* Peoria Journal Star…

Anna Peplowski is an Olympic medalist.

The former Metamora High School swimmer helped the United States women’s 4×200-meter freestyle team to a silver medal on Thursday afternoon at the Paris Olympics.

Peplowski did not swim in the finale but clocked the second-fastest time earlier Thursday in the prelims while helping propel the U.S. to the finals. In the finals, the U.S. sent out the foursome of Claire Weinstein, Paige Madden, Katie Ledecky and Erin Gemmell swam for Team USA.

Peplowski will get a silver medal, as is customary under Olympic rules for all swimmers on a relay team who participate in either the preliminaries or finals.

The race was a historic one for U.S. swimmer Ledecky, whose 13 medals make her the most decorated female swimmer in Olympic history. Her eight Olympic gold medals are tied for the most in history. She pulled the U.S. into second place with her third-leg effort.

* WAND…

The USA men’s 4×100 freestyle relay team is bringing home the gold medal from Paris.

In the prelims Springfield native Ryan Held led the team off swimming a 48.52 leg with the team finishing with a time of 3:12.61 to finish second in their heat.

Heading into the finals of the 4×100 freestyle the United State team would be in lane six. Team USA finished with a time of 3:09.28 to take the gold medal.

While Held didn’t swim in the final race he will still bring home his second gold medal after also winning gold back in Rio in 2016.

* Patch…

The Olympic medal drought is over for the U.S. men’s gymnastics, and Deerfield’s Paul Juda is a major reason. Juda, 23, came up big in Monday’s final event, the vault, and helped propel the Americans to a bronze medal, the team’s first since 2008.

Juda, a graduate of Adlai Stevenson High School, scored a 14.666 in the vault as Team U.S.A. narrowly held off Great Britain to get on the medal stand in Paris. Japan won gold, followed by the People’s Republic of China.

Juda, who also finished strong on the pommel horse Monday, will now compete in the individual competition, starting Wednesday.
Click here to watch Juda on parallel bars in the men’s all-around finals.

* Tribune…

It’s the first Olympics for [Peter Chatain], who began rowing at his parents’ suggestion as a teenager. He joined the New Trier High School rowing team his freshman year, then went on to break the school record in the 2000 meters and captain the rowing team as a senior.

One of the country’s most respected high school programs, New Trier rowing produced two Olympians for the U.S. team for the Paris Games.

Northfield native Grace Joyce, 26, also made the U.S. rowing team in the four-woman skull event. After failing to qualify for the medal race, Joyce’s crew participated in the consolation round Wednesday and finished ninth overall.

“I think I was very lucky to grow up in a place like the Northfield and Winnetka area, where our school had a team that I could try out for, that was a public school team where I could learn the ropes,” Joyce said. “The coaches there tried to make it the best experience possible so I think that started the fire. To build on that, to row in college. To build on that, to try out for the national team. To build on that, to represent the U.S. at the Olympics. And that’s huge.”

* WCIA…

An Eastern Illinois University alumna and co-captain of the Team USA Women’s Rugby team earned a historic Olympic medal on Tuesday.

Class of 2012 graduate Lauren Doyle and her team won the bronze against Australia at the 2024 Paris Olympics. It marks the team’s first-ever Olympic medal.

Doyle grew up in Macon and found great success in several sports throughout her time at Macon Meridian High School, including volleyball, basketball, soccer, track and cheer. She became an EIU Panther in 2009 and quickly made a name for herself on their Women’s Rugby team.

Halfway through her senior year fall rugby season, Doyle was invited onto Team USA. Now, Doyle holds the EIU athlete record for most Olympic appearances, first entering the scene at the 2016 Rio de Janiero games on the Women’s Rugby Sevens. She has appeared in every summer Olympics since.

