Rio Olympics 2016: Stanford And Cal Showing Up Big In The Summer Games

The Olympics showcase some of the best athletes from around the globe engaged in some of the greatest competition around – and Team USA is doing very well early on, thanks to a healthy dash of Bay Area flavor.

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Elite athletes from colleges and universities across the country are proudly representing the United States in the 2016 Olympics Summer Games. And obviously, when these athletes put on the red, white, and blue, they cease to be Bruins, Gators, or Trojans and are simply Americans. But given the heated rivalries between some schools, it would be naïve to think there wasn’t some good natured trash talking going on.

A little school spirit never hurt anybody during the Games and can even serve as a bond between athletes. And speaking of the colleges and universities being represented during the Summer Games, the Bay Area is being represented quite nicely. In fact, no other school has sent more competitors to the Games than Stanford University, who has a whopping 31 athletes participating. And Cal Berkely is a distant second with their 16 participants.

Both schools have healthy contingents of athletes in Rio in events ranging from swimming to gymnastics to beach volleyball to rugby and everything in between. And thus far, both schools are showing out big in the Summer Games.

And despite having a smaller number of athletes participating, Cal has taken home more medals than Stanford so far. As of Tuesday, Cal had claimed six medals (two gold, three silver, and a bronze) and Stanford had tallied five (one gold and four silvers).

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Leading the charge for Cal is standout Ryan Murphy who claimed gold on Monday night in the 100m backstroke, which he finished in a new Olympic record of 51.97 seconds.

For Stanford, it’s superstar in the making Katie Ledecky, who shattered a world record in the 400m freestyle on Sunday night, finishing the race in an unbelievable three minutes; 56.46 seconds. Ledecky’s nearest competitor finished nearly five full seconds behind her.

Also medaling for Stanford are Lia Neal who took home a silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay – a team that Ledecky was also a part of. Fencer Alexander Massialas won a silver in the men’s individual foil, and Madeline Dirado also took home a silver as a part of the 4x100m freestyle relay team.

In addition to Murphy, also medaling for Cal are Nathan Adrian as part of the gold medal winning men’s 4x100m relay team that Anthony Ervin was also a part of. Dana Vollmer, a Berkeley alum has taken home two medals – a silver as part of the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team, and a bronze in the women’s 100m butterfly. And Kathleen Baker claimed a silver in the women’s 100m backstroke.

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The United States is doing quite well in Rio overall. As of this writing, Team USA leads the medal overall medal count with 22 medals (six gold, eight silver, eight bronze). China is second in the medal count with 16 trips to the podium.

Team USA is making some waves down in Rio and there is a distinct Bay Area flavor to their success thus far.