Athletes with Notre Dame ties win school-record 10 medals at 2024 Olympics
Notre Dame entered the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris with 16 former and current student-athletes competing in the games. When the Olympics ended Sunday, the official medal count of 10 (six gold, one silver and three bronze) for those athletes set a Notre Dame school record for a single year. The six gold medals also set a school record.
Notre Dame has now been represented by 118 student-athletes in the Olympics since 1912. They’ve combined to win 48 medals.
Here’s how the 2024 medal winners fared.
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Lee Kiefer, women’s fencing, two gold for USA
Lee Kiefer, a 2017 graduate, won two gold medals to become the most-decorated fencer in United States Olympic history. She now has three gold medals after winning her first at Tokyo’s 2021 Olympics.
Kiefer, competing in her fourth Olympics, defended her gold medal in the individual foil event with a 15-6 win over fellow American Lauren Scruggs in the gold medal bout. Then Kiefer helped the U.S. women’s foil team to its first-ever gold medal. She teamed with Scruggs, Jackie Dubrovich and Maia Weintraub.
Kiefer won four NCAA national championships in foil during her Notre Dame career (2013-17).
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Chris Guiliano, men’s swimming, gold and silver for USA
Chris Guiliano, a senior at Notre Dame, won a gold medal as the second in the pool for the U.S. on the 4x100-meter freestyle relay team. He combined with Jack Alexy, Hunter Armstrong and Caeleb Dressel to finish the race in 3 minutes and 9.28 seconds, which beat Australia’s 3:10.70 in second place.
Guiliano also earned a silver medal by swimming in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay heats for the U.S. The team of Luke Hobson, Carson Foster, Drew Kibler and Kieran Smith finished second in 7 minutes and .78 seconds behind Great Britain’s 6:59.43.
Guiliano also swam in the 50-meter, 100-meter, and 200-meter freestyles events, but he only advanced to the finals in the 100, where he finished eighth with a time of 47.98 seconds.
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Korbin Albert, women’s soccer, gold for USA
Korbin Albert, who left Notre Dame early to pursue a professional career following two seasons with the Irish (2021-22), won a gold medal as a starting midfielder for the U.S. women’s soccer team. Albert assisted on the only goal in a 1-0 victory over Brazil in the gold medal game.
Albert, who plays professionally for Paris Saint-Germain, scored her first international goal in a 2-1 win over Australia in group play. Albert, 20, became the first player in U.S. women’s soccer history to score her first career goal at an Olympics and the youngest U.S. women’s player to start an Olympic gold medal match.
Jackie Young, women’s basketball, gold for USA
Jackie Young, who left Notre Dame after three seasons (2016-19) to pursue a professional career, won a gold medal as a starting guard for the U.S. women’s basketball team. After Young scored 19 points off the bench in in a 87-68 victory over Germany to wrap up group play, Team USA entered her into the starting lineup for the three elimination games.
Young, who plays for the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, scored 15 points in a 88-74 win over Nigeria in the quarterfinals, 14 points in a 85-64 win over Australia in the semifinals and two points in a 67-66 win over France in the final. She added four rebounds, three assists and two steals in the gold medal game.
Jewell Loyd, women’s basketball, gold for USA
Jewell Loyd, who left Notre Dame after three seasons (2012-15) to pursue a professional career, won a gold medal as a reserve guard for the U.S. women’s basketball team. Loyd’s best performance of the Olympics came in an 87-74 win over Belgium in group play in which she scored eight points and added three rebounds and three assists in 17 minutes.
Loyd, who won her second gold medal with Team USA, didn’t log any playing time in the gold medal game. Loyd plays for the WNBA’s Seattle Storm.
Nick Itkin, men’s fencing, bronze for USA
Nick Itkin, a 2022 graduate, won his second bronze medal in the men’s foil individual competition. He also won bronze in the event in the 2021 Olympics. Itkin beat Japan’s Kazuki Iimura, 15-12, in this year’s bronze medal bout.
Itkin, who won the NCAA men’s foil national championship in 2018 and 2019, also competed on the U.S. men’s foil team that finished fourth with a loss to France in the bronze medal match.
Eszter Muhari, women’s fencing, bronze for Hungary
Eszter Muhari, who won the 2023 NCAA women’s epee national championship as a freshman at Notre Dame, took home the bronze medal in the women’s epee event while representing Hungary. Muhari lost 15-9 to eventual silver medalist Auriane Mallo-Breton in the semifinals before defeating Estonia’s Nelli Differt, 15-14, in the bronze medal bout.
Muhari stepped away from Notre Dame for the 2024 season to train for the Olympics.
Yared Nuguse, men’s track, bronze for USA
Yared Nuguse, a 2021 graduate, used a late surge to earn the bronze medal in the men’s 1500-meter race. In an event that fellow Team USA representative Cole Hocker pulled off an upset with an Olympic-record time of 3 minutes and 27.65 seconds to win the gold, Nuguse narrowly missed grabbing the silver with a time of 3:27.80. Great Britain’s Josh Kerr edged out Nuguse with a 3:27.79.
Nuguse, who won 2019 NCAA men’s national championships at Notre Dame in the 1,500-meter race and as part of the distance medley relay, registered a personal best with his 1,500-meter final time in Paris.
Other participants
• Gerek Meinhardt (‘13), men’s fencing (USA): finished fourth in men's foil team event and lost 15-10 to France's Enzo Lefort in individual men's foil round of 16.
• Natalie Achonwa (‘14), women’s basketball (Canada): combined to score 13 points as a starting center in Canada's three losses in group play.
• Molly Bruggeman (‘14), women’s rowing (USA): finished fifth in the finals on the U.S. women's eight team.
• Amita Berthier (‘23), women’s fencing (Singapore): lost 15-13 to USA's Lauren Scruggs in first round of women's foil individual event.
• Lauren Ebo (‘22-23 grad student), women’s basketball (Nigeria): scored all two of here points in an 88-74 loss to Team USA in the quarterfinals and played 10 total minutes off the bench in Nigeria's four games (2-2 record).
• Tyler Christianson (‘24), men’s swimming (Panama): ranked 22nd in the men's 200-meter breaststroke with his time of 2 minutes and 15.62 seconds in the first of four heats.
• Cassandre Prosper (junior), women’s basketball (Canada): scored all four of her points in a 79-70 loss to Nigeria in group player and played 16 total minutes off the bench in Canada's three group play losses.
• Magda Skarbonkiewicz (freshman), women’s fencing (USA): finished fifth in women's team sabre and lost 15-11 to Turkey's Nisanur Erbil in first round of individual women's sabre.
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