Former Huskies achieve success at Olympics

Six UConn athletes – four alumni, one current player, and a soon-to-be UConn athlete – represented their countries in the recent Olympic Games. They took home three medals, including two gold.

Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird helped the U.S. women’s basketball team finish on top, beating Australia 92-65 for the gold medal. Taurasi had seven points and three rebounds in the final game, while Bird contributed four points and two rebounds. The two also earned gold medals playing for the US team at the 2004 Olympics.

Svetlana Abrosimova, who like Bird and Taurasi helped lead UConn to an NCAA championship, helped lead the Russian women’s basketball team to the medal round, where they defeated China 94-81 for the bronze medal. Abrosimova had seven points and five rebounds in the contest.

A fourth women’s basketball player, Jessica McCormack, who has enrolled at UConn but will sit out the upcoming season as a transfer student from the University of Washington, held her own for the undermanned New Zealand Olympic squad, which failed to reach the quarterfinals after losses to Spain, China, and the Czech Republic.

Also in China was Stephanie Labbe, a goalkeeper for UConn’s highly ranked women’s soccer team. Labbe, from Alberta, Canada, was an alternate for the Canadian national team.

On the men’s side, Dudley Dorival, a former UConn track and field star, was in the Olympics for the fourth time. Dorival, competing for Haiti, ran in the 110 meter hurdles and qualified for the second round, where he finished out of the running.