PARIS, France — West Michigan will certainly be represented at the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics. That's thanks to five talented young athletes who are competing for gold.
Meet them all below.
Heath Baldwin - Kalamazoo
A Kalamazoo native earned his ticket to Paris as a member of the 2024 U.S. track and field team.
Heath Baldwin, a Michigan State University graduate student, won the decathlon at the U.S. Track & Field Trials in June to secure his spot.
According to MSU's website, Baldwin is the first Spartan to qualify for the Olympic decathlon since Paul Terek in 2004.
Baldwin totaled a personal best of 8,625 points at the trials and finished first in the 19-athlete field. His score is sixth-best in the world this year and third all-time on the all-dates collegiate list.
Some of his 2023 career highlights include:
- MSU Athletics George Alderton Male Athlete of the Year
- NCAA Indoor First Team All-American
- NCAA Outdoor First Team All-American
- Big Ten Indoor Heptathlon Champion
- NCAA Championships Qualifier
- USTFCCCA All-Academic Athlete
- Broke the heptathlon and decathlon school records
- Broke the javelin throw school record during the outdoor season
Track and field events at the Paris Olympics will begin on August 1 and end on August 11.
Devin Booker - Grandville
A Grand Rapids area native is set to hit the hardwood in Paris to compete for his second Olympic gold medal.
Devin Booker is back on the U.S. Men's Olympic Basketball team, hoping for a repeat of 2020 when he averaged nearly 10 points a game during the team's gold medal run.
Booker, born in Grand Rapids, plays for the Phoenix Suns and completed his college career at the University of Kentucky.
He lived in the West Michigan area through his freshman year in high school before moving to Missouri. Booker played on the Grandville High School basketball team during his freshman year.
Most predictions show that Booker is projected to be the starting shooting guard for the team.
Kate Brim - Lowell
A cyclist will be representing Lowell, Michigan in Paris at the 2024 Paralympics.
Kate Brim, 26, is no stranger to the Olympic stage. She became a world champion in women's handcycling after winning four gold medals in her Paralympics debut in 2022.
She garnered two gold medals in the time trial and road race at the World Cup and the final two in the time trial and road race at the World Championship. Brim then went on to win nearly every major race in which she has competed.
That's why she was selected as one of just 13 cyclists from across the country selected to represent Team USA at the Paralympic Games.
Brim had complications from a surgery when she was 19 and developed a spinal cord injury that slowly made her lose strength and function. She spent a year and a half recovering at Mary Free Bed in Grand Rapids.
Her injury provided a new opportunity — it “set a fire in me,” Brim said.
While recovering, she joined the Grand Rapids Thunder wheelchair rugby team and Mary Free Bed's handcycling team. Her first year competing was in 2021, when she was crowned the winner of the woman's handcycle division of the Amway River Bank Run.
“I’m not going to let this injury define where I go in life," Brim said.
Brim will compete with Team USA in the Paralympics beginning in late August.
Aaron Cummings - Grand Haven
Grand Haven graduate Aaron Cummings will make his Olympic debut on the United States Rugby Sevens team. Cummings joins Caledonia native Alena Olsen, who will be playing on the women's team.
Cummings began his rugby career in high school before playing for Davenport in college. He helped lead the Panthers to the national championships in 2016 and 2017.
He came up in the sport through the USA Club Rugby scene, winning the 2021 Club 7s National Championship with the Chicago Lions. He then joined the USA Men's Sevens residency in Chula Vista.
Cummings made his HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series Debut in Malaga, Spain in 2022 and later was named to the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022 squad in Cape Town.
Alena Olsen - Caledonia
Alongside Cummings, a Caledonia native also earned her spot on the 2024 U.S. Women's Olympic Rugby Sevens Team for Paris.
Alena Olsen, 28, will aim with her team to earn their first Olympic medal.
The USA won its last Olympic gold in rugby 100 years ago and finished fifth at Rio in 2016 and sixth at Tokyo in 2020.
The team of 12 players and two traveling reserves is a mix of new and veteran Olympians.
Olsen's first Olympic appearance will be as a scrumhalf on the field. In her position, Olsen acts as a link between the forwards and the backs and will be responsible for making quick decisions and connecting plays on the field.
Olsen played volleyball and soccer in high school and didn't start playing rugby until she was an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Michigan.
From 2014-2018, she was a member of the women's rugby club. During her time at Michigan, Olsen earned a two-time All-American in 2015 and 2016 and earned a nomination to the Collegiate Rugby Championship Dream Team in 2016 and 2017.
She graduated from the University of Michigan in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in music, biology and environmental sciences.
