Seven SJSU Spartans will participate in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo from July 23 to August 8. Not pictured: Coach Greg Massialas.
San José State has been a part of nearly every Olympics since 1924. The university will be well represented in the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which run from July 23-August 8.
Seven former Spartans will participate in five sports:
- Suzy Brookshire Gonzales, Mexico softball — first Olympic Games
- Colton Brown, USA men’s judo — second Olympic Games
- Michelle Cox, Australia softball — first Olympic Games
- Emma Entzminger, Canada softball — first Olympic Games
- Clara Espar Llaquet, Spain women’s water polo — second Olympic Games
- Robyn Stevens, USA women’s track and field (20k race walking) — first Olympic Games
- Coach Greg Massialas, USA fencing head coach — seventh Olympic Games, fourth as a head coach (2008, 2012, 2016, 2020)
The five female Olympic athletes are the most for SJSU in any one Olympics. Stevens is the first Spartan women’s track and field Olympian since USA shot put and discus thrower Margaret Jenkins competed in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. .
This is also the first time an SJSU alumnae will appear in softball, which returns to the Olympics schedule for the first time since 2008.
Colton Brown continues SJSU’s impressive judo legacy that began with alumnus Yoshihiro “Yosh” Uchida, ’47 Biological Science, head judo coach at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964. Brown shared his thoughts on competing in his second Olympics and his quest for a gold medal in a Q&A before leaving for Tokyo.