Ashburn's Emily Fox Among Athletes Headed To Paris Summer Olympics

ASHBURN, VA — Three athletes with a Loudoun County connection are headed to Paris to represent Team USA in the 2024 Summer Olympics.

More than 10,500 athletes from around the world will compete in the Paris Summer Olympic Games, officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, between the opening ceremony on July 26 and the closing ceremony on Aug 11.

Included among the 32 sports are gymnastics, swimming, diving, track and field, archery, basketball, beach volleyball, boxing, golf, tennis and wrestling.

One new sport — breaking, described by the Olympics as a “young, acrobatic and urban sport” with American roots — will be added this year.

Back for a second time are three sports that debuted in the Tokyo Summer 2020 Olympics — sport climbing, skateboarding and surfing.

The athletes who have qualified from Loudoun County are:

Emily Fox from Ashburn, soccer

Fox, 26, is a Stone Bridge High School graduate who was chosen first by the Racing Louisville FC in the NWSL draft. A rookie of the year finalist in 2021, she now plays for Arsenal FC. She was first called up to the U.S. Women's National Team in 2018, helped the U.S. win its sixth SheBelieves Cup in 2023 and helped the U.S. Women's National Team qualify for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and 2024 Summer Olympics.

Kevin Paredes from South Riding, soccer

Paredes found success locally, playing his first professional game for Loudoun United FC in 2019 before joining D.C. United in 2020. Since 2022, he has played for VfL Wolfsburg in Germany and was called up to the United States senior national team for games in August 2023. He was named Young Male Player of the Year award by U.S. Soccer in 2023.

Weini Kelati, who attended Leesburg's Heritage High School, track and field

Kelati, 27, is originally from Eritrea and represented the country at the world championships in 2014. According to the Washington Post, Kelati decided to flee Eritrea, an East African country known for human rights violations. She ended up with a third cousin in Leesburg, finding success at Heritage High School and earning 13 all-Americans in cross-country and track and field in college. Kelati became a U.S. citizen in 2021.

The full schedule of events and competitions is found on the Olympics website.

NBC and its affiliated channels again have exclusive U.S. broadcasting rights. The network has said it will provide at least nine hours of daytime coverage during the Paris Games, including live broadcasts of favorite event finals. The NBC streaming service Peacock will provide coverage of every sport and event. The full broadcast and streaming schedules haven’t been announced yet.