UF Olympic Games news stories (2024)

Forty University of Florida athletes with Gator ties will participate in the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, an all-time high for the university, which regularly sends more athletes than many countries. UF is a leader in interdisciplinary research and experts on the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Here is a list of stories about UF's prowess at this Olympic games.

Perhaps more than any other people, Olympic athletes adhere to the strictest regimens of daily exercise and diet. With the 2024 Paris Olympics scheduled to start this week, a University of Florida College of Health and Human Performance professor calculated how many calories Olympians require to sustain their rigorous workouts, and UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences nutrition experts devised sample diets to illustrate how athletes might replenish themselves.

Team USA’s Grace Norman will be looking to win her second gold medal in Paris this summer.With Grace collecting victories in the U.S., Japan, France, Spain, Canada, Great Britain, and the United Arab Emirates, among others, it was hard to imagine her suffering from an underlying health issue. But it was starting to surface. Before the 2023 season, Grace was found to have a significant iron deficiency. Grace — who trains part time in Bloomington, Indiana, and part time in Clermont, Florida — eventually visited and gets treatment from UF Health.

Artificial intelligence will rapidly change the Olympics in the years ahead, from identifying and training promising athletes with the help of machine learning to minimizing bias in judging. Whole cities will even use AI to host the Games more sustainably and with better outcomes for local residents. That’s the vision the International Olympic Committee revealed when they announced their first-ever AI agenda ahead of the Paris 2024 Games. While few of these transformations may be visible this summer, University of Florida experts say the AI revolution will soon bring some of the biggest changes the international competition has seen in its 128 year history.

Global sports are shifting rapidly, changing how the 2024 Olympics will be played and who will be playing. With new technology emerging and accessibility for athletes improving, everything will be different this summer in Paris. Experts at UF will be intently watching, studying, and innovating as part of President Ben Sasse's $2.5-million UF & Sport Collaborative Strategic Funding Initiative.

In Venezuela, the Mestre name is well-known in connection with competitive swimming. Alberto Mestre (BS ’87) represented the country twice in the 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympic Games. Mestre placed sixth and fifth, respectfully, in the 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle during the 1984 Los Angeles-based Games. The family name is also significant at the University of Florida, where Mestre and his sons Alberto (MBA ’25) and Alfonso (BSBA ’23, MSF ’25) have all represented the Gator Nation as members of the Florida Gators swimming and diving team.

World champion and Olympian hurdler Grant Holloway is currently sprinting down the path to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Still, he recently cleared one hurdle that had been on the horizon since the prodigious athlete moved to Gainesville in 2016: completing his bachelor’s degree at the University of Florida.

A UF researcher discusses how it’s been a century since Paris hosted the Olympics, and the enduring legacy of the 1924 Olympics is set to reverberate at this year’s event. Those Summer Games are widely regarded as having rescued and propelled the Olympics into the future.

Robin Bell, B.V.Sc., has the distinct honor of serving as a longtime team veterinarian for Team Australia, a role that will soon take him to Paris. As a clinical professor and equine sports medicine specialist at UF's College of Veterinary Medicine, Bell spends his days safeguarding the health and well-being of some of the world’s most exceptional equine competitors. He is one of a team of veterinary specialists based at the UF Veterinary Hospital at World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Florida.

With event organizers anticipating a $7.3B economic benefit to the region, UF faculty share expertise and context on how this global event affects the economy and tourism of an Olympic host city.

Building on a long history of providing health care to athletes at the University of Florida and beyond, UF Health today joins a select group of health organizations providing care to Team USA athletes as they prepare for international competition, including the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.