VILLANOVA, Pa.—For the 20th consecutive Summer Olympics there will be at least one Villanovan competing on the world's biggest stage. Former track & field standout Patrick Tiernan '16 is one of five Australian athletes who were selected by the Australian Olympic Committee to compete in the marathon at Paris 2024 this summer. It will be the third Olympics for Tiernan, a national champion in cross country for the Wildcats in 2016 who previously competed in track events at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics. Also competing in Paris this summer is Karlie Kisha, a member of the Villanova field hockey coaching staff who will be playing in her first Olympics for Team USA.
VILLANOVA AND THE OLYMPICS
There has been at least one Villanovan in every Summer Olympics since 1948 and Tiernan is one of 66 Olympians all-time with Villanova ties. The group represents 16 countries and four continents spanning 10 different sports in a tradition that dates back to James O'Connell competing for the United States in the broad jump at the 1908 Olympics in London. There have been 16 medal winners from Villanova along the day, including 11 gold medalists and five silver medalists.
Tiernan will become the eighth Villanovan to compete in at least three Olympiads. He made his debut in 2016 when he competed in the 5,000 meters at the Rio Olympics in Brazil and finished 13th in his first round heat. Tiernan competed in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics which were delayed until 2021 and was a qualifier in both the 10,000 meters and the 5,000 meters. He finished 19th in the 10K in a race where he was among the leading group for much of a tactical race.
PARIS 2024
The 2024 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad and branded as Paris 2024, run from July 26-August 11 in Paris, France. Opening ceremonies will be held on July 26 with a closing ceremony on Sunday, August 11. The men's marathon in Paris is scheduled for Saturday, August 10 and, for the first time in Olympic history, the course is open for a public event with community runners competing in a marathon after the men's race and prior to the women's marathon closing out the Olympics the next day.
OLYMPIC MARATHON
The Olympic marathon is a legendary event and has featured on the program since the first Games of the modern era in 1896 in Athens. The Paris 2024 Olympic marathon honors this event and will follow a unique route paying tribute to the rich history of France and Paris. The route will take in iconic monuments like the Palace of Versailles, the Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower and pays tribute to a key moment in French history and the French Revolution, by following the route of the Women's March on Versailles in 1789.
TIERNAN'S CAREER ACCOMPLISHMENTS
In 2016, Tiernan became the first Villanova student-athlete to compete in the Olympics while still enrolled in school since American swimmer Maddy Crippen in 2000. Tiernan was the first track & field athlete to achieve that distinction since women's distance runner Vicki Huber in 1988. He enjoyed a sensational year in 2016, as he competed in the Olympics in August and was the individual NCAA cross country champion in November.
As a collegian, Tiernan became the first Villanova men's runner since 1964 to win a national title in cross country. He was an eight-time All-American and an 11-time BIG EAST champion during his Wildcats career, and he remains the only men's athlete in BIG EAST history to win four consecutive conference cross country titles. Tiernan earned four career All-America honors in cross country and four in the 5000 meters on the track, finishing as high as third at the outdoor NCAA Championships in 2016.
Tiernan moved his focus to road running in 2022 and had a time of 60:55 in the half marathon in January of that year, ahead of making his marathon debut in Chicago where he ran an impressive 2:11.02. He qualified for the Olympics in January 2024 in Houston when he ran 25 seconds under the standard and posted a time of 2:07.45 which elevated him to second in Australian history and just 14 seconds off the national record.
