U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky smiles with her gold medal after winning the Women’s 1500m Freestyle final at the Paris 2024 Olympics on July 31, 2024. Ledecky swam at Stanford University, which has the most Olympic athletes of any college in the Games.
American colleges and universities are major training grounds for future Olympians.
This year, there are 592 members of Team USA. Three out of four of those athletes played at the collegiate level, according to the U.S. Olympic Committee.
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Stanford leads the pack with 37 athletes. The school's most recognizable alum is swimmer Katie Ledecky, who, as of Wednesday, has won 12 Olympics medals in her career, including eight golds — tying Jenny Thompson's record for the most by any female swimmer in Olympic history.
The 27-year-old is still expected to compete in two more events in Paris, which could give her the chance to leave the Games with the most gold medals won by an American woman in Olympic history.
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After Stanford, next on the list is the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with 17 athletes, and the University of Southern California (USC) with 16.
Here are the top 10 colleges and universities with the most American athletes in the 2024 Olympics:
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In total, 169 schools from 45 different athletic conferences will have one or more U.S. Olympians competing in Paris — everywhere from Santa Barbara City College and Eastern Illinois University to Princeton University and Yale University.
Team USA's college footprint spans all three NCAA divisions, junior colleges, collegiate club programs and schools in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
Some colleges and universities specialize in producing athletes in niche Olympic sports.
Ohio State University, for example, has three current and former students on Team USA's five-person pistol team. The entire men's saber team (an event in fencing) consists exclusively of athletes from Harvard: three alumni and one incoming freshman.
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