University Libraries
Flyers at the Olympics
By Kristina Schulz
The 2024 Olympic Games kick off on Friday, July 26, in Paris. With more than 200 countries participating in what many consider the most important test of athleticism, University Archives decided to look at how the University of Dayton has contributed to the excellence of this international competition.
Mariah Perez
Mariah Perez ’23, who played her fifth and final season on the Flyer women's basketball team in 2023-24, earned a spot on the Puerto Rican women's basketball team. Her first game is set for July 28 against Serbia. To follow the team's progress, see its page on the Olympics website.
Casey Bogues
Casey Bogues, a junior track and field athlete at UD, competed in the 2024 U.S. Olympic trials in Oregon in early July. While she did not make the U.S. Olympic team for javelin throw, Bogues set a new personal and school record with a distance of 57.41 meters, topping the UD record she set in March 2023 by 3.61 meters. She will return to UD in the fall to start her senior year.
Katie Nagoette Moon
Former Flyer Katie Nagoette Moon, who competed in pole vaulting for UD during her freshman year in 2009-10, earned a gold medal in Tokyo during the 2020 Summer Olympics. Moon transferred to Ashland University for her sophomore year and continued to excel in pole vault, winning two NCAA Division II titles. She qualified for this year’s U.S. Olympic track and field team.
Christine Bayley
As a senior at UD in 2002, Christina Bayley was selected to carry the Olympic torch for the Salt Lake City Games through a .02-mile leg in her hometown of Kettering, Ohio. A taekwondo instructor and fifth-degree black belt, Bayley has been involved with the Olympics as an athlete and coach. She attended the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney as a delegate with the U.S. taekwondo team and missed a turn in the Atlanta Games when the sport was pulled. This did not stop Bayley from continuing her involvement in Olympic competition. She has served as an Olympic team coach since 2005 and is head master instructor at her taekwondo studio in Kettering.
Mike Sylvester ’74
Mike Sylvester ’74 medaled at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow while playing basketball for Italy. Sylvester played for UD’s men’s basketball team from 1971 to 1974 and scored 36 points in the 1974 NCAA Tournament game against UCLA. Of Italian descent, Sylvester was able to claim dual citizenship in 1977 while playing professionally for Olimpia Milano. Unsure of whether he should participate in the Summer Games in Moscow since the United States boycotted the games that year, Sylvester contacted the State Department. Sylvester was given the go-ahead to play and took home a silver medal with the Italian national basketball team.
Don Donoher ’54
The late Don Donoher, a 1954 UD graduate and head coach of the UD men’s basketball team from 1964 to 1989, was an assistant coach for Team USA in the 1984 Olympics under head coach Bobby Knight. The team took gold.
Chantae McMillan
Chantae McMillan, a volunteer track coach for the Flyers during the 2015-16 academic year, participated in the heptathlon in the 2012 London Olympics. This event consists of 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200-meter, long jump, javelin throw, and 800-meter. While McMillan did not medal in 2012, she set personal bests in several events. McMillan went on to place fifth in the 2015 Pan American Combined Events Cup before joining the UD coaching staff.
Joe Tyler ’70
Joe Tyler ’70, a Flyer football standout, made the 1980 Winter Olympics in the bobsleigh, as the event was called that year. He competed in both the two-man and four-man sled events, although he did not win a medal. Tyler later went on to coach, working with the Jamaican bobsled team.
Carol Siciliano
Athletes need a tremendous amount of medical and training support to keep them in top-notch condition. Carol Siciliano, UD professor emerita of health and sport science, was involved in both the Atlanta and Sydney Olympics, volunteering with the medical team to provide massage therapy for athletes. She was one of 120 massage therapists selected out of 2,100 applicants in Atlanta. For Siciliano, working with the athletes eight hours a day for four weeks was a learning experience and the “ultimate education.”
Terry Miller
While the spotlight is always on the athletes during the games, it takes a multitude of people to plan and implement the smooth running of the entire production. Terry Miller ’77, a UD School of Law graduate, was appointed general counsel for the London 2012 organizing committee. Lawyers play an important role in contractual agreements that need to be drawn up for all of the contractors, partners and suppliers. Miller’s main priority focused on protecting intellectual property, such as symbols and emblems of the Games.
Fun fact for 2024
The opening ceremony for the 2024 Paris Olympics will take place on the Seine River — a modern twist on Olympic tradition. Boats will parade the athletes of each national delegation through the city on this historic waterway. This is the first opening ceremony that will not be held in a stadium.
— Kristina Schulz is the University archivist and coordinator of special collections.
Sources consulted:
Olympians from the Dayton Area: A History of 60 Top Athletes
Bogues Shines at Olympic Trials