UK recognized for its collegiate contribution to Team USA at the Olympic Games Paris 2024

The University of Kentucky was honored with the 2024 Team USA Collegiate Impact Award – Olympic Bronze Award, as announced Monday by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee. The award celebrates the top-contributing schools to Team USA’s performance at the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024. The five inductees – who form the Class of 2024 – were honored at the National Football Foundation’s 66th annual awards celebration Tuesday, Dec. 10, in Las Vegas.

Avery Skinner, a 2021 graduate of the Communications Sciences and Disorders program who helped UK win a national championship in her senior volleyball season, also helped USA Volleyball to a silver medal this summer.

“We are extremely pleased to again partner with the National Football Foundation to announce the Team USA Collegiate

 Recognition Awards as part of the festivities surrounding the NFF Annual Awards Dinner in Las Vegas,” said Rocky Harris, USOPC chief of sport performance and NGB services. “We recognize football operating revenues offer important support for Olympic and Paralympic sport opportunities on campus, and how important those opportunities are to current and future Team USA athletes. We are thrilled to celebrate the schools that support Team USA, and to honor this holistic sport model with the NFF.”

Nine American Wildcats medaled in Paris – contributing to Team USA’s world-leading medal count (40 golds, 126 total medals).

“We remain so proud of the way the Wildcats represented Team USA in Paris,” UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart said. “Thank you to the USOPC for this recognition. The University of Kentucky and college athletics provide an important springboard creating opportunities for talented and hard-working athletes to develop and compete on the world stage.”

Six individual Wildcats who competed collegiately at Kentucky were responsible for four golds in Paris (team medals count as one medal, e.g.: one gold for the three Wildcats on the U.S. men’s basketball team (Bam Adebayo, Devin Booker and Anthony Davis) and one medal for the two who were on the women’s 4x400m relay (Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Alexis Holmes) plus McLaughlin-Levrone's 400m hurdles gold and Masai Russell’s 100m hurdles gold.

Skinner was Kentucky’s first-ever representative on the national volleyball squad, and she says her time at UK helped prepare for her for the world stage. 

“Kentucky strives to be elite in everything that they do, whether it’s athletics, academics, regular student life, they’re aiming to be the best,” she said. “And it’s something that I definitely didn’t necessarily know until I got here, but everyone here is so supportive, and they want you to succeed. And obviously it has to come from you as well. But I think the want to be elite is something that is super special about Kentucky.”

Of the 606 U.S. Olympians who competed for Team USA in Paris, 75 percent competed collegiately across 172 schools and 46 conferences. Additionally, 15 different U.S. Olympic rosters had 100 percent collegiate participation in Paris. At the Paralympic Games, 53 percent of Team USA’s 225 Paralympians competed collegiately across 94 schools and 45 conferences. Three U.S. Paralympic rosters had 90 percent or greater college athlete participation.

Current and former college athletes also played an integral role in Team USA’s medal-winning performances in Paris. In total, 84 percent of U.S. Olympic medalists competed collegiately, and 54 percent of U.S. Paralympic medalists competed collegiately.

The Class of 2024 contributed to 52 of 231 total medals earned by members of Team USA at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and is comprised of:

• Olympic Gold Award: Stanford University; 23 U.S. medalists
• Olympic Silver Award: Pennsylvania State University; 12 U.S. medalists
• Olympic Bronze Award: University of Texas—Austin and University of Kentucky; 9 U.S. medalists
• Paralympic Gold Award: University of Illinois; 20 U.S. medalists

More information about Team USA’s collegiate footprint at the Paris Games can be found at USOPC.org/2024college.

###

NOTE: Student-athlete is defined as any individual who is/was a member of a collegiate roster (varsity/club/other) and/or represented the college or university in a competition. Student-athletes impacted by transfer circumstances are included in the totals for each institution attended.

The USOPC collegiate partnerships department launched in 2016 to help bridge the important connection between the collegiate and Olympic/Paralympic landscapes. With the majority of Team USA athletes competing collegiately during their athletics journeys, the department focuses on three primary areas: aligning leaders to advance athletic programming on campus, removing impediments faced by college athletes competing both intercollegiately and in the Team USA system, and messaging the value of Olympic/Paralympic sport opportunities on campus. More information can be found at USOPC.org/college.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: Kentucky’s volleyball team plays in the Volleyball NCAA Sweet Sixteen today at 1 p.m. on ESPN2.