19 Military Athletes to Represent U.S. at Tokyo Olympics > U.S. Department of

Seventeen soldiers, one Marine and one Coast Guardsman have earned spots in the delayed 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. The games, which were postponed last year due to COVID-19, will be held from July 23 to August 8.

Earlier this year, Marine Corps Staff Sgt. John Stefanowicz defeated the country’s top rated 87-kilogram Greco-Roman wrestler to earn a spot in this year’s games.

“Being able to represent the USA on an international level while being in the Marine Corps is the highest honor that I have ever felt. It is something that is almost indescribable. I have finally accomplished this mission that has had an insurmountable amount of adversity, that has required years and decades of perseverance,” he said.

“This could not be possible without the support I have had from my team and coach,” Stefanowicz said. “The struggles that we have had to overcome as a team have made us all stronger, and in particular, coach Jason Loukides has helped transform me into the person and Marine that I am today.”

Coast Guard Lt. Nikole “Nikki” Barnes will compete in the Women’s 470-class sailboat category.

“I fell in love with the Coast Guard. I am always on the water and the allure of creating a safer environment for fellow boaters was a big intrigue for me. As I have been in the Coast Guard, I have seen even more how this is a tremendous organization of people working hard to make a safer maritime environment,” she said.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Elizabeth Marks will compete in Paralympic swimming’s 50-meter freestyle, 50-meter butterfly, 200-meter individual medley and 100-meter backstroke. 

In 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, she won a gold medal in the Paralympic Games in the 100-meter breaststroke and a bronze in the 100 meter medley.

Marks enlisted in the Army in 2008 as a combat medic. She was injured while serving in Iraq and was sent to Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas for recovery. It was there, she said, that she fell in love with swimming, which was used as a form of therapy.

Like most of the soldier-athletes going to the Olympics, Marks is a member of the Army’s World Class Athlete Program, a program which enables soldiers with athletic potential to receive professional coaching, while keeping current with Army military occupational specialty and training requirements.

Although Marks said she trained hard to compete and to win, “none of it would have been possible without my brothers and sisters in the military believing in me and pushing me to do so.”

Athletes Headed for Tokyo

Army

1st Lt. Amber English – women’s skeet

Staff Sgt. Naomi Graham – women’s boxing, 75 kilogram category

Staff Sgt. Nickolaus Mowrer – 10m air pistol, men; 10m air pistol, mixed team; and 50m rifle, 3 positions.

Staff Sgt. Sandra Uptagrafft – 10m air pistol, women; 10m air pistol, mixed team; and 25m sport…