Auburn University will be well represented at the Olympics once again when the 2016 games kickoff on Friday, August 5, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Here is a look at the Auburn coaches and athletes that will be representing Auburn in swimming, shooting and track and field in Rio.
Swimming
Fred Bousquet (France/Auburn 2003-05)
Fred Bousquet will be competing in his fourth olympics for France and will participate in the 50 free. Bousquet earned a silver medal on the 4x100 freestyle relay in Beijing in 2008 and earned 21 All-America honors during his time on the Plains. He was also the first swimmer in NCAA history to complete the 50-yard freestyle in under 19 seconds.
George Bovell (Trinidad & Tobago/Auburn 2003-06)
George Bovell will be appearing in his fifth consecutive Olympics for Trinidad & Tobago and will compete in the 50 free. Bovell earned 25 All-America honors as a Tiger, and won Bronze in the 2004 games in Athens. Bovell still holds the Auburn Swimming record for All-America honors.
Marcelo Chierighini (Brazil/Auburn 2010-14)
Marcelo Chierighini is making his second Olympic appearance for Brazil and will compete in the 100 free and 4x100 free relay. He looks to earn his first medal in Rio.
Kirsty Coventry (Zimbabwe/Auburn 2002-05)
Kirsty Coventry, the most decorated Olympian in Auburn history, will compete in the 100 and 200 backstrokes for Zimbabwe. She is making her fifth consecutive Olympic appearance. Coventry won gold, silver and bronze in 2004, followed by a gold and three silvers in four years later in Beijing.
Lauren Hancock (Guatemala/Auburn Associate Women’s Head Coach)
Lauren Hancock will coach current Auburn swimmer Luis Martinez, who is one of two Guatemalan’s to qualify for swimming at this year's competition. This will be her first appearance in the Olympics. Hancock is a rising sophomore who just completed her first season on the Plains.
Brett Hawke (Brazil/Auburn Head Coach)
Auburn Head Coach Brett Hawke will be making his third trip to the games as a coach and his fifth trip overall. Hawke has been the Tigers head coach since 2009. This year in Rio, Hawke guide former Auburn sprint freestyle specialist Chierighini as well as Bruno Fratus, who trains at Auburn. Hawke competed in the 2000 and 2004 games for Australia, his home country. He was the head coach of the Bahamas in the 2012 games in London.
Peter Holoda (Hungary/Auburn 2014-present)
Rising junior Peter Holoda will compete in the 2016 games for his home country, Hungary. Holoda had a monster sophomore season in Auburn, finishing second in the 50 free and third in the 100 free at the SEC Championships. He also anchored the 400 free relay team to the top of the medal stand at the league championships. This is his first appearance the Olympic games.
Stephanie Horner (Canada/Auburn 2008-10)
Stephanie Horner will be competing in her third Olympics for Canada and will be swimming in the Open Water 10K. Horner made her olympics debut in 2008 and competed again in the 2012 games. This will be her first time competing in an Open Water event.
Ziv Kalontarov (Israel/Auburn 2016-present)
Ziv Kalontarov will swim the 50 free for Israel. Kalontarov won gold in the European Games in Baku last year in a time of 22.16 for the 50 free. He is making his first appearance at an Olympic games. Kalontrov was a mid-year enrollee last season.
Sergio Lopez Miro (Singapore/Auburn Associate Head Coach)
Sergio Lopez will serve as the head coach for Singapore in Rio. Miro was named Associate Head Coach for Auburn Swimming and Diving in April. He was an Olympic bronze medalist with Spain in 1988 (Seoul) and also on the 1992 (Barcelona) Olympic team.
David Marsh (United States Women’s Head Coach/Auburn 1978-81)
Auburn alum and former head coach David Marsh will serve as the head coach for the USA women’s swimming team in Rio. Marsh is a three-time assistant coach for the United States, serving previously on the USA staffs in 1996, 2000 and 2012.
Luis Carlos Martinez (Guatemala/Auburn 2015-present)
The rising junior will be competing in his first Olympics for Guatemala in the 100 butterfly. Last season as a sophomore, he earned his Olympic Qualifying Time in December at the AT&T Winter Nationals in Federal Way, Washington when he placed third in a time of 52.35 behind Michael Phelps and Tom Shields. Martinez placed eighth swimming the 100 fly at the SEC Championships and placed 30th in the event at the NCAA Championships.
