Meet 10 USA Olympians who are also rocket scientists, engineers, more
Smart and athletic? There must be something these Olympians aren’t good at.
In all seriousness, of the 592 athletes representing Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics, there are some truly bright minds. The collection of names below is by no means meant to be an exhaustive one.
They are, however, Stanford engineers and aspiring dieticians. They own businesses and command board rooms. There are multiple, literal, rocket scientists. Their résumés would make them valedictorian at any high school in the United States except their classroom is now the real world – and the Olympic stage.
They are the big-brained Olympians of Team USA.
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Meet Team USA: See which athletes made the U.S. Olympic team and where they are from
Gabby Thomas (track and field)
Individual bronze medal? Check. Team silver medal? Check. Harvard undergraduate degree in neurobiology? Check. Master’s degree from the University of Texas in public health? Check.
Thomas grew up in a family encouraged to do whatever they loved with a focus on academics. “I found a love for track and field because I felt like it wasn’t something I was pressured to do or forced to do and it was something I could grow in,” Thomas said.
In Texas, Thomas volunteered at a health care clinic for individuals lacking insurance. She was inspired by a class she took at Harvard that focused on disparities in the health care system.
“When I’m thinking about my education and whatever else I want to pursue, I feel confident that I can do it because I do have those values instilled in me,” Thomas told Olympics.com recently. “I know that if I work really hard, I can achieve what I want to. I have that confidence and resilience that you really gain through the sport experience.”
She also wants to be an example for young women of color.
‘Just know that the world might try to put you down, but the sky is the limit for you,” she told Olympics.com. “You can achieve anything that you want to do – so just keep going.’
Canyon Barry (3×3 basketball)
Zoom calls at 2 a.m. local time in Mongolia are part of the tradeoff for Canyon Barry to live out his Olympic dream.
The son of Basketball Hall of Famer Rick Barry, Canyon Barry played collegiately at the College of Charleston and the University of Florida – and made the most of the academic offerings at both institutions. He graduated summa cum laude with a physics degree from Charleston. At Florida, he left with a master’s in nuclear engineering.
Now he’s an engineer with L3Harris, the aerospace and defense company. And as the 3×3 men’s basketball team competed around the world to qualify and prep for the Paris Olympics, Barry maintained his presence with his day job.
“I think a lot of athletics parallels engineering or high achievement,” Barry said. “Just what drives you to be a great athlete, I think drives you to succeed in the professional workplace, whether it’s time management, leadership skills, being a part of a team, having drive, working through adversity, all those are very applicable to other aspects of life.”
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Sunny Choi (breaking)
In the business world, Sunny Choi has one of the most valuable currencies: A degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. At Penn, Choi first discovered breaking but never considered that her passion would become a career.
Out into the corporate world Choi went. She rose all the way to the role of the director of global creative operations for Estée Lauder – the type of job that is not a typical 9 to 5. Then she faced her personal crossroads once breaking was included in the Paris 2024 sport program.
“Do I go with the dream that I’ve always had since I was a kid to go to the Olympics?” Choi said. “Or, do I just continue this life where I’m really, truly not very happy?”
The demands of office life had burnt her out and trying to juggle work with training for Olympic qualification became too much.
Choi “took the shot” and became the first “b-girl” on Team USA to qualify for the Games.
Hans Henken (sailing)
Growing up, Hans Henken had the classic American childhood dream of becoming an astronaut one day.
Then he went about achieving it.
Henken studied aerospace engineering, specifically rocket propulsion, at Stanford as an undergrad. He earned a Master’s degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering, also from Stanford.
Applying his academic background of studying space to sailing on the water – Henken competes in the men’s 49er – isn’t always straightforward. But it does help.
“There’s a lot of crossover when it comes to the equations that you use to study the analysis of the sail design and the boat design,” Henken said. “So being able to transfer that into sailing and get a competitive edge has been really cool.”
