2018 Youth Olympic Team Fun Facts

·        The 2018 U.S. Youth Olympic Team includes 87 athletes (47 men, 40 women).

·        Team USA will be competing in 24 disciplines across 21 sports.

·        A total of 28 states are represented (by hometown) on the U.S. roster; California leads with 23 athletes.

·        Team USA includes 55 athletes who speak Spanish.

·        The youngest and oldest members on the team are 14-year-old rhythmic gymnast Elizabeth Kapitonova (Dec. 31, 2003; Brooklyn, New York) and 18-year-old boxer Roma Martinez (Jan. 1, 2000; Houston, Texas). All participating athletes must be between the ages of 15-18 as of Dec. 31, 2018. 

·        Pat McCaffery (basketball; Iowa City, Iowa) was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2014 during his freshmen year of high school. He has since won his battle with the disease and signed a national letter of intent with the University of Iowa, where his father, Fran McCaffery, is the head basketball coach.

·        Golfer Lucy Li (Redwood Shores, California) became the youngest player in history to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open at age 11. She also won the 2016 Junior PGA Championship at age 13.

·        Kanak Jha (table tennis; Milpitas, California) competed for Team USA at the Olympic Games Rio 2016. He has since been crowned the U.S. men’s singles national champion twice in 2016 and 2017.

·        Seven members of the U.S. Youth Olympic Swim Team have already committed to swimming in college: William Barao (Hingham, Massachusetts) – University of Notre Dame; Madelyn Donoho (Annandale, Virginia) and Katherine Douglass (Pelham, New York) – University of Virginia; Ethan Harder (Billings, Montana) – University of Texas; Jake Johnson (Lincoln University, Pennsylvania) – Harvard University; Kaitlynn Sims (Montgomery, Texas) – University of Michigan; and Rhyan White (Herriman, Utah) – University of Alabama. 

·       Two Team USA athletes are the children of U.S. Department of State officials. Kayaker Robert Healy (Chevy Chase, Maryland) is the son of Rebecca Pasini, a Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Rio, and sailor Dominique Stater (Miami, Florida) is the daughter of Timothy Stater, a Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Argentina.

·        Ty Walker, a 2014 Olympic snowboarder and Brown University student, will serve as a Young Change-Maker at the Buenos Aires 2018 Games. She is the first U.S. athlete to assume the role, which had previously been held by a staff or administrator from the USOC or National Governing Body.  

·        Olympians and elite athletes Clarissa Chun (wrestling; Honolulu, Hawaii), Daryl Homer(fencing; Bronx, New York), Morghan King (weightlifting; Seattle, Washington), Josh Levin (climbing; Sunnyvale, California), Danell Leyva (gymnastics; Homestead, Florida) and Moy Rivas (sport dancing; Houston, Texas) are among the 54 athletes who were selected by the International Olympic Committee to serve as Athlete Role Models at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games.