Veronica Fraley joined a track and field club with her brother in middle school, as a way to get fit before the school year started. She became a thrower because she decided she didn’t want to be a runner anymore. It was hot. She wasn’t very fast. It wasn’t a good time, she told the City Cast Nashville podcast.
"After about a week, my brother actually kind of slid to the side and like got out of all of the running and drills and stuff. And I was like, 'Why does he get to do that?,'" she told host Margaret Kingsbury. “Come to find out was because he decided to throw shot put instead. And I was like, I just want to go do this … I don't want to run anymore. So I kind of just followed him over there. And it just stuck. I guess the rest is history.”
Now, Fraley will compete in the Olympics.
The 24-year-old Wakefield High School graduate from Raleigh, will throw the discus in Paris for USA Track and Field. She already has an NCAA national championship under her belt, winning it for Vanderbilt University in Nashville. She parlayed that training into Olympic Team Trials in Eugene, Oregon.
Fraley is far from the only athlete with North Carolina ties competing in the 2024 Olympic Games.
There is a long list of athletes who currently reside in the Tar Heel State, like NC Courage goalkeeper Casey Murphy, and Josh Green of the Charlotte Hornets, who will play for Australia. Plenty attended school in NC too, like swimmer Katharine Berkoff, who swam for North Carolina State, and Jayson Tatum, who played basketball at Duke for a year before going to the NBA.
The Paris Olympics will start on July 26. Here’s a list of some North Carolina Olympians to keep an eye on this summer.
Anna Cockrell — Track and Field
The Paris Games will be Cockrell’s second Olympics. The Charlotte native finished in eighth in the 400 meter hurdles in 2020. Her brother Ross is a former NFL cornerback.
Kaylyn Brown — Track and Field
The sprinter is making her Olympics debut. Brown, 19, is a student at the University of Arkansas, and graduated from Mallard Creek High School in Charlotte.
Evy Leibfarth — Canoe and Kayak
The 20-year-old from Bryson City will compete in her second career Olympics. Leibfarth competed in both canoe and kayak during the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Steph Curry — Men’s Basketball
If there’s anyone on this list who needs to introduction, it’s the king of the three-pointer. This will be the Golden State Warriors star’s first Olympics. Curry is from Charlotte, and went to Davidson College.
Gianluca Busio — Men’s Soccer
The 22-year-old from Greensboro plays for the Italian soccer club Venezia. This will be his first Olympics.
Cierra Burdick — Women’s 3x3 Basketball
The Charlotte native plays for Valencia Basket Club in Spain. This is her Olympics debut.
Andrew Capobianco — Diving
Capobianco took home a silver medal in the 2020 Olympic games in the men’s 3-meter synchronized diving. This year, the 24-year-old from Holly Springs will be paired up with college teammate Quinn Henninger.
Lily Williams — Cycling
Williams won a bronze medal in the 2020 Games. She was a collegiate runner at Vanderbilt, specializing in the one-mile race, before switching to cycling in 2016 after she began to work at a bicycle shop. Though she was born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida, Williams and her family vacationed in Asheville growing up. When she graduated from college, she moved there and made it her home.
Bam Adebayo — Men’s Basketball
The 2016 North Carolina Mr. Basketball was born in New Jersey, but grew up in High Point. He will join Curry in the basketball team’s pursuit of gold. Adebayo won gold in 2020.
Naya Tapper — Rugby
Tapper grew up in was born in Beaufort, and attended the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. The 29-year-old was on the 2020 Olympic rugby team, which finished in sixth place.
Sammy Sullivan — Rugby
A Fayetteville native, Sullivan found rugby in college while attending Army West Point. This is the 26-year-old’s first Olympic Games. Learn more about Sullivan in her interview with WUNC’s Due South.
