6 USC Dornsife students compete at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics
The USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences is ready to cheer on our current students who will be competing at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Learn more about our current Trojan Olympians and find out when they’ll be competing.
Noelani Day | Swimming 50m Freestyle for Tonga
Noelani Day recently made history as the youngest person to swim the Apolima Strait, which spans the eight miles between Samoa’s two largest islands. She’s no stranger to overcoming challenges: Her home country of Tonga does not have an Olympic-sized swimming pool, so Day trained for the games by swimming in the open ocean. She’s starting at USC Dornsife this fall, majoring in human biology.
Watch Day compete starting on July 30 >>
Marlene Kahler | Swimming 400m, 800m and 1500m Freestyle for Austria
Olympian Marlene Kahler holds numerous Austrian swimming records and took home two bronze medals at the 2018 Youth Olympics Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She’s joining USC Dornsife this fall as a freshman but has not selected a major yet.
Watch Kahler compete starting on July 25 >>
Tina Graudina | Beach volleyball for Latvia
Tina Graudina and her partner Anastasijia Kravcenoka made history as the first Latvian women’s volleyball pair to qualify for the Olympics. The two recently won gold at the 2019 European Championships. Athleticism runs in the family — both her grandfather and grandmother were champion high jumpers in Latvia.
Graudina is a political science major who hopes to play volleyball professionally after graduation.
Watch Graudina compete starting on July 26 >>
Tilly Kearns | Water Polo for Australia
Tilly Kearns started her athletic career as a swimmer but took up water polo when a local team was short a player, and fell in love with the sport. She’s since traveled the world, from Greece to New Zealand, as a competitive polo player. Kearns is one of the Australian team’s youngest players and is currently a sophomore with USC Dornsife.
The Kearns family has a strong athletic legacy. Her father was captain of the Australian rugby team that won the World Rugby Cup in 1991 and ’99.
Watch Kearns compete starting on July 24 >>
Maud Megens | Water Polo for the Netherlands
After helping the USC women’s water polo team win the 2021 National Championship, Maud Megens will play for Netherlands’ water polo team in Tokyo. She’s continuing a family legacy — her mother played for the same team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Megens is a psychology major and has her eye on playing professionally in Europe once she graduates.
Watch Megens compete starting on July 26 >>
Alexei Sancov | Swimming 200m Freestyle for Moldova
Alexei Sancov began his Olympic career early, placing 34th in the 200m freestyle swim at the 2016 Olympics. When he was 16, Sancov and his family moved from Moldova to California, where he taught himself English. After a stressful first year swimming at USC, Sancov started seeing a sports psychologist to help manage his anxiety. He’s a big proponent of discussing mental health in sports.
“It’s not spoken enough about. Like, we need to bring this up more because it hurts so much to go through it,” Sancov told Swimming World Magazine in 2020. Working with the psychologist has helped him manage emotions and stay competitive.
Sancov is a senior at USC Dornsife, majoring in international relations (global business). He’s the first Trojan to represent Moldova in the Olympics.