Badgers in Tokyo: Rose Lavelle and USWNT win bronze, Mohammed Ahmed wins silver

The 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo ended this past Sunday but not before a few more Wisconsin Badgers won medals. 14 former or current Badgers participated in these Olympics for countries like the United States, Canada, Australia, Turkey and Italy and three Badgers came home with medals.

USWNT soccer star Rose Lavelle and her teammates lost in the semifinals of the tournament, but were able to bounce back and claim a bronze medal victory over Australia in a 4-3 thriller. Lavelle only played 29 minutes in the match, but she came on near the end in order to shut down any Australia thoughts of a comeback.

Over on the track, Canadian Mohammed Ahmed ran a brilliant 5,000 meter race and finished in second place with a time of 12:58.61, finishing just behind current world record holder Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda, who won gold with a time of 12:58.15. This was the first time Canada had ever earned a medal in this event and Ahmed had recorded Canada’s best ever Olympic result in the 5000m at Rio 2016 where he finished fourth. He finished sixth in the 10,000m earlier in these Games for Canada’s second-best Olympic result ever in that event.

American Zach Ziemek finished sixth in the men’s decathlon, with his two best events being the 100 meter dash, where he finished fourth, and the pole vault, where he finished second. Georgia Ellenwood of Canada finished 20th in the women’s heptathlon, with her best performance coming in the high jump where she finished sixth.