KNOXVILLE (WATE) – Tennessee has had a rich Olympic history and this year is no exception.
Eleven current and former Volunteers will compete for six different countries in four separate sports during the summer games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Four of the Vols competing are current students at the University and six Vols athletes will compete for the United States.
The University of Tennessee has had 145 athletes and 16 coaches representing 22 different countries over the history of the Olympic games. Those athletes have compiled 51 Olympic medals all-time, including 31 gold medals, which is more than 110 other participating Olympic countries.
Tennessee Olympians
Current Vols
Christian Coleman – USA – Track & Field (4×100 Meter Relay)
Coleman enjoyed a spectacular 2016 sophomore season at Tennessee. He was named a 2016 USTFCCCA Indoor Track & Field First-Team All-American for the 60m, 200m, and 4x400m relay and captured the 200 meter national title. He was also the 2016 SEC Indoor Champion in the 60m. Coleman was the 2016 SEC Men’s Indoor Runner of the Year and USTFCCCA South Regional Athlete of the Year. He garnered USTFCCCA Outdoor Track & Field First-Team All-America honors in June after taking second place in both the 100 meters and 200 meters at the 2016 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. He set a new Tennessee record with a 10.03 in the 100-meter semifinals at NCAAs, breaking Justin Gatlin’s 2002 school mark of 10.05. He was honored by the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame as its Male Amateur Athlete of the Year.
Coleman was outstanding in the men’s 100 meters at the 2016 U.S. Trials. He ran at a world-class level, clocking the second-fastest time in the first round at 9.96 (+2.4) and the third-fastest time in the semifinals with a PR 9.95 (+1.7). Coleman finished sixth in the 100-meter final with a time of 10.03 (+1.6).
Kali Davis-White – Jamaica – Track & Field (200-Meter Dash)
Davis-White completed her first year at Tennessee in 2015-16 and punctuated it with five All-America nods. Davis-White immediately made an impact during the indoor season, winning her first and second races of the season in the 60 meter sprint at the Indiana-Tennessee Dual (7.48) and the Virginia Tech Invitational (7.28). She went on to finish seventh in the 200-meter final at the NCAA indoor Championship, setting an indoor PR of 23.08. During outdoor season, she claimed All-America honors in the 4×100 meter relay, 4×400 meter relay and the 200-meter dash.
Davis-White qualified for the Olympics by finishing third in the women’s 200-meter final with a time of 22.94 (-3.1) at the Jamaican Olympic Trials. At 20 years old, she was the youngest sprinter in the final. Davis-White qualified for the final after winning her 200-meter semifinal heat with a time of 23.02 (-0.3).
Hannah Wilkinson – New Zealand – Women’s Soccer
Wilkinson is Tennessee’s active leader in goals (22) and points (53) and will likely crack the top 10 in program history in both categories this season. The Whangarei, New Zealand native burst onto the college soccer scene in 2012, scoring eight goals en route to earning NSCAA third-team All-America honors and first-team All-SEC recognition while also helping UT reach the NCAA Tournament. Wilkinson’s best season came in 2014 when she scored nine goals and had three assists for 21 total points.
Wilkinson has extensive experience with the New Zealand Women’s National Team, making 72 appearances with the full national team while tallying 23 career goals. She helped lead the Football Ferns to a FIFA Women’s World Cup appearance in 2011 and a quarterfinal appearance at the 2012 London Olympics. Wilkinson’s most significant contribution was scoring an equalizer in extra time to help New Zealand earn a 2-2 draw against Mexico in the final group stage game of the 2011 World Cup.
Kira Toussaint – The Netherlands – Swimming (100-Meter Backstroke)
Toussaint is a rising senior for the Tennessee swimming and diving team who will be making her first trip to the Olympics as a member of the Netherlands’ team. She qualified in April at the Eindhoven Swim Cup by recording the exact FINA A-standard qualifying time of 1:00.25 in the 100-meter backstroke. She completed her first year of Tennessee in 2015-16 after spending the first two years of her career at Florida Gulf Coast. In her debut year as a Vol, she was part of three winning SEC relays and earned five All-America honors. She also broke the school record in the 100-yard backstroke (50.85). Toussaint’s mother, Jolanda de Rover, was a two-time Olympian and a gold medalist in the 200 backstroke for the Netherlands in 1984.
Former Vols
Tamika Catchings – USA – Women’s Basketball
Catchings rates as one of the greatest Tennessee basketball players in history. She was a four-time Kodak All-American and the AP and Naismith player of the year in 2000. She ranks fourth in Lady Vol history in career points (2,113) and fifth in rebounds (1,004), one of only two players in Lady Vol history to record 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.
Since graduating from Tennessee, Catchings has gone on to be one of the most influential players in WNBA history. Catchings is set to become the WNBA’s only player ever to spend an entire career of 15 or more seasons with the same franchise. The Indiana Fever forward earned WNBA Finals MVP honors while leading the Fever to the 2012 WNBA championship. She earned league MVP honors in 2011. Catchings ranks as the league’s all-time leader in free throws and steals, while ranking second in points and rebounds. She is the WNBA career playoffs leader in points, rebounds, free throws and steals.
