Long Beach sent a contingent of 21 athletes and coaches to the 2024 Paris Olympics, and they’re not coming home empty-handed. Long Beach athletes are coming home with a silver medal and a pair of bronzes, as attention begins to turn to the 2028 Olympics, which will be held in Southern California with several events in the city.
While the medal haul doesn’t equal many previous Olympics–most notably a 2012 London Olympics where local athletes brought home 15 medals including seven golds–it’s still a big haul for a city of less than 500,000 people. To put it in perspective, if Long Beach were competing as a country three medals would have put the city in the top 60 countries in the world, ahead of more than 140 other countries that competed in Paris.
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The silver was brought home by Justine Wong-Orantes, the libero for the United States women’s volleyball team. The Americans took silver after being swept by Italy in the gold medal game on Sunday, 25-18, 25-20, 25-17. Wong-Orantes was one of the best passers at the Games, and had 10 digs in the semifinal to put the Americans in the gold medal match.
A Cypress native, Wong-Orantes considers herself an adopted daughter of Long Beach. She attended nearby Los Al High but won a national title in high school with club team Long Beach Mizuno. Wong-Orantes’ father coached with Mizuno and she was an assistant coach at Long Beach State for a year, and said she grew up watching volleyball in the Walter Pyramid.
The US women won gold in Tokyo as their best-ever finish, and this year won their fourth-ever silver medal (the team has also won two bronzes). The team has now medaled in five consecutive Olympics, and will be favorites to do so again in 2028.
The team featuring the most Long Beach Olympians won bronze, as the United States men’s water polo team won a thrilling shootout with Hungary, 11-8. The Americans were down two goals in the fourth quarter but battled back to tie it and send it to a shootout. Wilson alum Max Irving hit his shot, as did fellow Long Beach native Hannes Daube.
Long Beach’s Chase Dodd also had a score early in the game, and his brother Ryder Dodd rounded out a group of four Long Beach athletes on the squad, which was also assistant coached by Long Beach State coach Gavin Arroyo.
The city has a deep history on the men’s national team, with only one Olympic team ever not featuring at least one Long Beach athlete.
The bronze was a great finish for the Americans, who have never won a gold. It’s their first medal since 2008, when they won silver in Beijing. The team has three silvers (1984, 1988, 2008) and four bronzes (1924, 1932, 1972, 2024). The American team should feature multiple Long Beach Olympians when the city plays host to the sport in the 2028 Olympics.
The other bronzes went to a pair of Long Beach State alums, TJ DeFalco and Kyle Ensing, and the United States men’s volleyball team. The Americans swept Italy to claim bronze in a thriller 25-23, 30-28, 26-24. DeFalco was one of the stars of the Games, including a team-high 12 kills in the bronze match–he had all three set points for the USA. Ensing was the team’s official alternate but will come home with a bronze as well. Former LBSU assistant coach and Mizuno Long Beach co-founder Matt Fuerbringer was an assistant coach with the team as well.
The US men’s volleyball team has now won three bronzes as they capture their first medal since 2016, when they won bronze in Rio. They also took third in 1992, and captured three gold medals in 1984, 1988, and 2008. The team is likely to feature multiple Long Beach State alums in 2028 including DeFalco.
Coaches don’t get medals at the Olympics, but if they did, United States women’s track and field head coach LaTanya Sheffield would have brought home quite a haul. She presided over the most successful track and field team the world has seen since the 1984 American squad. Her women brought home seven golds, five silvers, and four bronzes, and Sheffield was a star with her “it’s personal” pre-Olympics speech which was shown several times on NBC.
One team that came up just short of a medal was the United States women’s water polo team, which featured several Long Beach residents and was assistant coached by longtime LBCC coach Chris Oeding. The Americans were defeated in the bronze medal game in a heartbreaker, 11-10, by the Netherlands. This is the first time the Americans have failed to capture a medal since the sport was introduced to the Olympics in 2000–they had been seeking a fourth straight gold medal.
Other Long Beach Olympians who competed included Wilson track alum Rachel Glenn, Millikan rugby alum Adam Channel and Belmont Shore rugby products Marcus Tupuola and Lucas Lacamp, and former Long Beach State golfer Xander Schauffele.
