Maryland Olympians Competing In The 2021 Tokyo Games

MARYLAND — Maryland Olympians won 16 gold medals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, meaning if the Old Line State were a country it would have placed sixth in terms of gold medals earned.

Maryland will send 14 athletes to the games this summer in Tokyo with the hopes of bringing home the gold. Maryland's athletes will be competing in Olympic swimming, track and field, men's basketball, wrestling, rugby and gymnastics.

The games this year begin on July 23. The Paralympics will begin a month later, on Aug. 24 — check back on Patch later for a look at Maryland athletes who will be competing there.

Here are some local athletes to watch in this summer's Olympic games:

Swimming:

Phoebe Bacon
Hometown: Chevy Chase
High School: Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart Bacon, 18, is making her Olympic debut this year, qualifying in the 200 meter backstroke. She just finished her first year at the University of Wisconsin, after graduating from the same high school as Katie Ledecky.

Chase Kalisz
Hometown: Bel Air
High School: Fallston High School
Kalisz will compete in the 400m individual medley, an event won silver in at the 2016 Rio Games. The 27-year-old graduated from the University of Georgia in 2016, the same year he won his first medal.

Katie Ledecky
Hometown: Bethesda
High School: Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart
The 24-year-old Stanford graduate will be looking to break records in this Olympics and become the winningest woman of all time. She’s qualified for 200-meter freestyle, 400 freestyle, 800 freestyle, 1500 freestyle, 4x200 freestyle, and if she wins all of them, she will have the most Olympic Gold medals of any woman in history.

Andrew Wilson
Hometown: Bethesda
High School: Phillips Academy
This Olympic rookie is the first Division III swimmer to make it to the Olympics. Wilson swam while he was a student at Emory University.

Congratulations to former #NCAAD3 student-athlete Andrew Wilson as he becomes the first-ever Division III swimmer to qualify for Team USA at the Olympics! https://t.co/4ojmfRbVl9 #d3swim #whyd3 pic.twitter.com/1pQuTlzkq8
— NCAA Division III (@NCAADIII) June" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/NCAADIII/s... 17, 2021

Track and Field:

Matthew Centrowitz Jr.
Hometown: Arnold
High School: Broadneck High School
Centrowitz will return to the Games after earning Gold at Rio and coming in fourth in London. The 31-year-old graduated from the University of Oregon in 2012.

Christina Clemons
Hometown: Waldorf
High School: Westlake High School
The 11-time All-American and 10-time Big Ten Champion at The Ohio State University will make her Olympic debut this year in Tokyo.

Triathlon:

Katie Zaferes
Hometown: Hampstead
High School: North Carroll High School
Zaferes is returning to the Olympic Games after competing in Rio in 2016. She was a track and field state champion multiple times during her high school career at North Carrolll High School.

Wrestling:

Helen Maroulis
Hometown: Rockville
High School: Colonel Zadok Magruder High School
Maroulis made history when she won the Gold Medal in Rio, as the first U.S. woman to do so. She now lives in Huntington Beach, Calif.

Kyle Snyder
Hometown: Woodbine
High School: Our Lady of Good Counsel
Snyder became the youngest person in United States history to win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling when he became the champion at age 20 in Rio. Snyder was a three-time NCAA champion while he wrestled at The Ohio State University.

Men’s Basketball:

Kevin Durant
Hometown: Washington, D.C.
High School: Montrose Christian School in Rockville
The Brooklyn Nets star will join Team USA, having competed in the 2016 Rio and 2012 London games, where the team won gold medals.

Jerami Grant
Hometown: Bowie
High School: DeMatha High School
The Detroit Pistons player will head to the Olympic Games for the first time this year. He was chosen in 2016 to play on a Select Team that trained with and against the U.S. Olympians that year. Grant is a forward.

Women’s Rugby:

Abby Gustaitis
Hometown: White Hall
High School: North Harford High School
The 30 year-old will make her Olympic debut this year, having started playing rugby at age 19. She says that she plays for young girls who need role models.

Sailing:

Farrah Hall
Hometown: Annapolis
High School: Broadneck High School
Hall compete in the 2012 Olympics, placing 20th in Windsurfing RSX.

Gymnastics:

Kayla DiCello
*Alternate
Hometown: Boyds
High School: Northwest High School
The rising high school senior may compete in the Olympic Games if one of the players on the team is injured or unable to compete. DiCello has been training in gymnastics at Hill's Gymnastics in Gaithersburg since she was 2.

Correction: A previous version of this article said that Matthew Centrowitz earned Silver at the 2016 Olympics. He earned the Gold Medal. This has been corrected and we regret the error.