Vegan power at the Paris Olympics

Brazil’s volleyball team had two vegans at the heart of the team.  Ana Carolina turned vegan after her teammate Macris Carneiro made the change and saw her performance improve.  The team made the final stages after some conclusive early wins, dropping their first set in the semifinals in a tie-break loss to USA.  They won the Bronze medal, Ana and Macris adding this to their Silver at Tokyo in 2021 and the World Championship Silver – all medals won as vegans.

In men’s volleyball Jan Zimmerman played in a German team who made the quarterfinals and finished 6th.

On the track Constantin Preis competed in the 400 metres hurdles and Switzerland’s Jonas Raess was involved in an unusual 5000 metre heat.  Several runners fell and qualifications were awarded on appeal; Jonas was not able to progress with his time of 13:55.

Vivian Kong competed at the games for the third time.  The fencer (individual epee) has been World Champion and world number 1, but failed to win a medal at previous attempts.  This time she made the final and fought back from 7-1 down in the final set to take  a fantastic win and well-deserved Gold, in what will probably be her last Olympics.

Eleanor Harvey was another vegan fencer, representing Canada – who had never won a medal in the sport.  The team progressed well, missing out on the podium by the narrowest of margins, losing 33-32 in the Bronze medal match.  Eleanor did make the podium and her place in history, making the semi finals and taking Bronze to Canada for the first time.

Amanda Schott lifted well in the women’s 71 kg division of the weightlifting, taking 8th.

Spain’s Nadia Erostarbe seemed to love every second of the surfing, taking some great early results to progress to the quarter finals, where she was edged out by the eventual Silver medallist and finished fifth.

GB’s Anna Henderson won Silver in the cycling time trials.  Anna says she feels faster and leaner as a vegan, and expects more cyclists to drop the meat and dairy in future.

Marina Fioravento represented Brazil in the rugby 7s where the team finished 10th overall.

Climbing made it’s second appearance at the Olympics, and Germany’s Alexander Megos returned.  The former World Silver medallist missed out on a place in the final this time.

Australian Oceania McKenzie did make the final and finished 7th.  ‘Oce’ has attracted attention for her international achievements at a young age and will be interesting to watch in the future.

Diana Taurasi completes a remarkable Olympic story .  The veteran basketballer has played in five previous Olympics and took Gold in each.  Now aged 42, the GOAT of the sport with a collection of WNBA records has her sixth Gold after USA edged the basketball final.

As a website an interesting development has been that we discovered vegans during the games that we didn’t know about before.  It’s an example of how veganism is becoming more mainstream – especially among sportspeople.