At the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, athletes with Minnesota ties on Team USA collected 12 medals, which was thought to be the most for the state from a Summer Games. With three medals each, St. Paul gymnast Suni Lee and Lakeville swimmer Regan Smith were rare Minnesotans to win more than two medals in a single Summer Games.
Led by Smith and Lee again, Minnesota’s U.S. Olympians at the 2024 Paris Games matched the Tokyo total with 12, five of them gold. Add in those medals won by Lynx and Timberwolves players competing for their home countries, and the number is 14. Smith set a new standard for Minnesotan Olympians by winning five medals at a single Games.
Smith leaves her second Olympic Games as Minnesota’s most decorated summer Olympian, with eight career medals. Smith, 22, began her Paris competition with a trio of silver medals in her individual events: 100-meter backstroke, 200 backstroke and 200 butterfly. After earning two silvers and a bronze at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, Smith won her first gold for swimming in the preliminary heat for the mixed 4×100 medley relay. She capped off her Games with another gold, swimming the backstroke leg in the women’s 4×100 medley relay and helping the U.S. set a world record in the event. “If you get too caught up in things like colors of medals, I think that’s how you can crumble,” she said after her silver in the 200 butterfly. “I’m going to focus on racing the way I need to race, and the rest will take care of itself.”
St. Paul gymnast Suni Lee after finishing third in the uneven bars, one of her two bronze medals from the Paris Games. (Charlie Riedel/Associated Press)
Suni Lee, St. Paul
Lee began her journey back to the Olympics in Minneapolis, qualifying for her second U.S. gymnastics team in front of a hometown crowd in June at the U.S. Olympic trials at Target Center. Lee, 21, admitted that she wasn’t sure if she would have the opportunity to defend her all-around gold from Tokyo, battling two kidney ailments and the psychological pressures of celebrity between Olympic Games. But in Paris, Lee grew her medal collection to six, with a gold in the team event, bronze in the individual all-around and bronze on uneven bars. Lee also finished sixth in the beam final. “I went out there, and I just told myself not to put any pressure on myself because I didn’t want to think about the past Olympics or even trying to prove to anybody anything,” Lee said. “I wanted to just prove to myself that I could do it, because I didn’t think that I could.”
Former Gophers diver Sarah Bacon, left, won the silver medal with Kassidy Cook in the women’s synchronized springboard event July 27. (Lee Jin-man/Associated Press)
Bacon, the University of Minnesota’s five-time NCAA diving champion, became part of a viral duo with synchronized diving partner Kassidy Cook, their last names combining in the popular moniker “Cook’n Bacon.” In the 3-meter springboard diving final, the duo earned Team USA’s first medal in Paris, a silver. It turned out to be the only medal the U.S. diving team won. Bacon, 27, also competed in the individual 3-meter springboard event, finishing 19th. The Indianapolis native narrowly missed qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics three years ago. “I feel like it’s been a really long journey coming,” she told the Team USA website. “Being able to make the Olympic team this time, and then also being able to do it in synchro with my best friend here at this Olympic Games, and then also walking away with the silver medal means I have no words to describe any of this.”
Diana Taurasi, right, looks at Lynx star Napheesa Collier’s gold medal Sunday after Team USA edged France 67-66 at Bercy Arena in Paris. (Michael Conroy/Associated Press)
Playing for her Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, Collier helped the U.S. women’s basketball team win its eighth consecutive gold medal — the first Olympic team, male or female, to achieve such a streak. In the midst of an MVP-caliber WNBA season, derailed by five games missed with plantar fasciitis pain heading into Olympic break, Collier, 27, bounced back from injury and started each of Team USA’s six games. She averaged 6.7 points and 6.5 rebounds, stepping into a larger role than she had in Tokyo, where she was the youngest player on the U.S. roster and played the least.
Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards, center, with his U.S. teammates Stephen Curry, left, and LeBron James after receiving their gold medals in men’s basketball. (Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press)
When Edwards wasn’t challenging other U.S. Olympians to ping-pong matches at his first Summer Games, the 23-year-old Timberwolves star was the leading scorer for the U.S. men’s basketball team entering the semifinals, averaging 16.8 points a game. But he saw his minutes and points drop as the tournament wound down and the U.S. leaned on its veterans to win the program’s fifth consecutive gold medal, and 16th overall, with a 98-87 win over France. Edwards ended up averaging 12.8 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals in six games.
Jordan Thompson of Edina celebrates with teammate Dana Rettke after the U.S. defeated Poland in the Olympic quarterfinals. (Dolores Ochoa/Associated Press)
Edina’s Thompson, 27, won her second Olympic medal with the U.S. women’s volleyball team — and this time, she got to take the floor in the team’s knockout rounds. In Tokyo, an ankle injury in pool play kept the University of Cincinnati alum off the court as the U.S. women won their first Olympic gold medal after she had led the team in points through its first three matches. In Paris, Thompson was the team’s leading scorer in the gold medal match, with eight points in a 3-0 loss to top-ranked Italy.
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