NEWS
The University of Oklahoma’s athletics excellence will travel to Paris this summer when seven Sooners participate in the 2024 Summer Olympics.
OU Men’s Track and Field will send two athletes – Vernon Turner in the high jump for Team USA and Ralford Mullings in the discus for Jamaica’s national team. Ama Pipi, an alumna of the Women’s Track and Field program (2015-18) will compete in the 400m and 4 x 400 relay for the United Kingdom.
Abraham Ancer will represent Team Mexico in men’s golf and Emre Dodanli will compete in men’s gymnastics for Turkey.
Two former Sooner basketball players James Fraschilla (2011-15) and Abi Olajuwon (2006-10) will serve in coaching roles for the United States and Nigeria, respectively.
Turner was the 2023 Big 12 Performer of the Year and is the school outdoor high jump record holder with a 7-6.5 (2.30m) mark in 2022.
Mullings, who hails from Kingston, Jamaica, transferred from the University of Arkansas where he was the SEC outdoor discus silver medalist.
Ancer played for the men’s golf program from 2010-13. He finished second in OU history in career scoring average in relation to par with a 72.42 (+0.93) upon graduation, and he still owns the school record 54-hole score with a 195 (-21) at the 2011 Desert Shootout.
Dodanli earned All-America honors on floor exercise and parallel bars in 2024 and finished fifth on floor with a 14.433 during the NCAA finals. He won gold in the all-around, on floor exercise and on high bar at Turkey’s national championships last month.
Pipi's OU career was filled with success. During her time, she earned the school record for the indoor 400 meters with a timed-best of 52.07. Papi became the first woman in school history to win the 200-meter title in the Big 12. She was a First Team All-American in 2018 after earning a Second Team nod in 2017.
Her international resumé is building from her appearance in the 2022 European Championships, where she was part of the British 4 x 400 quartet that ran the second fastest time (3:21.74) ever by a British women’s team.
Fraschilla, son of famous men’s college basketball broadcaster television analyst Fran Fraschilla, played for the Sooners in former coach Lon Kruger’s initial four seasons. His senior year was capped by a run to the 2015 NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16. He will serve as an assistant coach on Team USA for men’s 3-on-3 basketball.
Olajuwon played on two of the more decorated women’s basketball teams in school history. As a junior in 2008-09, she played behind senior Courtney Paris en route to a Big 12 regular season title and a Final Four appearance in the NCAA Tournament. During her senior year, she excelled as the starting center and help return the Sooners to the Final Four.
Olajuwon has been an assistant coach in college basketball from 2014-22 before taking a similar position the Connecticut Sun of the WNBA.
The Paris Games will take place from July 26 to Aug. 11.
Editor's note: This article was edited on July 29, 2024 at 4:00 PM to include two additional athletes.
About the University of Oklahoma
Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. OU was named the state’s highest-ranking university in U.S. News & World Report’s most recent Best Colleges list. For more information about the university, visit ou.edu.
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