* This play was just incredible…

Don’t mind us, just watching this again. pic.twitter.com/OBIELIAmNX

— USA Rugby (@USARugby) July 31, 2024

* Yeboah is the first Ghanaian woman high jumper to compete at the Olympics…

ICYMI: Rose Yeboah leapt 1.88m (6-2) in her Olympic high jump debut early this morning.#Illini I #HTTO I #OlympiansMadeHere pic.twitter.com/NUdGedZgqx

— Illinois Track & Field and Cross Country (@IlliniTrackXC) August 2, 2024

* More…

* River Bender | Watch Party Planned to Support Local Olympian Jayden Ulrich: At 11 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, community members are invited to The Pump House to watch Ulrich’s Olympic event. Ulrich, a 2021 East Alton-Wood River High School graduate, will throw discus for Team U.S.A. in the Paris Olympics on Friday.

* KKTV | Greco-Roman Wrestler Kamal Bey is ready for his first Olympic Appearance: Kamal Bey grew up in Illinois, and by the age of three, he was introduced to the sport that would eventually, take him all the way. ”I learned how to throw before i learned how to shoot,” said Bey. As just a toddler, Greco-Roman was the first style of wrestling he ever learned.

* NBC | Drawn to wrestling as a child, Kennedy Blades has been dreaming of Olympic gold since she was 8 years old: The night before the trials, Blades said she wrote in a notebook given to her by a trainer, “I’m an Olympic champion,” over and over. “I couldn’t stop. I closed my book, and the next day I did it again and again and again,” Blades said. “I think I’ve kind of manipulated my head into thinking, ‘You’re the champion. Let’s get what’s yours.’”

* WBEZ | Athletes with Chicago-area ties competing at Paris Summer Olympic Games: Born in Evanston and a basketball star at Downers Grove South, [Tori Franklin] is making her second trip to the Olympics as a triple jumper. Originally from Spring Grove, [Ali Frantti] is an outside hitter who will be an alternate for the women’s team. A former Penn State star.

* NBC Chicago | Olympian Evita Griskenas asked to do gymnastics at age 4- just not the kind her mother signed her up for: When she was 4 years old, Evita Griskenas saw rhythmic gymnastics on TV for the first time. After persistently asking to try it herself, her mother finally agreed and took her to a gymnastics gym - there was just one problem. It wasn’t a rhythmic gymnastics gym. Griskenas immediately knew it was the wrong type of gymnastics and refused to do anything- leaving her mother with no choice but to put her in a different class.

* Sun-Times | From Wheaton to Loyola to the Paris Olympics, volleyball stars Thomas Jaeschke and Jeff Jendryk keep rising: Once upon a time, Thomas Jaeschke and Jeff Jendryk were needles in the same haystack. Both grew up in Wheaton, Jaeschke two years older. Both discovered volleyball in high school — Jaeschke at Wheaton Warrenville South and Jendryk at St. Francis — took to the sport exceptionally well and joined the same, Aurora-based club, called Sports Performance. And as it turned out, both went on to star in college at Loyola, where Jaeschke, now 30, and Jendryk, 28, got to know each other and, if you can believe it, actually won a Division I national championship together.

* KWQC | Raising an Olympian: Former Rock Island track star Courtney Lindsey’s mom shares his journey: Former Rock Island track star Courtney Lindsey will be competing at the Olympics in Paris and his mom has been right by his side. Lindsey’s mom, Larondia Vesey says his love for running didn’t come at a young age, but once he discovered it, the rest was history. Lindsey actually grew up boxing because his step-father owns a boxing gym in Rock Island.

* Tribune | ‘It still doesn’t feel real.’ Chicago wrestler Joe Rau’s improbable journey leads him to the Olympics — at age 33: It was a rash decision, spurred by controversial refereeing and a heartbreaking defeat that kept Rau off the U.S. Olympic team once again. At that moment — and for many months after — the idea of wrestling again sickened the Elmhurst College graduate. “I get a pit in my stomach like I’m going to throw up if I just think about wrestling,” the Union Ridge native told the Tribune a few weeks after the loss. “It’s devastating because wrestling has been the thing I’ve loved most since I was a kid. It’s what I do. It’s what I know.”

Have you been watching?