NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee today announced its official roster for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team with Vanderbilt track and field graduate student Veronica Fraley and alumna Lily Williams among the 592 athletes who will represent Team USA this summer in Paris.
Fraley will make her Olympic debut in Paris, qualifying by placing third in the discus at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. In her final collegiate season, she became Vandy’s third-ever individual NCAA champion when she won the discus title in June. During the season, she also collected a gold medal in the shot put and silver in the discus at the SEC Outdoor Championships.
The Olympics will be the fourth time Fraley has worn the red, white and blue on an international stage. She was a member of Team USA for the 2022 and 2023 World Athletics Championships and the 2023 Pan American Games.
The Paris Olympics will be Williams’ (BA ’16) second Olympic Games. She and her teammates brought home a bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Games. That year, she was a part of the squad that won the World Championship to qualify for the Olympics.
Before transitioning to cycling in 2016, Williams was a member of the Vandy cross country and track and field teams where she was a member of cross country squads that advanced to two NCAA Championships (2015, ’13). On the track, she was a two-time regional qualifier in the 1,500 meters.
Williams received her undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt in biology and English in 2016 and her master’s from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.
The American collegiate athletics system plays a vital role in Team USA’s success on the Olympic stage. This summer in Paris, 75 percent of U.S. Olympians will have competed collegiately as part of their journey to Team USA. In total, 169 schools from 45 different conferences will have one or more U.S. Olympians competing in Paris.
Twenty-one teams have at least 80 percent collegiate participation on their U.S. Olympic rosters, including 15 teams that are comprised 100 percent of collegiate athletes: women’s basketball, men’s and women’s 3×3 basketball, beach volleyball, men’s and women’s indoor volleyball, diving, fencing, women’s field hockey, women’s rugby, modern pentathlon, men’s and women’s water polo, rowing and triathlon. College athlete representation on the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team spans all three NCAA Divisions (I, II and III), as well as junior colleges, NAIA schools and collegiate club programs.
“We are incredibly grateful for the collegiate athletics administrators, coaches and support staff who inspire greatness in the student-athletes who will represent Team USA in Paris this summer,” said USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland. “With more than 440 current and former college athletes on the U.S. Olympic Team, we know they are competing not only for themselves and our country, but also proudly for their schools and school communities.”
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games kick off Friday, July 26 and run through Sunday, Aug. 11. During this time, the city of Paris will welcome more than 10,000 Olympians from around the world to compete in 32 different sports. In total, there will be 329 medal events with Olympic competition spanning 40 different venues. Tune-in to NBC and Peacock to watch the Opening Ceremony at noon ET on July 26, with Primetime coverage starting that evening at 7:30pm local time.
###
All collegiate data of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team was collected by the USOPC collegiate partnerships department. Team USA’s collegiate footprint is defined by athletes who have or will represent their college in competition. This includes athletes who have finished their collegiate careers, those currently competing and incomers who have signed National Letters of Intent. While the vast majority of athletes will have competed in NCAA intercollegiate athletics, athletes who competed in non-NCAA varsity programs, junior college programs and club sports are also included in the USOPC’s collegiate data collection. More information about the collegiate composition of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team can be found online at USOPC.org/2024college.