Catchings will retire at the end of the 2016 WNBA season, but before that she will compete with Team USA at the Olympics as she seeks to become just the third American basketball player, male or female, to earn four Olympic gold medals. Catchings helped the USA claim gold at the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
Tavis Bailey – USA – Track & Field (Discus)
Bailey was a three-time All-American in the discus at Tennessee including two first-team nods and a runner-up finish during his senior year in 2015. He posted a mark of 61.92 meters (203-2 ft.) to claim second place. He also earned All-America honors in the shot put and weight throw during his career at UT.
Bailey threw 61.57 meters (202-0 ft.) to earn silver at the U.S. Track & Field Olympic Trials. Bailey, who starred at UT from 2012-15 after transferring from Lenoir-Rhyne, is the third Vol to represent the U.S. in a throwing event in the Olympics. He is the first American man to qualify for the Olympics in the discus and joins VFLs Jane Haist (discus for Canada in 1976) and Patricia Walsh (discus for Ireland in 1984) as the only three UT Olympic representatives in the event.
Justin Gatlin – USA – Track & Field (100-Meter Dash | 200-Meter Dash | 4×100 Meter Relay)
Gatlin won six consecutive NCAA championships as he swept the 100 meter and 200 meter events at both the 2001 and 2002 NCAA Championship as well as the 60 meter and 200 meter events at the 2002 Indoor Championship. Gatlin still sits in Tennessee’s all-time top three career in the 60 meters and 200 meters indoors as well as the 100-meter and 200-meter outdoor record lists.
Gatlin, a four-time Olympic medalist will compete in his third Olympics. He earned gold (100m) and silver (4x100m) at the 2004 Athens Olympics and bronze (200m, 100m) at the 2012 London Olympics. Gatlin also owns the nation’s top mark in both the men’s 100 meters (9.77) and 200 meters (19.74) in 2016. Gatlin won the U.S. men’s title in the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic Trials, finishing with the top time in the world in 2016 at 9.80 (+1.6). Gatlin has collected two gold and four silver medals at the World Championships and two gold medals at the World Indoor Championship during his career.
Tianna Bartoletta (Madison) – USA – Track & Field (100-Meter Dash | Long Jump)
Tianna Bartoletta, formerly Tianna Madison, still holds Tennessee’s all-time best long jump mark both indoors (6.78m) and outdoors (6.89m). She won the 2005 NCAA National Championships both indoors and outdoors in the long jump. She also earned three All-America honors her freshman year.
Bartoletta was a 2012 Olympic gold medalist in the women’s 4×100 meter relay. She earned gold in the long jump for Team USA at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing and will be headed to her second consecutive Olympic games. Bartoletta will compete in two events for Team USA as she notched a second-place finish in the women’s long jump at the Olympic Trials with a distance of 7.02 meters (23-0.50 ft). She will don the Red, White and Blue in the women’s 100 meters as well after finishing second in the final with a time of 10.78 (+1.0).
Rhian Wilkinson – Canada – Women’s Soccer
Wilkinson is one of the most capped players in the history of Canada’s Women’s National Team, making 177 total appearances and 147 starts while scoring seven goals and registering 23 assists. Wilkinson was named to the All-Time Canada XI women’s soccer team in 2012 and was only the third woman in the history of Canada’s WNT to make her 150th appearance, doing so on March 10, 2014. She made her debut with the national team as a 20-year old on April 26, 2003 against the United States and has competed in numerous major international tournaments for Canada’s full national team, including four FIFA Women’s World Cups (2003, 2007, 2011, 2015), two Olympics (2008, 2012) and three Pan-American Games (2003, 2007, 2011). Wilkinson has helped lead Canada to a handful of medals at major competitions, among them a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics in London, a gold medal at the XVI Pan-American Games in 2011, a silver at the XIV Pan-American Games in 2003 and a bronze at the XV Pan-American Games in 2007.
Wilkinson left Tennessee as one of the most decorated players in program history. She currently ranks first all-time at UT with 32 assists, second in points with 88 and tied for third in goals with 28. Wilkinson was a three-time NSCAA All-Central Region and All-SEC selection (2000, 2002, 2003) as well as a Soccer Buzz Freshman All-American in 2000. Check out Wilkinson’s bio page on the Canadian National Team website HERE and her personal website HERE.
Molly Hannis – USA – Swimming (200-Meter Breaststroke)
Hannis became Tennessee’s first swimmer to join Team USA since Christine Magnuson in 2008 when she finished second at the Olympic Trials in the 200-meter breaststroke to book her ticket to the games in early July. Hannis, a native of Santa Rosa, Calif., has been swimming professionally for the last year as a member of the Tennessee Aquatics club after graduating from Tennessee in 2015. During her UT career (2012-15), Hannis was a 14-time All-American and a four-time SEC champion. She swam the breaststroke leg on two NCAA championship relay teams in 2013 to help Tennessee to a third-place finish in the team standings. She remains the Vols’ record holder in the 100 and 200 breaststroke.
Martina Moravcikova – Czech Republic – Swimming (200-Meter Breaststroke)
Moravcikova qualified for her second Olympics for the Czech Republic and is once again set to swim the 200-meter breaststroke for her home nation. Moravcikova swam for Tennessee from 2008-11 and earned four All-America honors as a senior in addition to being part of a winning SEC 400-yard medley relay team. At the 2012 London Games, she placed 26th in the 200 breaststroke. She is one of only two Tennessee women to swim in multiple Olympiads; Fabiola Molina competed in three for Brazil (2000, 2008, 2012).