College Football Players in the 2024 Summer Olympics: Wes Kitts, Perry Baker Represent the USA

The Olympic Games starts with the opening ceremony on Friday July 26 2024 and will end on August 11 2024. More than 1100 participants will either be currently, formerly, or in the future NCAA student athletes: 385 of these athletes will represent the United States. Out of them how many hail from the college football field?

Is There Any Present Day College Football Players in 2024 Olympics?

Paris stages this international sporting event for the third time, on behalf of the USA, with participants from about 250 NCAA universities and nearly 60 conferences. However, from the 385 participating for the USA only, 57 are current student-athletes and none is from football.

There are two main factors for college football — and professional football, for that matter — being underrepresented in the Olympics every four years:There are two main factors for college football — and professional football, for that matter — being underrepresented in the Olympics every four years:

1) Today there is no American football in Olympics but the closest related game would be Rugby. Last year, the future of the sport seemed bleak as the Women’s National Team did not qualify for the world championships; however, that will change in 2028 when flag football will be part of the Olympic games when it is hosted in Los Angeles.

2) American football differs from other sports in the fact that it entails training sessions.

Wide receivers, generally, are considered the fastest players on the football filed, though they cannot challenge Olympic sprinters because they hardly practice constant running as they hardly run in straight lines for a great distance.

The payout of college football athletes if they get drafted into the NFL is a lifetime ability to make generational wealth, which clearly indicates that there is no motivation to strength train for some Olympic exercise over specializing for a position on a football field.

However, that does not in any way mean there are no former college football players who are currently playing in France.

Wes Kitts, Austin Peay: O Weight lifting, United States

Wes Kitts measured 6’0″ and 211 pounds; he accepted the Austin Peay’ offer in the 2008 class initially playing as a running back. After playing his freshman year strictly on special teams, he did not get much of a chance the following year, but by 2010 earned a spot on the backfield rotation.

Kitts featured for the Governors in twenty six games and was involved in the following statistic; carry-211, yards-1,1180, touchdowns-5. He began his starter role in the year 2012 when he rushed 104 yards against the Western Kentucky and a career record high of 68-yard-TD against them and also scored his career-best 110 yards against Virginia Tech in the opening season, thereby making him the first Austin Peay player ever to achieve back to back matchup victory of the rushing 100 plus yards against two different FBS counterparts.

When given time out from playing football Kitts also ventured on into the world of weight lifting a thing he found interning for when training for the football team. Handle Barbell Open is the first competition which this man participated in, in the year 2013. In 2016, Kitts proved to be capable of doing so, and hightailed it from Tennessee to the San Francisco area.

Since then, eh has been third at the Pan American Championships four times in five attempts, in total a gold three times at the Pan American Championships eh 2018 2019 eh 2023 & Silver in 2017. He also was at five World Championships (2017 – 10 th, 2018 –12 th, 2019 – 14 th, 2022 – 7 th, 2023 – 11 th) and participated in the Olympics in Tokyo in the year 2020, and he came to the eighth position in the men’s heavy weight class.

Now, Kitts enters his second games embodying his late father’s mantra: “Be Somebody. ” Unfortunately, for Kitts, his family, and his business, they all had to move back to Knoxville and Kitts has recently opened the “BE SOMEBODY Performance” gym for people who want to form the community of weightlifters in the city.

“My biggest motivator was making [my dad] proud until I had my son, [and] it sort of shifted,” Kitts said to NBC Sports last summer. “It’s sort of setting the pace and then demonstrating to my sons that they could achieve certain things if they wished to. ”

Perry Baker, Fairmont State: Rugby-Sevens, USA

As for Division II Fairmont State which is not famous for training super athletes, Perry Baker is an exception. He has spent 43 games with the Fighting Falcons where he received the 90 receptions, created 1,552 yards, as well as scored 19 touchdowns as the 170-pound and 6’1″ WR.

In 2008 the receiving line was 34-589-9; thus, he managed to combine first-team All-WVIA. However, he suffered from a high ankle sprain and due to this reason he could only manage 16 receptions and 233 receiving yards in 2009. But Baker finished his career in a positive note by taking 28 passes for 501 yards and nine TD’s earning him a second team all-conference.

He was good enough to earn a contract at least with the Philadelphia Eagles when he went undrafted, however a pre-season physical where he was caught with a torn meniscus that was previously unknown negated any possibility of him going further.

“All I ever thought of was football, I knew I could play in the NFL, that’s all I ever wanted; I had no Plan B, backup, none of that,” Baker said to the NCAA this summer. “Then I faced adversity really hard when I got cut from the Eagles, and I failed my physical from my torn meniscus. ”

Baker further opted for the Arena Football league playing for the Pittsburgh Power for a few years though his dream to play for the NFL was dead. Then he discovered rugby. He switched, as coaches of the Tiger Rugby Academy in Columbus, Ohio, motivated him to transition.

Baker began his World Rugby Sevens Series in the year 2014, and for this, he was listed for the Rookie of the Year in World Rugby. After that, in the 2015-16 season, he topped the charts of the USA Eagles in terms of tries scored with 48. This will be the third Olympic Games for Paris-born Moore as he was first named in the USA team in 2016 and again in 2020.

Kevon Williams, New Mexico Highlands: Rugby-Sevens, United States

Another up and coming talent, Kevon Williams was even more prolific, hauling 215 career passes for 2,883 yards and 16 touchdowns at Division II New Mexico Highlands from 2009-12 as a teammate of Hogan on Team USA. He began with the Cowboys since he was a true freshmen, and became a four time all-conference performer.

Like Baker, Williams was an NFL hopeful, but ended up on the rugby pitch but for an entirely different reason.

“Without rugby I would not have been awarded a degree,” said Williams in an interview with the NCAA. This quote affirms that this person graduated with a degree in computer science; however, had it not been for (rugby), they would be just a couple credits shy of attending university.

After exhausting football eligibility, Williams switched majors to computer science and opted to play rugby for NMHU, leading to an opportunity with one of the top-performing men’s rugby clubs in the USA: the Denver Barbarians As a result, Schmidt and teammates in the Denver Barbarians in Colorado will benefit from the new idea and technique.

Williams was an addition to the roster of the HSBC Sevens Series at the Dubai Sevens Tournament in the year 2016 and then performed equally at the Silicon Valley Sevens in the year 2017 where out the six matches that United States of America participated in, Williams scored in four of them. Since then he has been a regular in the sport and was part of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic team.

Williams assumed the mantle of captain of the USA Men’s Sevens in 2021 and he will take this role through to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Currently having more than 50 international matches, he can be considered one of the most veteran players from the United States of America.