Meet the Wisconsinites Competing at the 2024 Olympics for Team USA

Eleven Wisconsinites, including six from Southeastern Wisconsin, will represent Team USA in the Summer Olympics in Paris, which begin Friday and run through Aug. 11.

The lone returning medalist on the squad is sprinter Kenny Bednarek of Rice Lake, who won a silver medal in the 200 meters at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Here’s a list of Wisconsin’s Olympic contingent and a brief bio of each:

Kenny Bednarek

TRACK AND FIELD | AGE: 25 | HOMETOWN: RICE LAKE

A silver medalist in the 200 meters at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Rice Lake High School graduate Bednarek will head to Paris as a member of Team USA having qualified in both the 100-meter and 200-meter races. He became the first American athlete to break 20 seconds in the 200-meter and 45 seconds in the 400-meter on the same day at the 2019 NJCAA Championships, for which he was named USA Track & Field Athlete of the Week.

Margherita Guzzi Vincenti

FENCING | AGE: 33 | HOMETOWN: HARTLAND

An épée fencer, Guzzi Vincenti began fencing at age seven at the Societa del Giardino club in Milan, Italy, where she was born. She represented Italy at junior and senior World Cup events before moving to the United States to fence at Penn State, where she won a national championship in 2010.  She won her first senior medal (a gold) at the 2023 Legnano World Cup. Guzzi Vincenti moved to Hartland in 2015 to train at the Ataba Fencing Club under three-time Olympic fencing coach Abbas Fadel. 

Tyrese Haliburton

BASKETBALL | AGE: 24 | HOMETOWN: OSHKOSH

A two-time NBA All-Star, Haliburton was an early entry candidate selected in the first round (12th overall) of the 2020 NBA Draft by the Sacramento Kings out of Iowa State University. Haliburton attended Oshkosh North High School, where he led the Spartans to a 26-1 record and a state championship. He was named Wisconsin Gatorade Player of the Year in 2018.  In February 2022, the Kings traded Haliburton to the Indiana Pacers. He averaged 20.1 points and 10.9 assists for the Pacers this past season.

Maria Laborde

JUDO | AGE: 34 | HOMETOWN: KENOSHA

Laborde won team bronze at the 2013 Senior World Championships representing her native Cuba and returned to the podium the following year with an individual bronze medal win. After moving to the United States, Laborde received her U.S. citizenship and began competing for Team USA in March 2022. The following year, Laborde became the first U.S. athlete to medal at the Masters Worlds since 2016, when she won silver. She will hold the highest seed for Team USA at the Summer Games, where she is expected to be seeded 10th at 48 kg.

Lauren O’Connor

ROWING | AGE: 25 | HOMETOWN: BELLEVILLE

O’Connor walked onto the rowing team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison after learning about it from a high school friend, who thought she’d enjoy it. A black belt in martial arts, O’Connor competed for four years and earned three varsity letters in volleyball while attending Belleville High School and was a four-time varsity letter recipient in track and field.

Stephanie Roble

SAILING | AGE: 35 | HOMETOWN: EAST TROY

Roble grew up in Wisconsin sailing scows and dinghies on Lake Beulah starting at age 5. She and her sailing mate, Maggie Shea, have been on the 49erFX campaign trail together since fall 2016. Their 49erFX highlights include finishing fifth at the 2018 European Championships, third at the World Cup Series Genoa and third at the 2020 49erFX World Championship. Roble and Shea won the U.S. Olympic Trials in February 2020 and represented Team USA at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2020, finishing 11th.

Nick Rusher

ROWING | AGE: 25 | HOMETOWN: WEST BEND

Rusher will attempt to bring home some hardware from Paris after narrowly missing the podium in taking fourth at the 2022 World Championships. In May, Rusher was part of Team USA’s men’s eight that won gold at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland to secure a spot at the Paris Games. Rusher’s parents rowed in the 1988 and 1992 Olympics and met while on the national team.

Sophia Vitas

ROWING | AGE: 31 | HOMETOWN: FRANKLIN

Vitas nearly made Team USA in 2020 for the Tokyo Games but fractured her ribs, ultimately ending her Olympic chances. She earned a bronze medal last September at the World Rowing Championships to clinch a spot on Team USA in women’s double sculls. She was a rower at the University of Wisconsin-Madison after transferring from UW-Milwaukee. Lettered in four sports – basketball, soccer, cross country and track and field – at Franklin High School.

Madeleine Wanamaker

ROWING | AGE: 29 | HOMETOWN: NEENAH

Wanamaker started rowing in 2013 as a walk-on at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her parents, Janet and Thomas Wanamaker, also rowed for Wisconsin. Wanamaker competed in the 2020 Tokyo Games, finishing seventh in the women’s fours final. A 2013 graduate of Neenah High School, Wanamaker and her teammates captured a gold medal in the women’s fours at the 2023 World Rowing Cup II in Italy. In February 2023, Wanamaker had one of her ribs surgically removed after being diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome.

Mary Theisen-Lappen

WEIGHTLIFTING | AGE: 34 | HOMETOWN: EAU CLAIRE

Theisen-Lappen competed in multiple track and field disciplines and eventually became a star thrower, earning All-America honors in shot put at Indiana State University. She finished ninth in the shot put at the 2014 U.S. championships. She later became the primary throws coach for the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and in 2018 she turned to weightlifting. She won the silver medal in the women’s +87 kg event at the 2023 World Weightlifting Championships and a gold medal in the women’s +81 kg event at the 2023 Pan American Games.  

Payton Jacobson

GRECO-ROMAN WRESTLING | AGE: 21 | HOMETOWN: ELKHORN

Jacobson won the U.S. Olympic Team Trials at 87 kg in April. A senior at Northern Michigan University, Jacobson wrestled folkstyle at Elkhorn Area High School before shifting to Greco-Roman, one of several forms of amateur competitive wrestling practiced internationally. Named after legendary Chicago Bears running back Waler Payton. Jacobson wrestled at 77 kg at the U23 World Championships and moved up to 87 -kg for the Olympic trials.