As thousands of athletes sailed down the river Seine, a small group of them, from countries all over the world, remained connected by the garnet and black they once wore.
While these Gamecock alums shined in their sport at the collegiate level, they now had the opportunity to display their skills on a global stage. Several athletes competing at the Summer Olympics advanced forward and made the final rounds of competition. Some athletes even took home the gold.
Basketball
One of the competitors was A'ja Wilson, a member of the Gamecocks women’s basketball team from 2014 to 2018. In her time at South Carolina, Wilson won the National Championship in 2017 and was named National Player of the Year in 2018. The Paris Olympics was not her first stint with the U.S. Women’s National Team, as she won gold in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
The team began its 2024 Olympic campaign by earning three wins in the group stage over Japan (102-76), Belgium (87-74)and Germany (87-68). Wilson’s highest-scoring performance came in the win over Japan, where she scored 24 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.
In the quarterfinals, Team USA defeated Nigeria 88-74. Wilson scored a team-high 20 points on 9/11 shooting (82%).
Team USA then won against Australia 85-64 in the semifinals, with Wilson finishing the game with 10 points, eight rebounds and four blocks.
Team USA took home Gold against France, beating them 67-66, on Aug. 11. Once again, Wilson led the team in scoring with 21 points, grabbing 13 rebounds and four blocks to earn the second gold medal of her career.
Laeticia Amihere competed at the 2024 Summer Olympics representing Canada in women’s basketball. Amihere was a member of the South Carolina women’s basketball team from 2018 to 2023, where she was a part of the 2022 National Championship team.
Amihere saw limited action in Canada's first two group-stage losses against France and Australia. In Canada’s final group stage game against Nigeria, Amihere was able to score 7 points and had a team-high of 11 rebounds. Canada would lose all three games and fail to reach the quarter-finals.
South Carolina women's basketball associate head coach Lisa Boyer coached both Wilson and Amihere and was an Olympic head coach in 2021 for Team USA. Boyer noted how Wilson was in a different role than her first Olympics, taking more of a lead role this time around.
"A’ja was a different kind of a player because that's what was asked of her, and again, you get back to what it takes to be an Olympian. It's what you're willing to do for the benefit of the team,” Boyer said.
Track and Field
Wilson was not the only former Gamecock to take home gold this summer, as sprinter Quincy Hall claimed gold in the 400-meter.
Hall ran track for the Gamecocks for two seasons, from 2019 to 2020, after previously spending two seasons at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, California.
In 2019, Hall won the SEC Championship in the 400-meter in both the indoor and outdoor track. He also won the NCAA Championship in the 400-meter hurdles in outdoor track. Due to COVID-19, Hall only competed in indoor track for 2020 where he was a 400-meter All-American.
In the first round of the 400-meter event in Paris, Hall finished first with a time of 44.28s. He followed his first-round performance by running a 43.95s in the semifinals to claim first heading into the final.
The 400-meter final took place on Aug. 7, where Hall found himself just outside of the top three with 100 meters left. Hall then had a late surge in that 100 meters, which allowed him to take home his first gold medal by four-tenths of a second. Not only did he win his first Olympic medal, he ran a new personal best, finishing with a time of 43.40s.
“The race was anyone's at that point and I just wanted to keep doing what my coach told me to do, just keep driving, keep driving and get home,” Hall said. “We do a lot of hard practices and then we focus on coming home at the end of each practice.”
Hall was joined on the track by two other former South Carolina athletes. Anass Essayi ran for the Gamecocks from 2021 to 2024 and represented Morocco in the 1500 meters. Aliyah Abrams competed for South Carolina from 2016 to 2021 and represented Guyana in the 400 meters.
Essayi advanced to the 1500-meter semifinals after placing fourth, running a time of 3:36.44 minutes. In the semifinals, Essayi ran a personal best of 3:32.49 minutes and placed seventh, eliminating him from the competition.
In the first round, Abrams placed fifth with a time of 51.55s. She was given a second chance to qualify for the semifinals in the repechage round, however, she placed fifth in the event after running a 51.84s, thus ending her 2024 Paris Olympics.
Swimming and Diving
The swimming and diving events featured multiple South Carolina athletes, including Julia Vincent. Vincent was a diver for the Gamecocks from 2014 to 2018, where she was named an NCAA All-American in both the 3-meter and 1-meter dive in 2018.
In the Paris Olympics, Vincent would compete in the 3-meter springboard while representing the country of South Africa for the third time in her diving career. Vincent was a diver for South Africa in both the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Vincent started the competition off strong, earning a score of 283.50 points in the preliminary round placing her 13th out of 28 divers. In the semifinals, Vincent placed 6th out of 18 divers with a score of 297.30 points and moved on to the finals.
In the finals for the 3-meter springboard dive, the first Olympic finals of her career, Vincent placed 11th with a score of 271.25 points, her highest placement ever in the Olympics on Aug. 9.
Tomas Peribonio swam for the Gamecocks from 2014 to 2018 and was a multi-time All-American. Peribonio competed in the Olympic 200-meter individual medley for Ecuador, where he placed 7th in his heat with a time of 2:03.40 minutes, failing to qualify for the next round by just under a second.
The final Olympic swimmer from South Carolina was Tia Salcutan, who represented Moldova in the 200-meter backstroke. Salcutan missed time in the 2023-24 season with an injury, but did manage to compete at the 2024 Olympics where she swam a 2:13.20 minutes but did not qualify for the next round, missing out by three seconds.
South Carolina swimming and diving head Coach Jeff Popell was named head coach in 2021,and in his short tenure as head coach, he saw an increase in South Carolina athletes swimming at the US Olympic Trials.
Popell said he wants to try and continue to send as many Gamecocks athletes as he can.
"We had three swimmers at the U.S. Olympic trials for South Carolina, and this past year we had 10. Seeing that number continue to increase and get bigger... is definitely a goal of ours," Popell said. "It's not just helping our current athletes get back, but, obviously, we're trying to grow that number too, so the next time around, we've got a larger presence representing the University of South Carolina at that competition.”