Six athletes with ties to Montgomery County won nine medals in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, with many of them setting records and making history.
Here’s who is bringing home medals to the county:
Katie Ledecky
Ledecky, a Bethesda native and graduate of Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda, won four medals for swimming during the 2024 Paris Olympics: gold in the women’s 1500-meter and 800-meter freestyle, a silver as part of the women’s 4×200-meter freestyle swimming relay and a bronze in women’s 500-meter freestyle.
Ledecky made history several times over, setting a record for the most medals won by a female swimmer with a total of 14 medals. She also became the second swimmer to win the same event at four consecutive Summer Games and the first woman to do so.
Nine of her 14 medals are gold.
Arriving home at the Dulles airport yesterday, Ledecky told NBC News4 that it hasn’t sunk in that she’s the most decorated female Olympic swimmer, but she was excited to have time to relax.
Erin Gemmell
Another Stone Ridge alumna, Erin Gemmell, took home one silver medal in the women’s 4×200-meter freestyle swimming relay.
Gemmell visited her former swim club, the Potomac Woods Swim and Tennis Club, on Monday, answering questions, signing autographs and posing for photos, according to social media posts from the swim club.
Gemmell said winning a silver medal was amazing and something that “everyone dreams of,” according to a video from the swim club.
“I think relays are so much more fun than individual races,” Gemmell told the crowd, according to the video. “Getting to do it with three other girls was even better.”
Quincy Wilson
Sixteen-year-old Quincy Wilson, a student at the private Bullis School in Potomac, took home gold as one member of the U.S. men’s track relay team in the 4×400 race.
Although he didn’t run in the men’s 4×400 relay final in Paris, he earned the medal by running the opening leg for the U.S. team in the first round of the race. The rising junior made history with his appearance as the youngest man to compete in track for the U.S. at the Olympics.
Helen Maroulis
Rockville native Helen Maroulis became the first U.S. woman to win three medals in wrestling when she won a bronze medal in women’s freestyle wrestling in the 57-kilogram weight class.
The 32-year-old defeated Canada’s Hannah Taylor to win the third-place medal at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris. Maroulis also won bronze in the same event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and gold in the 2016 Rio Olympics in the 53-kilogram weight class.
Masai Russell
Potomac’s Masai Russell won the women’s 100-meter hurdle final in a photo finish to earn the gold medal. The 24-year-old graduate of Bullis School leaped into the air when she realized she had won first place.
After winning, Russell said in an Olympic press conference that when she realized she won, she was “so happy.”
Thea LaFond
Although she didn’t compete for the U.S. team, Thea LaFond, a former Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) teacher, won gold in women’s triple jump in track for the island nation of Dominica.
LaFond’s gold medal made history as the first-ever medal for the country. LaFond graduated from John F. Kennedy High School in Silver Spring and taught in the county school system, according to MCPS.