15 Terps Say ‘Bonjour’ to Summer Olympics, Paralympics

Crouse, a former graduate transfer from Duke, started all 22 games in her lone season with UMD in 2022. She led the Terps with five game-winning goals and earned National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) All-Mid-Atlantic First Team and All-Big Ten Second Team honors.

Brooke DeBerdine, who competed at UMD from 2017-21, was the first Terp to start 100 career games. The standout midfielder and captain was named the 2021 NFHCA Mid-Atlantic Region Player of the Year and was a two-time All-American, All-Big Ten honoree and NCAA All-Tournament Team selection.

Her sister, Emma DeBerdine, also earned two All-American and All-Big Ten nods from 2019-22. After her Olympic debut, Emma plans to return to UMD for her final year of eligibility this season.

“(It was) definitely special seeing my name and Emma’s name on the roster next to each other,” Brooke told NBC Washington. “I feel like there’s gonna be a lot of emotions that come up walking onto the field with Brooke and seeing our entire family in the stands.”

Lepage, a star Terp defender from 2016-19, was named to the NFHCA All-Region squad her senior season.

Goalkeeper coordinator Rizzo joined Maryland’s staff in March. As a player at Penn State from 2015-18, she tallied a .749 save percentage and was a two-time All-Big Ten Second Team honoree. She was also a member of the U19 and U21 U.S. national teams and the U.S. National Development Team.

Lorenz, captain of Team Germany, is competing in her third Olympics; the squad earned bronze in 2016 in Rio and placed sixth in 2021 in Tokyo. The defender spent one season at UMD in 2018, earning All-Big Ten Second Team recognition.

Balsdon, a reserve on Team Great Britain, is returning for her second Games after helping her country take bronze in Tokyo. In 2016, her one season as a Terp, she was named Big Ten Defender of the Year.

“Maryland is a place for athletes to come, hone in on the game, love it so much and be inspired by the coaching staff and the former players that have played here,” longtime Maryland head coach Missy Meharg said. “If you follow the program's lineage, which includes loving the game and playing at the highest level for as long as possible, the results can be endless.”

Hanssen went from imitating his favorite “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings” characters with toy swords as a kid to becoming vice president of the UMD Fencing Club as a Terp. With support from University Recreation and Wellness in 2022, the group made sure that Hanssen—who has used a wheelchair since he lost the use of his legs in a car accident at age 7—would be able to train safely by purchasing an accessible frame. The apparatus holds two wheelchairs steady at the proper distance and angles for bouts.

That preparation helped Hanssen excel in international competitions, including earning a team silver and an individual gold in saber in May’s Wheelchair Fencing Americas Championships. Now, he’ll compete with the same weapon as part of Team USA’s Paralympic squad.

“It’s been a lot of work to get to this point,” Hanssen said on DC News Now, “but it’s great to see it pay off.”

Versatile athlete LaFond earned All-American status and top-five all-time finishes in multiple field events at UMD from 2011-15. But she narrowed her professional focus solely to triple jump at the encouragement of coach Frank Costello—who had also worked with Renaldo Nehemiah ’81, one of the world’s best hurdlers.

Now, she’s leaping into her third Olympics. After injuring her hamstring and finishing last in the qualification round in Rio, she changed her jumping technique and placed 12th in Tokyo. She’s hoping to build on her recent success after taking gold at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, earlier this year, becoming Dominica’s first global champion in any sport.

“I am hoping that this inspires the next generation of young Dominica athletes to just go for it,” she said after the victory.

Onyekwere—who threw shot put, discus, hammer and javelin at UMD from 2012-16—juggled working as an engineer at Ford Motor Co., planning her two wedding ceremonies and training at the track to secure her first Olympic spot in Tokyo.

That came to a sudden halt, though, when she and nine other Nigerian track and field athletes were disqualified because the country’s athletic officials had not conducted enough drug tests.

Determined to not let that be her sole Olympic experience, she’s thrived at national and international meets since then, taking gold with a throw of 59.43 meters at this summer’s Nigerian Championships to punch her ticket to Paris.

“I’m ready to compete big. I’m making some adjustments in my technique to be more consistent,” she said after this year’s African Athletics Championships, where she placed third. “I’m really looking forward to being well prepared and being able to peak and throw my farthest in the Paris Olympics.”

After earning All-ACC Second Team honors as a four-year Terp starter (1993-96) and helping guide his alma mater to 2005 and 2008 national championships as an assistant coach, Payne is serving in the same role for the U.S. Men’s National Team at his first Olympics.

Now the head men’s soccer coach at Northwestern after 11 seasons at the helm at the U.S. Military Academy, Payne is bringing a wealth of experience to Paris. He served as assistant coach of the national team in the 2023 Concacaf Nationals League Finals and Concacaf Gold Cup, and he was the squad’s goalkeepers coach from 2015-17. He also played professionally himself, competing in Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands and with three Major League Soccer teams.

Siebert, who logged top-10 times as a Terp middle distance runner from 2002-06 and just wrapped up her 16th season as associate head coach, will bring that experience to Paris as USA Track and Field’s women’s head manager.

On top of guiding multiple student-athletes to NCAA championships and school records, Siebert has held multiple roles with USA Track and Field throughout her coaching career. She was an event manager in Tokyo and the 2017 world championships, and she was head manager at the 2017 U20 Pan American Games.

For Stevens, bouncing on a trampoline is much more than backyard playtime. As one of the world’s top athletes in trampoline gymnastics—where competitors reach heights of 20 feet or more and are judged on how well they can execute 10 skills during a roughly one-minute routine—she earned bronze in November’s world championships to qualify the U.S. for a Paris berth.

“I love the feeling of flying,” she said. “It’s so peaceful up in the air.”

She qualified for the national team by the time she was 13, and at UMD, she’s balanced in-person and online classes with a rigorous training schedule. She competed at three Olympic trials this spring and summer, officially earning her spot on the team in June.

As she makes her Games debut in Paris, UMD’s all-time leading scorer will become the Terps’ first U.S. Olympian in women’s basketball since legend Vicky Bullett ’89 (1988, 1992).

From 2010-14, Thomas rewrote Maryland’s record books with 2,356 career points and 1,235 rebounds, leading the Terps to the 2012 ACC championship and the 2014 Final Four. She was an All-American and three-time ACC Player of the Year.

After an Achilles injury prevented her from competing in Tokyo, she suited up in this year’s FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Belgium, averaging nine points per game.

“Everything happens for a reason, and it’s just my time now,” Thomas told MassLive.com.

Maryland assistant coach Winkler entered June’s U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials ranked seventh in the world in hammer throw, and his second-place mark of 258 feet, 10 inches at the event secured his spot on Team USA.

It’s the third Olympic Games for the American record holder after finishing 18th in Rio and seventh in Tokyo. Winkler, who competed at Cornell and Rutgers and joined UMD’s staff prior to the 2023-24 season, has also thrown in four world championships, with a top finish of sixth in 2022.

“I’ve grown up so much in the sport and evolved a lot mentally and physically,” he said after qualifying for Paris. “I just want to be able to experience the Olympics again from a new perspective.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to add Team USA men’s soccer assistant coach Russell Payne ’98.