Ivies in Athens Recap (2004)

2004 Athens Summer Games
10,625 Athletes, 201 Countries, 301 Events

Returning to Athens, Greece for the first time since the first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896, the 2000 Summer Games were a celebration of history and tradition of the Olympic Spirit. The Marathon was contested on the same course that was used in 1896 and archery used the same Panathenaic Stadium that was used in the 1896 Olympics. The shot put events took place at the site of the Ancient Olympic Games in Olympia. In terms of countries (201) and events (301), the games were the largest to date.

All told, 54 Ivy Leaguers made the trip to Athens and won eight medals. The largest number of Ivy athletes competed in men’s rowing (14), women’s rowing (7), men’s fencing (4), women’s fencing (4) and women’s soccer (4).

Three of the four Ivy League women’s soccer players suited up for the hosts Greece, including Tanya Kalivas (Princeton ’01), Eleni Benson (Yale ’06) and Sophie Smith (Cornell ’01). Kristen Luckenbill was Team USA’s backup goalkeeper and earned a gold medal as the Americans downed Brazil, 2-1, in the championship game - which Abby Wambach sealed in extra time with a 112th-minute goal.

The Ivy League’s other gold medal came in men’s rowing as Chris Ahern (Princeton ’98) was part of the gold-medal winning Team USA Men’s Eights boat.

The League’s silver medalists included Caryn Davis (Harvard ’04) and Lianne Nelson (Princeton ’95) in women’s eights, Tom Herschmiller (Princeton ’01) as part of Canada’s men’s coxless four and Adam Nelson (Dartmouth ’07) in the shot put.

Sada Jacobsen (Yale ’05) calimed the individual women’s sabre bronze. Jacobsen, who went on to win a silver and a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games, kicked off a new era of Ivy fencing success at the Olympics with her bronze in 2004. In 2008, the League combined for five fencing medals, and seven members of the Team USA fencing teams heading to the 2012 London Games hail from Ivy League schools. Prior to 2004, the last fencing medalists from the Ivy League were Hugh Alessandroni (Columbia ’29C & ’31E), Dernell Every (Yale ’28) and Frank Righeimer (Yale ’29), who combined for four bronze medals at the 1932 Los Angeles Games. 

Rounding out the 2004 Ivy medalists, Jim Pedro (Brown ’94) won the bronze in judo. Already a bronze medalist at the 1996 Atlanta Games, Pedro closed his competitive career with the Bronze in Athens. He represented Team USA at the Olympics in 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004.