2024 Paris Olympics: Former Collegians Aim To Take Home Gold

As all eyes turn to Paris, France for the 2024 Olympic Games, 31 former college tennis players will all be eyeing a gold medal in the men’s and women’s tennis events as play is set to get underway Saturday, July 27 from the historic grounds of Roland-Garros.

Building upon the success seen on the ATP and WTA Tours in recent years, over 18% of all competing tennis athletes have ties to collegiate programs, including 46.9% of players in the men’s doubles draw, 28.1% of all players in the women’s doubles draw, 12.5% of players in the men’s singles draw, and 7.8% of players in the women’s singles draw.

Representing 16 countries, and one athlete competing as an Individual Neutral Athlete, this number of players with college ties is 11 more than that at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, confirming the trend seen in many recent Grand Slams of the successful trajectory college tennis has on players with professional aspirations.

With several former student-athletes making their return to the Olympic Games, John Peers (Australia, Middle Tennessee/Baylor), Luisa Stefani (Brazil, Pepperdine), and Rajeev Ram (United States, Illinois) have all already claimed Olympic medals over their careers and will be looking to add another this year in Paris.

Meanwhile, several players who have shined at the collegiate ranks as recent as four years ago will be representing their country on the biggest world stage. Names such as Rinky Hiijikata (Australia, North Carolina), Emma Navarro (United States, Virginia), and Diana Shnaider (Individual Neutral Athlete, NC State) will all be recent college players who fans should recognize in the singles draws at the Olympics.

Across all 31 players with college ties, UCLA and Georgia lead all teams with three former players represented in the field. Following closely after will be Pepperdine, Texas A&M, and Virginia who all have two former players represented in Paris.

In the Paris 2024 Games, play will follow a knockout format with men’s and women’s singles and doubles competitions along with a mixed doubles event that was first contested in London 2012. Matches will be played on clay courts, which will mark just the third time in history that the tennis event will take place on a surface other than hard courts, joining the 1992 Olympics on clay and the 2012 Olympics on grass.

Continue reading below for a full list of Olympians with college ties competing in Paris.

Men’s Singles

Women’s Singles

Men’s Doubles

Women’s Doubles

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