The University of California sent 110 athletes-- winning 35 medals including 12 gold -- to the recently concluded 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, a larger contingent than many countries. Historically, participants with UC connections have performed well in these international competitions and the Summer Games proved to be no exception. In fact, if UC were a country, its 2004 medal total would have been exceeded by only 11 other nations.

UC students and alumni won a total of 12 gold, 10 silver and 13 bronze medals.

Among Olympic athletes winning multiple medals were swimmers and UC alums Natalie Coughlin, 22, [UC Berkeley], who led the UC participants with five medals including two gold and two silver, and Jason Lezak, 28, [UC Santa Barbara], who won one gold medal and one bronze.

Five members of the gold-medal U.S. softball team honed their athletic prowess at UCLA -- Lisa Fernandez, 33, described by Sports Illustrated as the country's best softball player and who won her third consecutive Olympic gold medal, Tairia Flowers, 23, Amanda Freed, 24, Stacey Nuveman, 26, and Natasha Watley, 22.

Joy Fawcett, 36, [UC Berkeley/UCLA] has been a mainstay of the U.S. women's soccer team for years, and helped the squad win the gold medal this summer.

The U.S. duo of Holly McPeak, 35, [UC Berkeley/UCLA] and Elaine Youngs, 34, [UCLA] brought home the bronze in beach volleyball.

Other gold medal winners with UC connections included Pete Cipollone, 33, [UC Berkeley] in men's eight rowing, Joanna Hayes, 27, [UCLA] in the 100-meter hurdles, and Monique Henderson, 21, [UCLA] in the women's 1600-meter relay.This success in Athens topped by two the number of UC medals (34) from the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. UC would have also finished seventh among the world's nations at the Sydney games (beaten out by U.S., Russia, China, Australia, Germany and France).

More background on UC's 2004 Olympians: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/summerolympics2004.html

List of UC medal winners in Athens: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/2004olympicsmedalists.html

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