- September 06, 2024
- More articles By Terp Staff
- LaFond photo by Europa Press via AP
- Thomas photo by Daniela Porcelli / Sipa USA via AP Images
For the first time, two UMD graduates won gold medals in the same Olympic Games.
Thea LaFond ’15 earned gold in the triple jump in Paris, the first Olympic medal for the Caribbean nation of Dominica, with a mark of 15.02 meters.
“Sometimes you wonder if being from a small country means that you have less accessibility to resources,” LaFond told The Washington Post. “But we’ve been really big on (prioritizing) quality and just executing it.”
Alyssa Thomas ’14 helped the USA women’s basketball team capture its eighth straight Olympic gold medal with a 67-66 win over France. She averaged 3.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists at the Games.
The pair became the 10th and 11th gold medalists in UMD history and the first former Terp student-athletes to win gold since women’s basketball legend Vicky Bullett in 1988.