Long Beach has sent a group of 21 athletes and coaches to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, and they are not coming home empty-handed. Long Beach athletes are coming home with one silver medal and two bronze medals as attention turns to the 2028 Olympic Games, which will be held in Southern California with several events in the city.
While the medal haul doesn’t rival that of many previous Olympics – most notably the 2012 London Olympics, where local athletes brought home 15 medals, including seven gold – it’s still a big haul for a city of less than 500,000 people. To put it in perspective, if Long Beach had competed 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 went to Justine Wong-Orantes, libero for the U.S. women’s volleyball team. The Americans took silver after being swept by Italy 25-18, 25-20, 25-17 in Sunday’s gold medal match. Wong-Orantes was one of the best passers of the Games and made 10 saves in the semifinals that put the Americans in the gold medal match.
Wong-Orantes is a Cypress native and considers herself an adopted daughter of Long Beach. She attended nearby Los Al High but won a national title in high school with her club team, Long Beach Mizuno. Wong-Orantes’ father coached at Mizuno and she was an assistant coach at Long Beach State for a year. She said she grew up playing volleyball at the Walter Pyramid.
The U.S. women took gold in Tokyo, their best finish to date, and won their fourth silver medal this year (the team has also won two bronze medals). The team has now medaled at five consecutive Olympics and will be among the favorites to do so again in 2028.
The team with the most Olympians from Long Beach won bronze as the U.S. water polo team won a thrilling shootout against Hungary 11-8. The Americans trailed by two goals in the fourth quarter but fought back to tie the game and send the game to a shootout. Wilson alumnus Max Irving hit his shot, as did fellow Long Beach native Hannes Daube.
Long Beach’s Chase Dodd also scored a point early in the game, and his brother Ryder Dodd completed the group of four Long Beach athletes on the team, which was also coached by Long Beach State coach Gavin Arroyo as an assistant coach.
The city has a long tradition in the men’s national team; there has only been one Olympic team that did not include at least one athlete from Long Beach.
The bronze medal was a great finish for the Americans, who have never won gold. It is their first medal since 2008, when they took silver in Beijing. The team has won three silver medals (1984, 1988, 2008) and four bronze medals (1924, 1932, 1972, 2024). The American team is expected to include several Olympians from Long Beach when the city hosts the sport at the 2028 Olympics.
The other bronze medals went to two former Long Beach State players, TJ DeFalco and Kyle Ensing, and the USA volleyball team. The Americans defeated Italy to take the bronze medal in a thrilling match, 25-23, 30-28, and 26-24. DeFalco was one of the games’ stars, scoring 12 kills in the bronze match, the most of his team – he had all three set points for the USA. Ensing was the team’s official alternate, but will also come home with a bronze medal. Former LBSU assistant coach and Mizuno Long Beach co-founder Matt Fuerbringer was also an assistant coach for the team.
The U.S. national volleyball team has now won three bronze medals, their first medal since 2016, when they took bronze in Rio. They also finished third in 1992 and won three gold medals in 1984, 1988 and 2008. The 2028 team will likely include several Long Beach State graduates, including DeFalco.
Coaches don’t win medals at the Olympics, but if they did, U.S. women’s track and field head coach LaTanya Sheffield would have brought home a whole host of medals. She led the world’s most successful track and field team since the 1984 American team. Her women won seven gold, five silver and four bronze medals, and Sheffield was a star with her “It’s personal” pre-Olympics speech, which aired several times on NBC.
One team that narrowly missed a medal was the U.S. women’s water polo team, which included many Long Beach residents and was coached by longtime LBCC coach Chris Oeding as an assistant coach. The Americans lost to the Netherlands in the bronze medal match in a heartbreaking 11-10 game. This is the first time the Americans have failed to win a medal since the sport was introduced to the Olympics in 2000 – they had hoped for a fourth consecutive gold medal.
Other Long Beach Olympians who participated included Rachel Glenn, a former track and field athlete from Wilson, Adam Channel, a former rugby player from Millikan, rugby players Marcus Tupuola and Lucas Lacamp from Belmont Shore, and former golfer Xander Schauffele from Long Beach State.
