For Immediate Release
August 18, 2004

American Soldiers Compete in the Olympics
Fact of the Day

Team USA has 24 military personnel competing at the 2004 Athens Olympics. The Army has sent four shooters, two modern pentathletes, a race walker, a rower, a wrestler, a marathoner who may double in the 10,000 meters, a boxing head coach, a Greco-Roman wrestling coach, a rifle coach, and a gunsmith. The Air Force has three Olympic athletes: a hammer thrower, a race walker, and a fencer. There is one Navy rower on U.S. team. The American tradition of soldier-athletes participating in the Olympics began with George Patton in 1912, and since that time, American soldiers have captured 131 Olympic medals.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Defense