USC Olympians: Trojans Sending 43 Athletes to Rio Olympics

There will be 43 USC Olympians in Brazil this month, the most representatives from any university in the nation for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Adoree’ Jackson may not be among them, but there will be more USC Olympians at the 2016 Rio Olympics than athletes representing any other university in the United States.

To be exact, there will be 43 Trojans on hand in Brazil, USC officially announced on Tuesday, making this the fifth Olympics in a row with at least 40 USC representatives.

Those 43 include some very recognizable names, including basketball alums DeMar Derozan and Dwight Lewis.

DeRozan is the first men’s basketball player from USC to represent on the USA basketball team while Lewis will play for Venezuela.

Sprinter Allyson Felix is in the running to become the most decorated Trojan Olympian in history, with four gold medals already to her name.

Beach volleyball star April Ross, hurdler Dalilah Muhammad, swimmers Haley Anderson, Katinka Hosszu, Ous Mellouli and Amada Weird, and water polo players Kami Craig and Kaleigh Gilchrist are all expected to compete for gold medals in Rio as well.

If any among those bring home a gold medal they will continue USC’s streak of winning gold at every Summer Olympics since 1912.

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Not all of those medals would go in favor of Team USA though. The Trojans are set to represent 20 different counties — USA, Australia, Bahamas, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Jamaica, Norway, Puerto Rico, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and Venezuela.

USC Olympians will compete in swimming, track and field, water polo, volleyball, beach volleyball, basketball, tennis, rowing and, for the first time ever, golf.

USC has an impressive Olympic history. The Trojans have won more medals overall and gold medals than any other U.S. university. If Troy was a country, it would rank 16th in worldwide medal count and 12th in gold medal count.

For complete coverage of USC’s representatives at the Rio Olympics, check out USCTrojans.com/rio2016.