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August 17, 2024 By Bekka Wilkerson

Olympic Sized Updates: Bekka’s Closing Ceremonies and all the Arkansas Athletes

by

I don’t know how it affected the athletes but I’m still in full recovery from this years Olympic Games in Paris.  Our American athletes showed up and showed out in all the best ways and I couldn’t be more proud to stand on my front porch, wave my American flag, and shout USA, USA, USA!

Let’s take a quick look at how the USA finished up and what that looks like in the overall medal count!

Final Medal Update!

Basically…the USA Olympic Athletes Crushed it!  So how did we fare overall?  Well…let’s see…

If you grab your handy dandy calculator, like I did, and math this out you will find that the USA had the most overall medals (126) followed by the People’s Republic of China (91), Great Britain (65), and France (64). Thus securing the Total Olympic World Domination status for USA Olympians.  I’ll take it.

But wait…there’s more!

READ MORE BELOW




Arkansans in the Olympics:

I did a little digging and ran across an article that highlighted all of our fellow Arkansans who had their shot at this year’s Paris Olympics.  I thought it was super cool so, obviously, I’m gonna share it with you!

Ryan Crouser, Shot Put Gold Medal – Crouser is a volunteer track coach for the Razorbacks. He became the first person to three-peat the Olympic gold medal in that event. (Volunteers get it done, right!)

Kelsey Plum, Basketball Gold Medal – Plum is a former graduate assistant for the Arkansas Razorbacks women’s basketball team and won a gold medal with Team USA Women’s Basketball this year. (She also won gold in Tokyo during the inaugural 3×3 basketball event).  Plum currentlyplays for the Las Vegas Aces of the WNBA, who are hoping to three-peat as league champions this season. She held the all-time NCAA Division I scoring record until it was broken by Caitlin Clark earlier this year.

Tara Davis-Woodhall, Long Jump Gold Medal – Davis-Woodhall won gold in Paris with a long jump of 7.10 meters. She and her husband, Paralympian Hunter Woodall live and train in Fayetteville.

Rojé Stona, Discus Gold Medal – Stona won gold with a discus throw of 70 meters and also graduated from the University of Arkansas earlier this year. 

Kaylyn Brown, Mixed 4×400 Meter Relay Silver Medal – Brown was part of the American quartet that brought home the silver medal in the 4×400 meter relay and is a former Razorback Runner.

Anna Cockrell, 400-meter Hurdles Silver Medal – Cockrell came in second in the 400-meter hurdles; she lives and trains in Arkansas.  

Wayne Pinnock, Long Jump Silver Medal – Pinnock is one of three former Razorbacks — two from Jamaica — who competed in the men’s long jump in Paris. Pinnock was the best of the three, earning a silver medal.  Although he’s leaving the Razorback team to turn pro, he said he’ll stay in Fayetteville to finish his degree.

And while they don’t have Arkansan Status we would also like to shout out to those two olympians who called Arkansas their training grounds and take a little credit for their success as well…

Brittany Brown, 200-meter Bronze Medal – Brown is a sprinter who trains in Fayetteville. She finished the 200-meter with a bronze medal.

Haley Batten, Mountain Biking Silver Medal – Haley Batten won the United States’ first-ever mountain biking silver medal. Though her home is in California, Batten trained in Bentonville ahead of the Olympics.

And even if they didn’t bring home a medal, let’s go ahead and celebrate those Arkansans who qualified to compete and represent both our state and our country!

Yvonne Anderson, Women’s Basketball (representing Serbia)

María Fassi, Women’s Golf

Gaby López, Women’s Golf

Nico Echavarría, Men’s Golf

Joscelyn Roberson, Women’s Gymnastics Alternate

Ayden Owens-Delerme, Men’s Decathlon

Taliyah Brooks, Womebn’s Heptathlon

Camryn Newton-Smith, Women’s Heptathlon

Jaydon Hibbert, Men’s Triple Jump

Jarrion Lawson, Men’s Long Jump 

Carey McLeod, Men’s Long Jump

Romaine Beckford, Men’s High Jump

Rachel Glenn, Women’s High Jump

Tina Šutej, Pole Vault (representing Slovenia)

Chris Bailey, Men’s 400m

Alexis Holmes, Women’s 400m

Nickisha Pryce, Women’s 400m

Amber Anning, Women’s 400m

Isabella Whittaker, Women’s 4x400m Relay

Sanu Jallow, 800m

Shafiqua Maloney, 800m

Nikki Hiltz, 1500m

Ackera Nugent, 100m Hurdles (representing Jamaica)

Janeek Brown, 100m Hurdles (representing Jamaica)

Anna Hopkin, Women’s Swimming

Lamar Taylor, Men’s 100m Freestyle

Christopher Blevins, Men’s Mountain Biking

Riley Amos, Men’s Mountain Biking

Savilia Blunk, Women’s Mountain Biking

And for you numbers people, and because I was curious, that means athletes with Arkansas ties represented 38 of the 592 Olympic Athletes competing in the games.  Also pretty stinking cool!

Yay, Arkansas!

Printable State Flag of Arkansas - Ink Splat | Vector Country Flags of the World

And just in case you have been living under a rock and missed the announcement we can look forward to a “Party in the USA” in four years as Los Angeles, California will host the next Summer Olympic Games.  I personally enjoyed the closing ceremonies for the Paris games with all their glitz, glamor, and symbolism but also because we could rely on a star studded cast of celebrities and ridiculously over the top antics to bring that beautiful Olympic flag back to the good ole U.S. of A!  And Snoop was there…I think I have already established how I feel about him.  (side note…Snoop and Flava Flat were the unsung heroes of this Olympic Games…I will fight you on this one if you disagree.  Who knew???)

Future Plans…

I know it’s like 1000 degrees outside but Fall is imminent and that means Football Season is coming!  So, be on the lookout for all things pigskin on the horizon!

Until then…that’s how the ball bounces.

Read more from How the Ball Bounces with Bekka in the archives at www.mysaline.com/bounces.

About the author: Bekka Wilkerson is a lifelong lover of all things sports. Raised in a super athletic household it was no surprise when she too began to love sports at a young age. It seems like from the time she could walk she had a softball bat in her hands, but her true athletic passion came from all things Basketball. That love served her well as a Bryant High School Lady Hornet and ultimately earned her a full scholarship to play at the University of Central Arkansas – among many other adventures.
These days Bekka can be found running around Saline County with her husband, Speedy, or chasing one of her grandsons. She is also the Executive Director of The EMpact One Foundation, a Saline County Nonprofit Organization that helps young people stay connected to extracurricular activities through tuition assistance and equipment provisions.
Reach out to Bekka with questions and/or ideas about things you want to see in this column at [email protected] and learn more about The EMpact One Foundation at www.empactone.org.