Three countries will feature athletes who compete collegiately at West Virginia.
The 2024 Olympics will feature seven athletes from West Virginia University. The olympians will be featured in four different events across three different Olympic teams.
United States
Three Mountaineers will represent Team USA in Paris this summer. Hunter Armstrong and Ivan Puskovitch will compete in swimming and Mary Tucker will compete in Rifle.
Armstrong began his collegiate swimming career in Morgantown before transferring to Ohio State University and UC Berkeley, where he still swims today. He is the current world record holder in the long course 50m back stroke. The 2024 Olympics will be his second in his career after competing in Tokyo.
Puskovitch spent his first three years of his collegiate career at the University of Southern California before transferring to West Virginia University for his senior year in 2023. He qualified for the marathon swimming event for the Olympic Games after placing 14th in the men’s 10 km (1:48:54.40) event at the 2024 World Aquatics Championship. Puskovitch is the first male from WVU’s swimming and diving program to qualify for the Olympics.
Tucker spent her first three years in collegiate rifle at Kentucky University before transferring to West Virginia University for her senior and fifth year. She qualified for the Olympics as part of Team USA in both smallbore and air rifle, the two events she competed in collegiately. Tucker is the reigning NCAA Smallbore Individual National Champion, along with being named the CRCA Most Valuable Shooter. Her best score in smallbore is a 597 with her best in air rifle being a perfect 600. She became the seventh shooter in WVU history to be perfect in the event last February.
Canada
Three Mountaineers will also represent Team Canada in the Olympics this year. Kadeisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence will represent Canada in soccer, and Ceili McCabe will compete in Track and Field.
Buchanan spent her entire collegiate career in Morgantown, playing for the Mountaineers in three seasons. Since graduating from WVU in 2016, she’s played professionally for Lyon from 2017-2022, and for Chelsea in the English Women’s Super League since 2022. She has also played for Canada internationally since 2012, where she started on their U-17 team. Buchanan has played 149 games representing Team Canada internationally, and has scored six goals for them. The centre-back is a three-time Canadian Player of the Year, winning the award in 2015, 2017, and 2020.
Lawrence also spent her entire collegiate career with the Mountaineers and graduated in 2016. Since then, Lawrence has played professionally for Paris Saint-Germain from 2017-2023 and joined Buchanan on Chelsea in 2023. Lawrence has represented Canada on the pitch since 2010, also beginning on their U-17 team. The full-back has played 134 international games on the main Canada team, scoring eight goals. She was the Canadian Women’s Player of the Year in 2019.
McCabe is a middle and long-distance runner who specializes in the 3000 meters steeplechase. She has spent her entire collegiate career with the Mountaineers. She set a time of 9:32.97 to become the second Mountaineer in WVU history to qualify for the women’s steeplechase at the Olympic Games. McCabe is a three-time First Team All-American, being distinguished with the honor for the past three indoor seasons.
Australia
Amy Cashin will represent West Virginia University with Team Australia in Paris this summer. Like McCabe, Cashin specializes in the 3000m steeplechase and spent her entire collegiate career in Morgantown. She earned the 2017 Order of Augusta Award, WVU’s most prestigious student honor. Cashin qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and finished eleventh in heat three with a time of 9:34.67. She also won the Australian national championship title on April 12th of this year with a time of 9:39.53.
The 2024 Olympic Games will begin on July 26th and run through August 11th. You can watch the games on various NBC stations, will all events being broadcasted live on Peacock.
