Blood, Sweat, and Tears for Mississippi’s Olympic Medalists

Mississippi has made a notable mark at the 2024 Olympics with several athletes from Mississippi State and Ole Miss entering on the world stage. From Team USA to Grenada, Mississippi schools foster diverse athletic talent.

Anderson Peters saves Mississippi State from their 24 year medal drought, winning bronze for his country of Grenada. Peters wrote history for himself, but also for the university, as this is State’s first field event Olympic medal ever. Additionally, Peters is the first Grenadian to win a medal in a throwing event, and adds to the island’s medal count of three. With the help of Peters, Greneda now stands at #1 for Olympic medals per capita. The small island’s population is only 126,887, and with two medals won (by Peters and Lindon Victor in the Decathlon) the population per medal is 63,433. To put that number in perspective, that would mean if you took the population of Jackson, Mississippi’s, split it in half, and subtracted 10,000, you would have two Olympians from that population.  Peters threw his javelin 88.54 meters to win bronze.

The famous Ole Miss graduate Sam Kendricks takes home silver for Team USA.  Back in the 2016 Rio Olympics, Kendricks was able to secure bronze in his event, pole vault. If you look into Kendrick’s athletic history, he has been a fierce pole vault competitor for around a decade, and the now two time Olympic medal winner had to put up a fight to place. He placed behind Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis, who set a world record with a jump of 6.25 meters. Kendricks won silver with a jump of 5.95, and he was aiming for a 6.00 clear. With the motivation of clearing 6.00, Kendricks spiked shoes cut his hand open. With blood gushing out of his finger and nowhere to wip it, Kendricks refused to wip it on his USA uniform. His cut open finger was instead wipped on his leg and arms, and he won silver through literal blood, sweat, and tears.

Author administrator Corinne Ellington