Aug. 18, 2004
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech is well represented at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Seven Yellow Jackets have qualified for the games, five for the first time in their illustrious careers.
Current swimmers Vesna Stojanovska (Macedonia) and Onur Uras (Turkey) qualified for the swimming competition, along with former standouts Jorge Oliver (Puerto Rico) and Leo Salinas (Mexico).
Stojanovska, a 2004 All-America, tallied a 26th-place finish in the prelims of the women’s 200-meter butterfly with a time of 2:16.51 on Tuesday, Aug. 17. The Skopje, Macedonia, native finished 27th in the 400 freestyle (4:19.39) and 34th in the 200 freestyle (2:04.64) at her second Summer Olympics.
A native of Istanbul, Turkey, Uras will swim in the men’s 100 butterfly on Thursday, Aug. 19, at 4:14 a.m. ET.
Oliver, who will be a volunteer assistant coach for the Jackets in 2004-05, posted a time of 2:08.84 in the men’s 200 individual medley to finish 45th in the prelims on Wednesday, Aug. 18.
Former men’s swimming standout Leo Salinas (1999-2002) anchored Mexico’s 4 x 200 freestyle relay team at the Summer Games and guided them to a 15th-place finish with a time of 7:29.54 on Tuesday, Aug. 17. Salinas also swam the men’s 400 freestyle, tallying a 29th-place finish with a time of 3:58.36 on Saturday, Aug. 14.
On the track side, current athlete Chaunte Howard (U.S.A) will compete in the women’s high jump and former men’s track star Angelo Taylor (U.S.A) will run in the men’s 400-meter intermediate hurdles.
Howard won back-to-back NCAA national titles in ’04 and finished second at the U.S. Olympic Trials with a mark of 6’4.75″. The Riverside, Calif., native will jump in qualifying rounds on Aug. 26, from 1-2:30 p.m. ET.
Taylor (1997-98) won a Gold medal in the 400 hurdles at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and will seek to defend his medal at the Athens Olympics. Taylor will try and qualify for the semifinals on Aug. 23, from 12:30-1 p.m. ET.
-GT-
