock).
Sunday August 4: MacNeil, Haughey, and Natalie Kan (Hong Kong) could all swim in the 4x100 medley relay final (1:35p, NBC).
Monday August 5: The first Michigan-relevant wrestling event of the Games, as Adam Coon (USA) will try to get all the way to that day's semifinals (9a, 10:20a, 3:20p, Peacock).
Tuesday August 6: Team sports inch closer to medals: a Canada football semifinal would happen that day (12, USA or 3, E!), and Germany basketball should be in a quarterfinal (various times and channels).
Wednesday August 7: We'll stick with basketball: the Canadian women should be in their own quarter on the 7th (various times, probably Peacock).
Thursday August 8: The second potential medal event in Athletics, if Savannah Sutherland (Canada) qualifies for the 400m hurdles final (3:25p, NBC).
Friday August 9: Two Michigan athletes will be in medal contention in wrestling, and they're probably the two most likely to come home with hardware. Stevan Micic (Serbia) will try to defend his World Championship and add Olympic gold (1:55p, Peacock). Later, Myles Amine (San Marino) will try to improve upon his bronze finish in Tokyo (2:30p, Peacock). (Just for the record both bronze medal matches are about half an hour before the gold matches.)
Saturday August 10: With the Olympics winding down, there are a ton of medal events on the last Saturday: Ashley Lau (Malaysia) will be golfing her last round (3a, Golf). There are also potential gold medal games in women's water polo (4:35a, Peacock), women's football (11a, USA), and men's basketball (3:30p, NBC).
Sunday August 11: The last day of the Olympics. Michigan volleyball head coach Erin Virtue could very well be behind the bench as an assistant as the USA women go for gold (7a, NBC).

If you're a Michigan fan, there's something for you to watch at the Olympics. I'll be back next Monday to recap the first weekend, and from there the publishing schedule will be partly determined by the athletes. In the meantime, the Guide will stay constantly updated with results and qualification and schedule updates. Happy Olympics everyone. Go Blue!