The United States took home 126 total medals from the 2024 Paris Olympics. 40 gold medals, 42 silver medals and 44 bronze medals, according to CBS News. Pepperdine University representatives, both former and current Waves, are responsible for four of those medals— one gold medal, two silver and one bronze.
Over 19 days of intense play at the 2024 Paris Olympics, seven Waves, both former and current, represented their home countries in the Games.
Waves representation across the Games
Three Waves represented Team USA across three events; Alumna Lynn Williams (’15) for Women’s Soccer, Marv Dunphy for Women’s Volleyball and Alumna Jack Kocur (’97) for Men’s Water Polo.
Pepperdine Women’s Beach Volleyball Head Coach Marcio Sicoli coached the Canadian duo of Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Parades, and Alumna Brian Goorjian (’76) coached the Australian Men’s Basketball team.
Former Women’s Tennis players, Mayar Sherif (’18) and Alumna Luisa Stefani (’18), represented Egypt and Brazil for the Games, respectively.
Williams, Sherif and Stefani all made their second appearances at the Olympic Games. Williams’ second for Team USA, previously attending the 2020 Toyko Olympics, where she claimed bronze. Sherif’s second for Egypt, becoming the first Egyptian to participate in multiple Olympics, and Stefani’s second for Brazil claiming bronze at the ’20 Olympics.
Coach Sicoli made his fourth appearance at the Olympic Games, previously attending the ’12 and ’16 Olympic Games coaching the U.S. pairs of Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor and Walsh Jennings and April Ross, respectively. He also served as an assistant coach to the Brazilian Beach Volleyball duo in the ’04 Olympics.
Dunphy is a nine-time Olympic Games attendee, having represented Team USA in both Women’s and Men’s Volleyball. The Paris Olympics was his fourth consecutive time working with the Women’s team. He has previously helped the Men’s team win gold in the ’88 Olympics, serving as the team’s head coach.
Kocur is both a former Men’s Water Polo player (’93-’97) and head coach (’06-’11) for the Waves. Making his third Olympic Games appearance, Kocur served as the video assistant in ’12 before helping the team as an assistant coach in ’16.
Goorjian tallies four Olympic Games appearances under his belt, all as head coach for the Australian Men’s Basketball team. He helped Australia to a ninth-place finish in ’04, a quarter-final finish in ’08 and claimed a bronze finish in the ’20 Summer Olympics — the first-ever medal for Australia in Men’s Basketball.
Olympic Results
Gold Medalists: Lynn Williams (’18)
Williams secured gold in an intense 1-0 victory over Brazil. This was Team USA’s fifth gold medal in Women’s Soccer, and goalie Alyssa Naeher became the first-ever U.S. Women’s Goalkeeper to record four shutouts across the Games. Mallory Swanson scored the sole, game-winning, goal of the match. This makes Williams a two-time Olympic medalist and a first-time gold medalist.
Silver Medalists: Marcio Sicoli and Marv Dunphy
The Canadian duo coached by Sicoli fell in the gold medal match against the Brazilian duo of Ana Patricia Ramos and Duda Lisboa. The Brazilian duo had a dominant showing at the Paris Games, never dropping a match the entire event. It was a full three match set, as the Brazlian duo closed out the first match in a close 26-24 affair.
The Sicoli coached duo bounced back with a dominant 12-21 second set win before failing to close out the final game in a 15-10 loss. This is the fourth medal that Sicoli has won: silver in ’04, gold in ’12, bronze in ’16 and silver in ’24.
Dunphy and Team USA Women’s Volleyball claimed silver in Paris, as Italy beat the American’s 3-0. The team was swept, however the match was a long, hard-fought battle, lasting a total of 81 minutes. Game 1 ended in a 25-18 score, game 2 ended in a 25-20 score and game 3 ended with a 25-17 finish as Italy took home gold.
This is Dunphy’s seventh medal finish at the Olympics, previously securing three gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal.
Bronze Medalists: Jack Kocur (’97)
Kocur secrued his first-ever Olympic medal at the Paris Games in an intense 11-8 shootout victory over Hungary. Kocur served as the video scout during these Games, previously serving in the ’16 Olympics as assistant coach and the ’12 Olympics as a video scout. The match was in the hands of Hungary until the final minutes of the game, as Team USA was able to pull out two goals within the remaining 2:59 to play, according to Team USA Water Polo.
In the shootout, USA dominated, going a flawless 3-for-3 while not allowing Hungary to score a single goal as they secured the bronze medal finish. This is Team USA’s first medalist finish since the ’08 Olympics where they secured silver.
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Contact Justin Rodriguez via email: justin.rodriguez@pepperdine.edu
