List of Cal’s 2012 Summer Olympians
UC Olympians (systemwide)
Cal Olympic stories
- Bears bring home 17 medals from Olympics, 11 of them gold August 13, 2012
- Day 13: Bears bring home the gold August 10, 2012
- Day 12: Two Bears advance, another falls August 9, 2012
- Day 10: Morgan heads Team USA into soccer final August 7, 2012
- Day 9: Women’s water polo powered by Cal alums August 6, 2012
- Day Six: Cafaro leads women’s crew team to gold August 3, 2012
- Day Five: Adrian, Vollmer lead Cal gold rush August 2, 2012
- Day Four: Bronze for Cal swimmer Leverenz August 1, 2012
- Day Three Olympics update: Women’s water polo win July 31, 2012
- Day Two Olympics update: Gold and silver for Cal Bear swimmers July 30, 2012
- For water polo standout Heather Petri, it’s Olympiad number four July 26, 2012
- Women’s soccer star to shine on New Zealand Olympic team July 25, 2012
- Cal senior set to swim in two Olympic events July 19, 2012
- Cal rower Kara Kohler heads to Olympics July 16, 2012
- ‘Octolympian’ Mike Teti, Cal men’s crew coach, heads to 8th Olympic Games July 12, 2012
- Cal doctor to oversee U.S. Olympic team’s medical staff June 28, 2012
[Editor's note: Since the original publication of this article, Cal Athletics learned of a 46th Bear at the London Olympics – Conny van Bentum, a former Cal swimmer, who served as team physician for the Netherlands' field hockey squad.]
As the opening ceremony for the 2012 Summer Olympics unfolds today in London, UC Berkeley has already hit a golden moment: With 45 participants, it has more student-athletes, coaches, alumni and other members of the campus community at the games than any other public school in the nation.
Videos of Cal Olympians
Natalie Coughlin and Coach Terry McKeever — Swimming
Nathan Adrian — Swimming
Zach Vlahos — Men’s Crew (coxswain)
Caitlin Leverenz — Swimming
Alysia Montanyo (alum) — Track
And among both public and private schools nationwide, UC Berkeley is No. 2 only to the University of Southern California (USC), which has sent 46 representatives to London for the 19 days of competition, according to data compiled by Cal Athletics. UC Berkeley’s number is nearly the same as it was at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, when it had 46 participants.
The 2012 total includes 38 athletes, five coaches, one chief medical officer and one event manager. The Cal contingent features athletes and coaches in 10 different sports — men’s basketball, men’s and women’s rowing, men’s and women’s swimming, men’s and women’s track and field, men’s and women’s water polo and women’s soccer.
“The Olympic Games is a prestigious international venue for Cal to continue to showcase the world-class excellence of our Golden Bears and the campus,” said Sandy Barbour, UC Berkeley’s director of athletics. “To return to the Olympics for the second time in a row with at least 45 representatives is a testament to the culture of high performance at Cal and is the result of so much hard work, dedication and sacrifice by our student-athletes, coaches and support staff. The fact that we compete and excel at the highest level helps enable Cal to consistently attract the most talented student-athletes in the world.”
Chancellor Robert Birgeneau added that, “In the history of the Summer Olympics, four California schools – UCLA, USC, Stanford and Berkeley – have collectively earned close to 450 gold medals, for the U.S. and for many countries around the world. I am very proud that Berkeley has 45 Cal Olympic participants in London, continuing our stellar legacy. On behalf of the entire campus, we send our best wishes to our Olympic athletes as they go for gold on the global stage.”
Over its history, Cal athletes have captured 159 total medals — 91 gold, 40 silver and 28 bronze — including a school-record 17 medals in Beijing in 2008.
In London, the largest group of Bears will be in the pool, where 19 athletes will swim for their countries. In addition, Cal women’s swimming coach Teri McKeever is the U.S. women’s head coach, and men’s assistant coach Greg Meehan is serving as an assistant for Estonia. Cal medical specialist Dr. Cindy Chang is the U.S. team’s chief medical officer, and alum Alan Kolling, a former Berkeley staffer, is event manager for the U.S. men’s track and field team.
Just over half of Cal’s Olympians will be wearing the red, white and blue of Team USA.
“It gives me a ton of pride,” said Scott Greenwood, an All-American swimmer on the Cal men’s swim team in 2000 and 2001 with Anthony Ervin, who is competing on Team USA in London in the 50-meter freestyle. “When I was there [at UC Berkeley], we had some success and we had some Olympians. At the time, we were right in the thick of it. But we didn’t have the success they are having today in terms of the depth on the Olympic team.”
Eleven members of the Cal group already have stood upon the Olympic medal stand previously, led by swimming’s Natalie Coughlin, who is a two-time champion in the 100-meter backstroke and has collected 11 total medals over the past two Olympiads. Cal’s other multiple-medal winner returning from 2008 is water polo standout Heather Petri, who is in her fourth Olympics. She helped the USA to a silver medal in both 2000 and 2008 and to a bronze medal in 2004.
Coughlin and Petri are just two of eight medalists from 2008 back at the games, with the others being Elsie Windes (water polo), Erin Cafaro (rowing), Zach Frandsen (rowing), Nathan Adrian (swimming), Milorad Cavic (swimming) and Sara Isakovic (swimming).
After missing out on the 2008 Olympics, swimmer Dana Vollmer is back after earning gold in 2004, while sprint freestyle specialist Ervin qualified for Team USA after picking up a gold and a silver in 2000. One other medal winner present will be Laurel Korholz, who captured silver in 2004 and now serves as an assistant coach for the USA rowing team.
