Prior to the 2012 London Games, there were four Ivy League basketball Olympians: Brown’s Martina Jerant (Canada, 1996), Princeton’s Bill Bradley (United States, 1964) and Konrad Wysocki (Germany, 2008), and Dartmouth’s Crawford Palmer (France, 2000).
After the 2012 London Games, there will be six Ivy League basketball Olympians, thanks to Harvard sophomore Temi Fagbenle (Great Britain) and Penn graduate Koko Archibong ’03 (Nigeria).
Fagbenle and Archibong’s participation marks the first time in League history that there is an Ivy presences on both a men’s and women’s basketball Olympic team. It also marks the first time that multiple Ivies competed in one Olympics at the same time.
The six Ivy League players who have played in the Olympics have competed for six different countries (Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Nigeria and the United States).
Fagbenle is only the second Olympian in Ivy League women’s basketball history. Ivy fans will get a chance to see Fagbenle in action next season, when she suits up for the Crimson. Archibong is the fourth Olympian in League men’s basketball history.
Fagbenle and Archibong are looking to become the first Ivy medalists in basketball since 2000, when Palmer earned silver with France. The only League player to win a gold was Bradley in 1964 when he captained the US squad to gold in Tokyo.
