Eight Brown alums represented their alma mater well at this summer's Olympic Games in Athens, with one graduate capturing a bronze medal.
Jimmy Pedro '94 led the effort by winning his second bronze medal in Judo. He is the first U.S. athlete to win two medals in the sport.
Pedro, the only Brown athlete to medal in the games, came out of retirement to win a bronze medal this summer in the 73-kilogram category, eight years after capturing bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
While at Brown, Pedro was captain of the wrestling team. His younger brother, Mike Pedro '06, who is the captain of this year's wrestling team, flew to Athens to help Jimmy train.
Alex Ottiano '98, another former wrestler turned Judo player, competed in the half-lightweight division.
Former rowers J. Sloan DuRoss '99 and Ben Holbrook '97 rowed with the U.S. men's quadruple skulls, and Liane Malcos '00 was a spare for the U.S. women's team.
Katie McDowell '98 was the skipper for the women's 470 sailing event, and Kevin Hall '91 was the sole American male to sail in the Finn class.
In the pool, Dawn Chuck '02 was a member of Jamaica's 400-meter relay team and competed in the 100-meter freestyle.
Across Ivy League schools, 54 athletes competed in the games, which tied the record for highest representation of athletes from the eight schools in any Olympics. The first modern-day Olympics, held in 1896 in Athens, featured a U.S. team made up completely of Ivy Leaguers. Despite the much longer and arduous journey to Athens, the 1896 team brought home an impressive 11 first-place finishes. (Silver - not gold - medals were awarded to first-place winners.)
The first Brown athlete to win a gold medal was Norman Stephen Taber '13, who won gold in the now defunct 3,000-meter team race at the 1912 Stockholm Games. Recent medals have gone to male rowers from an array of countries and female hockey players such as Tara Mounsey '01 and Katie King '97 for the United States and Becky Kellar '97 for Canada.
Brown rower Igor Boraska '94 competed in both the summer and winter Olympics for his native Croatia. After rowing in the 1992, 1996 and 2000 games, Boraska went from a boat to a bobsled for the 2002 games.
Herald staff writer Ian Cropp '05 is a sports editor. He can be reached at herald@browndailyherald.com.