In 2017, Olsen appeared in three USA Falcons development tournaments, including a five-match exhibition series with Australia, Super Sevens Brisbane and the Okinawa Invitational 2018.
Olsen also helped the San Diego Surfers win a Club Sevens National Championship in 2018.
She made her USA Rugby debut in 2019 in the Glendale Sevens where the USA won the tournament. She was also part of the U.S. sevens roster that finished fourth in the 2022 Rugby World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa.
Olsen has been playing with the Kansas City Headliners of Premier Rugby Sevens since 2021.
Pools for Women's Olympic Rugby Sevens Teams will be announced by World Rugby on June 23.
Olsen and her team will leave on July 14 for a pre-Olympic training camp in Tours before they enter the Olympic Village in Paris. The competition will begin on July 28.
Evan Medell - Grand Haven
In the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, Evan Medell was facing off against Croatia's Ivan Mikulic in the semi-final of the men's taekwondo tournament.
"I felt really good about my chances against him," Medell said.
The winner would earn a trip to the gold medal match. Medell barely got going before disaster struck.
"...second or third kick I threw was a back leg round kick and I just nailed his elbow and it just kind of caved in my foot," Medell said. "Before I even hit the ground, it was all swelled up. I couldn't, I couldn't bend my ankle or nothing."
Medell went on to lose 28-9 before eventually winning the bronze medal. He became the first American to medal in the newly-added Paralympic sport.
If he won gold, Medell planned to retire.
"Once I achieved that I had nothing else to really achieve, so I was kind of ready to walk away," Medell said. "But not achieving that relit that fire... let's run it back, and then see if I can come out on top."
Medell is back for redemption in this year's Paralympic games in France. The goal is the same: win gold, and step into retirement as a champion.
"...if I come out on top, I don't have anything less left to prove in the sport," Medell said.
Medell has won gold medals in the Parapan American Games (2019), Canadian Open (2016), U.S. Open (2016), and Asian Championship (2015).
He's done it all with brachial plexus palsy, a condition that weakens parts of the arm. Medell has had the condition since birth, leading to stunted growth and limited mobility in his right arm.
"I wasn't able to stimulate growth plates in my arm...my right arm is smaller my left arm," Medell said. "I don't have good grip strength."
Taekwondo-wise, it limits Medell's balance. It becomes easier for him to overextend himself when throwing certain kicks.
"...when I throw my right leg, I know I have to maybe shortchange my rotation a little bit because I'll over rotate if I throw it too committed," he said.
Medell grew up with the condition in Grand Haven, Michigan, where he learned some of the values that he brings to Taekwondo.
He grew accustomed to West Michigan's grind mentality that often included long hours and days not seeing the sun.
"Everybody works hard, and everybody takes pride in their work, I think. And that's what makes West Michigan special to me."
Medell could potentially be entering the final weeks of his decorated Taekwondo career. But even after the light dims, he wants to be remembered as a trailblazer.
"Hopefully I'm someone people can look up to. And have a blueprint of how I succeed in the sport," Medell said. "Hopefully, people surpass my performances and I'm someone who's kind of looked upon as the first generation in the first wave."
Tyler Merren - Greenville
Tyler is a husband, a father, a business owner, a personal trainer, a motivational speaker, and now an almost five-time Paralympic athlete in the sport of goalball.
Merren, an Allegan County native now living in Greenville, secured a ticket to Paris for the 2024 Paralympics. He's also one of 16 people picked to be sports ambassadors for the U.S. Association of Blind Athletes (USABA).
"I was born with tunnel vision. It was an eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa, and it was a progressive eye condition. So, as I got older, my vision got worse and worse. So I started to learn about the world of being blind - learning to read Braille, and using a cane. I worked with teachers who taught me how to do all of that," Merren said.
"I started getting involved in adaptive sports for the blind and traveling all over the world competing in the sport of goalball."
The USABA calls goalball the most popular team sport for people who are blind or visually impaired. Two teams of three players face across from each other on a court and roll a basketball-sized ball with bells toward their opponent's goal. Opponents listen for the ball and try to block it with their bodies.
Merren calls goalball the "greatest sport you've never heard of." He has played on multiple goalball teams that have medaled in the Paralympics.
Andrew Evans - Portage
A Portage native will be taking his talents to Paris this summer.
Andrew Evans, 33, earned his spot on Team USA in Track and Field for his discus performance.
The University of Kentucky graduate secured gold in the men’s discus throw in the Olympic trials with a throw of 218’6”/66.61 meters on his third attempt. He was the only athlete to throw for 66 meters on multiple attempts.
It will be his second Olympics appearance after his 2016 showing in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he finished 16th.
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