LeBron James (basketball)
Beyond his basketball genius, LeBron James’ smarts have made him one of the most influential members of the sporting world. He became the first active NBA player to become a billionaire last year, according to Forbes, thanks to his decades of endorsements and a suited business sense. James has a partnership stake in Fenway Sports Group, which makes him a minority owner of the Boston Red Sox (MLB), Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL) and Liverpool FC of the English Premier League. In 2020, James founded SpringHill Company, an entertainment and production company. He was an early investor in the Blaze Pizza chain and has said he intends on owning the NBA’s eventual expansion team in Las Vegas.
Kelsey Bing (women’s field hockey)
Kelsey Bing considers herself “a busy bee to begin with.” She spends 30 hours per week as a GNC (guidance, navigation, control) engineer at Joby Aviation and also find time to be the goaltender of the US women’s field hockey team.
“It’s all about time management, prioritization. Obviously it’s not entirely perfect,’ she said.
The key is making sure the two sides of her life – Joby and the national team – are on the same page and that she is clearly communicating her plans.
“Can I commit to everything? No, not all the time. But that’s life, right? You got to make your decisions,” said Bing, who is one of the more excited members of Team USA to be in France, her croissant necklace serving as proof.
At Joby, an autonomous technology startup focuses on creating systems for cargo airplanes to fly without human assistance, Bing helped on a recent contract project with the US Air Force. The work centered around developing a system to help determine which airport to land at while moving cargo.
“I was proud to help in such a little way,” Bing said.
Quincy Wilson (track and field)
Quincy Wilson became the breakout start of Team USA’s track and field trials last month. The 16-year-old entered that meet fresh off his All-Met selection in the Washington D.C. area as the Male Athlete of the Year, awarded by The Washington Post. Wilson just completed his sophomore year – and his report card had straight A’s on it.
Wilson will be a part of the men’s 4×400-relay pool for Team USA’s track and field squad. Even if he doesn’t run in Paris, Wilson seems primed for the ever-important junior academic year.
Jourdan Delacruz (weightlifting)
Jourdan Delacruz wanted to do something about the gap female athletes face when it comes to supporting their needs. The registered dietician student flexed her entrepreneurial skills and started “Her Athlete,” an evidence-based sports nutrition and performance research brand, in July 2023.
“The reason why I decided to go towards focusing more on the female experience is because that’s something that I’m very familiar with and I recognize that there’s a need,” said Delacrus, a two-time Olympian who earned her Bachelor’s degree in nutrition and dietetics from the University of Northern Colorado.
She’s now completing her Masters in nutritional science, with an emphasis in sports nutrition, from the University of Georgia and is expected to graduate next year.
“Her Athlete” may focus on women but Delacruz doesn’t want the platform to be exclusive.
“Nutrition food is for everyone,” Delacruz said. “But I do try to focus on the female experience.”
Jesse Grupper (climbing)
Two years ago, Jesse Grupper was working full time in a robotics lab.
To walk away from a steady paycheck and benefits and pursue his dream of climbing in Paris involved a lot of sacrifice, Grupper said. He had to – temporarily, at least – walk away from his career. He moved away from family and friends on the East Coast to train at better facilities and prepare for the Games.
“There’s definitely been a lot of sacrifice and it’s been a lot of hard work to get here, but I’m super excited about it,” Grupper said.
Michelle Sechser (rowing)
For Michelle Sechser, the work-life balance actually made her a better rower. In her first few years on the national team, Sechser was hesitant to begin her professional career outside of the water. If she was all-in on rowing, she thought, all of her time had to be spent training or recovering.
The lightweight women’s double sculls competitor found that working full time on the client success team for Broadridge Financial Solutions helped her compartmentalize what was important.
“It means that I can go and have a great, focused practice in the morning. If it doesn’t go well and we have a bad set of pieces, or just wasn’t my best performance for the day, there’s not really time to sit around and sulk about it,” Sechser said, “because we’ve got to change outfits and clock in for work.”
An increase in appreciation for her sport has come with that mindset.
“When we shove off the dock to start practice, I’m quite literally just shoving that entire world and lifestyle away,” Sechser said.