With the 2024 Summer Olympics just one month away, North Carolina natives and local athletes from the state’s college programs have been giving their all to consider themselves an Olympian.
The U.S. Olympic Team Trials for swimming, held in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, and diving, held at the University of Tennessee, finished up Sunday, providing many of the state’s local hopefuls a chance at representing the country on the international stage.
Two local athletes qualified for the U.S. Olympic swimming and diving teams.
Holly Springs native Andrew Capobianco earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic diving team after finishing first in the men’s springboard event with a score of 971.80. This will be his second Olympics appearance after winning a silver medal in the 2020 Games for synchronized 3-meter diving despite entering the Games while dealing with a back injury.
After leaving Holly Springs High School in 2017 as a two-time state champion, Capobianco attended Indiana from 2017-22 where he was a three-time Big Ten Diver of the Year and a two-time NCAA 3-meter diving champion, winning in 2019 and 2021. He’ll join current Indiana diver Carson Tyler in continuing the program’s streak of producing an Olympic diver in every Summer Games since 1964.
NC State’s Katharine Berkoff secured her first Olympic spot after finishing second in the women’s 100-meter backstroke finals with a time of 57.91 seconds. She finished behind Regan Smith who shattered the world record with a time of 57.13. In the semifinal race, Berkoff swam the fourth fastest women’s 100-meter backstroke time in history, clocking in at 57.83.
Berkoff, the daughter of former American gold-medalist swimmer Dave Berkoff, adds another significant milestone to her already decorated career. The graduate student out of Missoula, Montana is a five-time NCAA champion, winning the 2024 100-meter backstroke most recently, and she holds 30 All-America honors. Berkoff also holds or is part of NC State’s program records for the 50 and 100-yard freestyles, 100-yard backstroke, 200 and 400-yard medley relays, and 400 and 800-yard freestyle relays.
Berkoff wasn’t the only Wolfpack swimmer to do well at the Olympic Trials. In the same women’s 100-meter backstroke finals, NC State’s Kennedy Noble, Rhyan White and incoming freshman Leah Shackley finished third, fifth and seventh, respectively. Raleigh native Claire Curzan, who is a silver medalist from the 2020 Summer Olympics and swims at Virginia, finished eighth in the race, too.
NC State’s Daniel Diehl and Hunter Tapp performed well in the men’s 200-meter backstroke event, finishing sixth and eighth, respectively, in the finals. Two more NC State swimmers, Ross Dant and Will Gallant, came in fifth and seventh place, respectively, in the men’s 800-meter freestyle finals.
Kyle Ponsler, another NC State swimmer, finished sixth in the men’s 400-meter individual medley finals, clocking in at 4:16.53.
Duke also had some athletes perform well in the swimming trials with Kaelyn Gridley finishing fifth in the women’s 100-meter breaststroke finals with a time of 1:07.38. Gridley also came in fifth place in the 200-meter breaststroke finals with a time of 2:27.44.
Duke’s Margo O’Meara made it to the women’s 3-meter springboard finals in the diving trials and finished 11th with a score of 507.
Jordan Willis, a rising senior at Marvin Ridge High School and the son of state Rep. District 68 David Willis, also competed in the swimming trials, finishing fourth in his heat and 41st overall in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke preliminary race. Willis, 17, was one of eight junior swimmers to compete in the event. He was part of Marvin Ridge’s boys’ 200 medley relay team that won two straight state titles from 2023-24.
Prior to last week’s trials, some other local athletes already punched their tickets to Paris, but for other countries.
Patrick Hussey, a swimmer at UNC, will represent Canada in the Olympics for the men’s 200-meter freestyle. This will be his first appearance in the Olympic Games, and he is UNC’s first swimming Olympian since 2004.
North Carolina’s Aranza Vazquez will make her second Olympic appearance and represent Mexico in the women’s springboard events. In the 2020 Olympics, Vazquez became the first female Olympic diver in UNC history and finished sixth in the women’s 3-meter springboard competition.
Incoming UNC swimmers Adam Maraana and Martin Kartavi also qualified for the Olympics earlier this month as they will represent Israel. Maraana will be the first Arab-Israeli swimmer to represent the country as well as the first Arab-Israeli Olympian to represent Israel since 1976. Maraana signed to the Tar Heels in November while Kartavi signed in February.