Julie Meynen (Luxembourg/incoming freshman)
The incoming freshman Julie Meynen will compete in the 50 and 100 freestyles for Luxembourg in her first Olympic appearance. She was a bronze medalist in the 100 free at the 2013 Junior European Championships and has twice competed in the World Championships (2013 & 2015).
Ozzie Quevedo (Suriname/Auburn Assistant Coach)
Ozzie Quevedo will be part of the Suriname coaching staff in his first Olympic coaching appearance. Quevedo was an Olympian for Venezuela in 2000 (Sydney) and will coach Renzo Tjon a Joe, who trains at Auburn, a sprint freestyle and butterfly specialist.
Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace (Bahamas/Auburn 2009-12)
Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace will be competing in her third consecutive Olympics after debuting in 2008 in Beijing. Vanderpool-Wallace will compete the 50 and 100 freestyle for the Bahamas and still holds the school record in the 50- and 100-yard freestyles. She was the first swimmer from the Bahamas to reach a an Olympic final when she competed in the 50 free finals in London.
Track and Field
Henry Rolle (Bahamas)
Auburn assistant coach Henry Rolle will be making his fourth appearance at the Olympics, previously coaching in 2004, 2008 and 2012. Rolle will be representing the Bahamas as a relay coach after coaching three Olympic medalists in the 2008 Beijing games, including Auburn All-American Leevan Sands who won bronze in the triple jump. Rollealso also coached Kerron Stewart who took home a gold and silver medal in Beijing. Rolle works primarily with the women’s sprinters when he is in Auburn.
Leevan Sands (Bahamas/ Triple Jump/ Class of 2004)
Leevan Sands, a four time All-American at Auburn, will be representing the Bahamas in his fourth consecutive Olympics. He won bronze in the triple jump in the 2008 games and set a Bahamian record with a jump of 17.59m. Sands was a NCAA Champion in the long jump (2003) and triple jump (2004).
Kai Selvon (Trinidad and Tobago/ 4X100m Relay/ Class of 2012)
Kai Selvon, the 2012 SEC Indoor Champion in the 60m, will be making her second Olympic appearance representing Trinidad and Tobago. Selvon Finished 19th in the 200m with a time of 23.04 at the 2012 games in London while helping lead Trinidad and Tobago to a second place finish in qualifying with a time of 42.31 the same year. She is tied for the all-time lead in Auburn women’s track history with nine All-American honors.
DJ Smith (Puerto Rico/ High Jump/ Class of 2015)
DJ Smith will be competing in the high jump for Puerto Rico in his first Olympic appearance. He was a three time All-American in the high jump at Auburn, where he won the 2015 SEC Indoor Champion in the high jump with a height of 2.22m.
Teray Smith (Bahamas/ 200m/ Class of 2017)
Rising senior Teray Smith will make his first appearance in the Olympics and compete in the 200m for the Bahamas. Smith earned Outdoor All-American honors (2014) in the 200m when he finished 13th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Donald Thomas (Bahamas/ Triple Jump/ Class of 2007)
Donald Thomas will be competing in his third consecutive Olympics and will represent the Bahamas in the high jump. Thomas is a two-time All-American at Auburn in the High Jump and was the 2007 Indoor National Champion in the high jump with a height of 2.33. He currently holds the Auburn record in the indoor (2.33m) and outdoor (2.36m) high jump.
Shooting
Glenn Eller (United States/ Double Trap/ Class of 2004)
Glenn Eller will be representing the United States in his fifth Olympics appearance. Eller set an Olympic finals record in 2008 in the double trap on his way to a gold medal. He is the first American male in the Shotgun disci- pline to make five Olympic Teams in his career.
Television
Rowdy Gaines (United States/ NBC Sports Commentary/ Class of 1981)
Rowdy Gaines will be making his seventh consecutive Olympics appearance as an NBC commentator. The Auburn graduate is the voice of swimming across the world and regularly calls the Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials, NCAA Championships and SEC Championships. The Hall of Fame swimmer has three gold medals, is a five-time NCAA champion, a six-time SEC champion and a 22 time All-American. At the age of 35, Gaines became the oldest swimmer to qualify for the trials for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
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