Trojans tack on 15 medals at the Paris Olympics

USC continued its historic run at the Summer Olympics, taking home seven gold medals to continue its stretch of winning at least one gold medal at every Summer Games since 1912.

Still, it was a somewhat disappointing showing, at least to the standard the Trojans have set across the past couple editions of the Games. USC sent 66 athletes to the Olympics and while only 65 competed — incoming freshman Ashley Erasmus suffered an injury during training and was unable to shot put — this was still more than any other U.S. university.

Yet, the Trojans brought home the fourth-most medals of any U.S. university, trailing Stanford, Texas and California. Stanford ran away with the hardware, totaling 39 medals across 59 athletes at the Games.

The 15 total medals is only underwhelming because it is the lowest total the Trojans have won at a Summer Games this century. The previous low was 19 at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The lack of winning is despite the fact USC sent the second-most athletes it has ever sent to the Games, only behind the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021, when 67 athletes with USC ties competed at the Games and won 21 total medals.

But when the Trojans won, they won big. If USC was its own sovereign country, its 15 total medals would rank No. 16 among all other countries, but the Trojans’ seven gold medals would put them at No. 14.

Rai Benjamin of USC track and field was the big winner, taking home two gold medals for Team USA from the 400m hurdles and the men’s 4x400m relay, where Benjamin ran the anchor leg and helped secure Team USA an Olympic-record time of 2:54.43.

The relay domination did not stop there, as Aaron Brown and Andre de Grasse helped Canada win gold in the 4x100m relay while TeeTee Terry was on the women’s 4x100m relay that won gold for the U.S. The Trojans also notched three bronze medals in relays courtesy of Great Britain, two from Nicole Yeargin and one from Yemi John.

Anni Espar of women’s water polo for Spain and Croix Bethune of women’s soccer for the U.S. both helped their team take home the Olympic title.

The Trojans only took silver in two events, one coming from Anna Cockrell in the women’s 400m hurdles and the other from Tilly Kearns with Australia’s women’s water polo team. USC’s other bronze medals — to go along with its relay bronze medals — all came from Team USA. Micah Christenson took third place for indoor volleyball while Hannes Daube and Marko Vavic matched that for men’s water polo.

Despite the comparatively low medal count, the Trojans were moments away from more Olympic honors.

Likely the most controversial of the bunch, Kendall Ellis was removed from Team USA’s women’s 4x400m relay that won gold just moments before the race started, according to multiple reports.

Ellis won the 400m dash at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, but was omitted from the final race at the Games because of inconsistencies at the 400m, according to ESPN. While she did make it to the individual 400m dash semifinals, Ellis only qualified after the repechage round.

Every second matters in relays like these, but Team USA won the relay by four seconds and Ellis’ inclusion likely would not have changed that.

This is particularly true given that Alexis Holmes, who ran the anchor leg, showed that one can improve on their 400m time at the Games, as Holmes ran a 50.35-second time in the individual 400m qualifying round, but ran her leg of the relay in a blazing 48.78-second mark.

Terry was also .05 seconds off of a second medal in the 100m final and Jasmine Jones fell .14-seconds short of bronze in the 400m hurdles.

Similarly, Krystof Chmielewski, competing in the 200m butterfly, and Kate Miller, in the 10m synchronized diving, both finished fourth in their event finals, while Kasia Wilk-Wasick was .13 seconds out of podium position in the 50m freestyle.

Then, three women’ water polo players with Team USA fell in the bronze medal match to the Netherlands after the Dutch scored a goal with one second left to take the game, 11-10. While Team USA did lose their semifinals game by one goal in a shootout to Australia, it did come as a surprise that the U.S. did not come home with a medal in women’s water polo.

It’s hard to call 15 Olympic medals a disappointment, but the way the Trojans have performed throughout the history of the Summer Games have created incredibly high expectations.

USC is still set up for success in the future at the Games for years to come, particularly in swimming and diving as the Trojans will have seven Olympians on campus to compete for the Division I team.

The Summer Games will go back on a four-year hiatus, but will return to Los Angeles in 2028, where the Trojans aim to add onto their 341 total medals. USC’s ties with the Games will go beyond just the athletes in 2028; the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will host track and field events along with the Opening Ceremony. This is the third Games that the Coliseum will host the Opening Ceremony, joining the 1932 and 1984 Games.