The Tokyo Olympics have come to an end and former Syracuse Orange athletes brought home four medals in this year’s competition. Jerami Grant kept the Syracuse gold medal streak alive as part of the US Men’s Basketball team which defeated France 87-82 in the gold medal game.
Grant didn’t play in that final game but he joins Carmelo Anthony as Orange alums who have played on gold-medal winning basketball squads. We’ll see if Grant can continue to earn a spot on the US team for the 2024 games in Paris or maybe another alum will emerge to continue the gold-medal tradition.
Justyn Knight capped off his first Olympics with a 7th-place finish in the men’s 5000m event. Knight’s time was 13:04.38 which is the 2nd-fastest time of his career. The event was won by Joseph Cheptegei of Uganda in a time of 12:58.15 with Canadian Mo Ahmed second and American Paul Chelmio taking home the bronze.
The final medal tally for Syracuse alums was one gold (Grant), one silver (Katie Zaferes) and two bronze (Zaferes and Jenna Caira). With the Paris games only three years away we’ll see if this number can grow.
Congratulations to all of the Syracuse Olympians.