- December 21, 2024
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You can hear the John Williams-composed theme song in your head.
It starts low and slow on the drums: Bum, bum, ba-dum, bum; bum, bum, ba-dum, bum.
Then the triumphant horns enter, and you know you are about to witness things that only happen every four years.
Starting July 26, the world will again be watching. The 2024 Paris Olympics are here.
The summer edition of the games will be free of the COVID-19 cloud that surrounded the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Seeing the stands full of cheering fans will be a welcome return to form.
But like the Tokyo games, the Paris Olympics will feature several athletes with ties to Sarasota, either by birth or by choice later in life. Because of sheer amount of Olympic content available and the time change between Paris and Sarasota, it can be difficult to keep track of when events involving our athletes are happening.
This column exists to solve that problem. Here's one hot tip to start out: Every event in every sport will be streamed live on Peacock this year, as will NBC's primetime studio coverage, meaning there's no reason to fumble for the remote. Just keep the TV locked to Peacock.
Below, you will find a rundown of all the sports involving area athletes, including a brief event description, a few notes on the athletes themselves, and information on when you can watch them compete. Keep it with you throughout the Olympics and you'll never miss a moment that matters.
Former Riverview High and Sarasota Sharks swimmer Emma Weyant is seeking back-to-back Olympic medals after taking silver in the women's 400-meter individual medley (4:32.76) in Tokyo. It is again Weyant's lone Olympic event. A podium finish will not be an easy task. She faces stiff competition from the likes of 18-year-old USA teammate Katie Grimes, the first American woman to compete in pool and open water swimming events at the same Olympic Games, and Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh, who holds the world record in the event (4:24.38).
Weyant is familiar with McIntosh. While McIntosh is obviously not from Sarasota, she often trains with the Sharks, to the extent that Sharks Head Coach Brent Arckey was brought onto Team Canada for the games to mentor McIntosh. In addition to the 400 IM, McIntosh is swimming the 200 IM, the 400 freestyle and the 200 butterfly in Paris.
The preliminary 400 IM race will be at 5 a.m. July 29, and the finals will be at 2:30 p.m. the same day. The rest of McIntosh's schedule is as follows: the 400 freestyle final is at 2:52 p.m. July 27, the 200 butterfly final is at 2:30 p.m. Aug. 1 and the 200 IM final is at 3 p.m. Aug. 3.
The Sharks are holding a watch party for their 400 IM swimmers at the South Siesta Key Daiquiri Deck at 1 p.m. July 29.
Former Sarasota Military Academy rifle shooter Mary Tucker will again represent the U.S. internationally, something that the 23-year-old Tucker is used to doing.
Tucker won a silver medal in the Mixed Team Air Rifle event in Tokyo alongside Lucas Kozeniesky, reaching the event finals before falling 17-13 to China's Qian Yang and Haoran Yang. She's out for more hardware in 2024, especially of the gold variety.
Tucker will compete in the 10-meter Women's Air Rifle and the 50-meter Women's Rifle 3 Positions in Paris — in the latter event, shooters fire in kneeling, prone and standing positions and combine their scores from each position, while in Air Rifle competitors only stand. More information on event scoring specifics can be found at Olympics.com.
The Air Rifle qualification is at 3:15 a.m. July 28, while the final is at 3:30 a.m. July 29; the Rifle 3 Positions qualification is at 6 a.m. Aug. 1, while the final is at 3:30 a.m. Aug. 2.
Like Summer McIntosh, men's gymnast Brody Malone does not have a connection to the Sarasota area by birth or by childhood.
The 24-year-old Malone was born in Summerville, Georgia, and went to college at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. But in preparing for the Paris Olympics, Malone trained with EVO Athletics, whose gym is just north of Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, and Malone has moved to the city as a result.
Malone's appearance at the Paris games is something of a miraculous one. A knee injury he suffered at a March 2023 competition in Germany, which involved knee dislocation and torn ligaments, required three surgeries to heal. But 16 months later, Malone is ready for the spotlight again. He finished second in the All-Around at the U.S Olympic Trials (170.30) and is in competition for a medal in Paris.
Malone's U.S. teammate Stephen Nedoroscik has also spent time training with EVO Athletics this summer, as has U.S. alternate Shane Wiskus.
Men's gymnastics qualification begins at 5 a.m. July 27. The Men's Team Final is at 11:30 a.m. July 29, and the Men's All-Around Final is at 11:30 a.m. July 31. The rest of the men's gymnastics events run Aug. 3-5 at various times; check Olympics.com for a full schedule.
After competing in the Men's 4 boat at the Tokyo Olympics and finishing fifth (5:48.85), former Sarasota Crew rower Clark Dean is back on the international stage.
This time, Dean will be in the Men's 8+ boat, an event the U.S. used to dominate, but has since become a struggle. Dean and his crew mates hope to change those fortunes; at the 2024 Rowing World Cup II in Lucerne, Switzerland, in June, the boat finished second (5:25.95) — 0.20 seconds behind Great Britain — against some of the top teams on Earth.
Initial heats for the Men's 8+ are at 5:40 a.m. July 29, and the A Final — where Clark and his crew certainly hope to qualify — is at 5:10 a.m. Aug. 3.
