Over Two Dozen Coloradans Test Their Skills at the 2024 Olympics
Trevor Phipps
Just as Colorado sports fans were getting sick of watching the Rockies lose over and over again, the kickoff to the Paris 2024 Olympics created a new wave of excitement for area sports’ lovers.
Instead of avoiding the sports page that is filled with baseball losses and far stretched/overly positive Denver Broncos’ predictions, Colorado sports fans can now tune in to various Olympic sports basically around the clock.
As the opening day for the Olympics came closer, I personally was thrilled that I would be blessed with new sports action to watch during all times of the day. Frankly though, I was somewhat turned off by the extremely strange and unusual opening ceremony. It almost evoked images of what I would imagine for a bad LSD trip back in the 1960s.
On the upside, I and hordes of local sports fanatics, have spent many hours tuning in to the various Olympic sports. Whether it is men’s rugby at 5 a.m. or women’s volleyball in the afternoon, the Olympics this year seems to be what everyone is talking about, whether the comments are positive or negative.
With the Olympic Training Center being located in Colorado Springs, the international sports competition is very popular within the state, and in the Pikes Peak region specifically. News stations in Colorado Springs have reported an influx of visitors to the city’s downtown region to watch the games. And with a number of local and regional competitors, many residents may even know one of the athletes personally.
This year, there are 26 people who call Colorado home that are competing in 14 different sports making a total of 39 Olympic athletes with ties to the state. Moreover, around a dozen of the state’s athletes competing in both the Olympics and Paralympics have links to the Pikes Peak region.
Although most of the competitors in the 2024 Olympics come from the Denver metro area, there are a good number of athletes who consider Colorado Springs their hometown. During the Winter Olympics, the mountainous sections of the state sported several representatives. But during the summer games, the vast majority of athletes come from the state’s Front Range cities.
Pikes Peak Region Athletes to Watch
Since the Olympic Training Center calls Colorado Springs its home, there are many athletes with links to the city. Some have relocated here to utilize the high altitude and train, while others gained their regional connection being stationed at Fort Carson. A handful of the athletes though, graduated from high schools in the Pikes Peak region.
Basketball star Canyon Barry (who is the son of Basketball Hall of Famer Rick Barry) graduated from Cheyenne Mountain High School. He played in European leagues after graduating from the University of Florida before finding his true calling in three-on-three basketbal.l
Local volleyball star Haleigh Washington once set a Colorado state high school record with 48 kills in one match. She graduated from Doherty High School and now the Penn State alum plays for a professional volleyball team in Italy.
Pro pistol shooter Keith Sanderson currently lives in Monument after spending eight years in the U.S. Marine Corps. He has competed in shooting at the Olympics three other times (2008, 2012 and 2016) before this year.
Veteran marathon runner and Kenya native Leonard Korir enlisted in the U.S. Army and then joined the World Class Athlete program at Fort Carson. The staff sergeant and Colorado Springs resident competed in the men’s marathon event in Rio in 2016, but he missed out on a trip to Tokyo in 2021 by being three seconds too slow.
Over the last several years, the Pikes Peak Region (including Teller County) has seen a surge in star wrestlers at the high school level and beyond. Therefore, the region sent two star wrestlers to Paris that both graduated from high school in Colorado Springs.
Freestyle wrestler Kyle Snyder graduated from Coronado High School and he has since made quite a name for himself in the sport.
“In 2016, the Ohio State product won an individual NCAA national title, world championship and Olympic gold medal — all before his 21st birthday,” The Denver Post reported. “Now 28, he’s added two more NCAA titles, a pair of world championships and a silver medal in Tokyo. A gold in Paris would make him the fourth American wrestler to win multiple golds.”
Greco-Roman wrestler Kamal Bey graduated from Pine Creek High School in Colorado Springs. He is also part of the U.S. Army’s World Class Athlete Program in Fort Carson where he serves as a culinary specialist.
At the time of this writing, the United States took the lead role as the country snagging the most medals overall. However, with only four gold medals (at the time of our deadline), the U.S. was trailing Japan, China, Australia and France in the Gold showdown.
The Olympics run through this week with the final events slated for Sunday.
