GEAUXING FOR GOLD LSU’s incredible influence on Paris Olympics revealed with host of athletes from college including multiple gold medals

Olympic medalists Armand Duplantis and Sha’Carri Richardson have a deep connection

LOUISIANA State University’s incredible influence on the Paris Olympics has been highlighted by an epic throwback picture.

A ‘First Day of College’ picture from 2018 featuring American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson and Swedish pole vaulter Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis has gone viral after their Olympic success.

Armand Duplantis won gold in the men’s pole vaultCredit: Getty

Team USA sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson secured silver in the women’s 100mCredit: Getty

Duplantis and Richardson were friends and teammates at LSUCredit: X/mondohoss600
The picture shows Richardson and Duplantis on their first day on the LSU Track and Field team.

The fresh-faced pair held up signs saying what they wanted to be when they grew up.

Six years on, the college friends are both on top of the world as Olympic medalists.

Duplantis broke his world record to win pole vault gold in Paris, while Richardson secured silver in the women’s 100 meters final to complete an epic redemption story.

The duo have remained firm friends since they broke onto the scene as student-athletes at LSU.

At the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, Richardson described Duplantis as “one of my favourite people in life.”

Duplantis, for his part, looks back fondly at their time together at college.

“I think it’s a little bit of a surreal situation because time is weird,” he told Olympics.com.

“Everything just goes so fast because it feels like just yesterday we were teenagers, we were just kids and we were freshmen in college and we were just doing freshman in college things, just cutting up and being stupid.

“We also both had huge dreams and we knew that we could be in the situation that we are today but everything happened in the way that it has and we actually are doing what we always [hoped], manifesting what we could do.

“It’s a lot different because sports is tough and not everything works out the way you think it’s going to work out, so for us to be here and both win the world championships in the same year, feeling like it was just yesterday we were both in college together, it’s pretty nice.”

LSU has numerous current and former students competing at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Team USA swimming star Brooks Curry won a silver medal in the men’s 4×200 meter relay race.

It was Curry’s second Olympic medal after winning gold in the same event at the Tokyo Games.

Former LSU diver Juan Celaya-Hernandez claimed his first Olympic medal by finishing second in the three-meter synchronized dive with Mexican diving partner Osmar Olvera.

The seven-time SEC champion narrowly missed the podium at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Beach volleyball stars Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth suffered heartbreak after losing to Canada to miss out on a place in the quarterfinals.

Tremont Waters, who led LSU to the Sweet Sixteen in 2019, played a key role for the Puerto Rico men’s basketball team.

Meanwhile, Canadian swimmer Maggie MacNeil missed out on a podium place while trying to defend her gold medal from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the women’s 100-meter butterfly.

In total, there are 32 LSU athletes competing at the Paris Olympics, with the majority in track and field.