NEW ROCHELLE, NY – With the opening ceremonies kicking off today, four former Iona University athletics department student-athletes and staff will be participating in the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad and Paris 2024 from July 26-August 11 in Paris, France. Men's cross country / track & field alumni
Leonard Korir '12 and
Mael Gouyette '23 join women's basketball graduate
Juana Camilion '22, '23MA and former women's soccer head coach
Emma Hayes at the 2024 Olympics.
Leonard Korir '12 • Team USA • TRACK • Men's Marathon
Two-time NCAA champion Leonard Korir makes his second Olympic games appearance for Team USA after qualifying in 2024 for the marathon event. Korir previously participated in the Rio games in 2016 in the 10,000-meter event. He placed 14th in the global event and second USA runner to cross the line. Korir was the first American Olympian for the Maroon & Gold. The now 37-year old runner missed qualifying for the Marathon in Tokyo 2020 by just three seconds.
Korir enlisted in the United States Army and joined the Army's World Class Athlete Program following his Iona graduation. In the most recent, USATF Marathon Olympic Trials staff sergeant Korir finished third overall in the February event in Orlando, Florida.
At Iona, Korir was the Gaels' first ever NCAA champion, accomplishing the feat twice in 2011 in the indoor 5,000-meter and outdoor 10,000-meter events and was an eight-time All-American. At the conference level, his winning resulted in being named the 2011 MAAC Most Outstanding Track Performer.
A list of his tremendous post Iona career accomplishments is available on his
Army WCAP bio.
The men's marathon takes place Saturday, August 10, at 2 a.m. ET and starts at the ??Hotel de Ville, before passing by Versailles and ending at Les Invalides.
Mael Gouyette '23MA • Team France • TRACK • Men's 1500-meters
The most recent Gael Olympic qualifier, Gouyette posted an Olympic qualifying time of 3:32.67 on June 15, at the IAAF event Meeting Nikaia in Nice, France finishing first overall among 17 world-class runners from Europe and Australia. He earned a spot on the national team with a
second place performance at the French Championships on June 30. His time of 3:43.86 was a tenth of a second behind the race winner.
Gouyette finished his two-year tenure in New Rochelle in 2023 with an impressive resume. He set the fastest outdoor mile time, 4:01.83, and was the sixth runner to post a sub-4 minute indoor mile. Gouyette ranks in the top 10 in the indoor 800-meter event and was the 15th runner in school history to run a sub-8-minute indoor 3,000-meters. Gouyette was a two-time MAAC Champion in the 2023 outdoor 5k and 2022 indoor distance medley relay and a two-time MAAC silver medalist to earn four medals in his four track championship appearances. He also earned All-MAAC honors with a sixth place finish in the MAAC Cross Country Championship in 2022.
Check out Mael's accomplishments on his
World Athletics' profile.
The first round of the men's 1,500-meter event takes place Friday, August 2, at 5:05 a.m. ET at the Stade de France. The repechage round follows the next day at 1:15 p.m. ET for a second chance at advancing to the next round. The 1,500 semifinal takes place Sunday, August 4 at 3:10 p.m. ET and the final on Tuesday, August 6 at 2:50 p.m. ET.
Emma Hayes • Team USA • Women's Soccer Head Coach
Emma Hayes was
named the 10th full-time US Women's Soccer national team head coach in November 2023 and began coaching the team following the completion of her 12 seasons as leader of the Chelsea FC Women. Hayes coached the Gaels from 2003-2006 and was extraordinarily successful in her tenure in New Rochelle.
During Hayes' time as head coach of Iona, the Gaels won 22 games, the most in a three-year stretch in program history. Inheriting a team that won two games the year before her arrival, Hayes' first season saw mild improvement with a three-win season. In her second and third years, Iona posted a 19-16-4 record, including 11-5-2 in MAAC play and two MAAC Championship berths before being eliminated by the eventual tournament champions both years. In 2004, her second season, Hayes was named MAAC Coach of the Year after a six-game improvement from a season before. Hayes was responsible for recruiting and coaching some of the top players to perform in Maroon & Gold. Several of her players went on to NCAA coaching positions following graduation.
Coach Hayes
recently announced the USWNT roster in late June.
The USWNT defeated Zambia in its opening group stage match on Thursday 3-0 at Nice Stadium. They take on Germany Sunday (August 28) at 3 p.m. ET and Australia on Wednesday, July 31 at 1 p.m., ET both at Marseille Stadium. The quarterfinal round begins August 3 with the semifinal on August 6 and the gold medal match on August 10 at Parc des Princes.
Juana Camilion '22, '23MA • Team Spain • Women's Basketball 3x3
Juana Camilion represents her native Spain as one of eight teams competing in women's 3x3 basketball at the Olympics. Camilion and her teammates Vega Gimeno, Sandra Ygueravide and Gracia Alonso De Armiño secured one of the final three qualifying spots with a successful 5-0 record at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament held in Debrecen, Hungary from May 16-19, 2024.
A two-year member of the 3x3 national team, she helped her country secure a silver medal at the 2023 FIBA 3x3 Europe Cup. Camilion began her professional career this past season, playing for Tuenti Movil Estudiantes Madrid. She appeared in 33 games averaging 5.5 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game and helped her team reach the semifinals in the Spanish LF Endesa Cup.
One of the best women's basketball players in Iona history, Camilion led the Gaels to the program's second-ever MAAC regular season and tournament championship in 2022-23. She won MAAC Player of the Year, MAAC Defensive Player of the Year and MAAC Championship Most Outstanding performer, All-MAAC First Team and MBWA All-Met Second team honors. Camilion also earned MAAC Defensive Player of the Year as a true senior in 2022 and collected All-MAAC honors in all five seasons with the Maroon & Gold. She finished her career among the program's best with 1,614 points (fifth all-time at Iona), 580 rebounds, 433 assists (sixth all-time), 278 steals (first all-time) and 160 three-pointers made (sixth all-time).
Check out Juana's
FIBA 3x3 profile and
3x3 Olympic Games portal.
An eight-team pool will see six teams advance to the tournament round. The top two teams qualify for the semifinals while the next four compete in a play in round. Spain's pool matchups feature Azerbaijan (Tuesday, July 30, 3 p.m. ET), France (July 31, 3 p.m.), China (August 1, noon), United States (August 1, 3:30 p.m.), Australia (August 2, 6:30 a.m.), Canada (August 2, 3 p.m.), and Germany (August 3, noon). All games are played at La Concorde.
Iona In The Olympics
This marks the second time that multiple representatives of Iona University will compete in the Olympic games in the same year. In 2016, Korir was joined by Maya Rehberg who represented Germany in the 3,000-meter steeple chase in Rio de Janeiro. They were the first Iona Olympians in school history.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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