Karissa Schweizer joins a long list of Mizzou Olympians
By Kyle Jones
With a second place finish in the women’s 5000m, at a time of 15:28:11, former Mizzou track star Karissa Schweizer became an Olympian, qualifying for the Tokyo Olympic Games at the US Olympic Trials on Monday.
Schweizer will become the 31st Mizzou Olympian when the games kick off on July 23, and the 25th Mizzou Olympian in track & field.
Mizzou have been well represented at the games in recent years, with at least one athlete in every Olympics since Athens 2004.
So in honor of Karissa Schweizer’s great achievement, let’s look at some of the most memorable names on the long list of Tiger Olympians.
John Nicholson
John Nicholson was Mizzou’s first Olympian, running in the 110m hurdles for Team USA all the way back in 1912 at the Olympic games in Stockholm, Sweden. Nicholson won his first heat, beating Italian Daciano Colbacchini by a mere 0.6 seconds, as well as his semifinal race.
Nicholson’s semifinal time of 15.4 seconds was the best among all racers, but he was unable to finish in the final race.
American Fred Kelly would go on to win gold with a time of 15.1 seconds, 0.1 seconds off the world record at the time.
Brutus Hamilton
Mizzou’s first Olympic medalist, Brutus Hamilton captured silver with Team USA in the decathlon at Antwerp 1920, finishing just behind Norwegian Helge Løvland.
Hamilton also ran in the pentathlon in the 1920 games, finishing 5th, and qualified for the 1924 games in Paris in decathlon, though an injury stopped him from competing.
Sticking with the 1920 games…
Jackson Scholz
Mizzou’s most decorated Olympian, Jackson Scholz was the first Missouri Tiger to ever win a gold medal, doing so as part of Team USA’s 4×100 relay team in the 1920 games.
With a time of 42.2 seconds, Scholz and his teammates set a world record that stood until the next Olympic games in 1924.
Scholz also competed in the 100m dash at the 1920 games, finishing 4th.
Scholz featured again at Paris 1924, winning gold in the 200m dash and silver in the 100m dash.
Scholz was able to qualify a third time for Amsterdam 1928, finishing 4th in the 200m dash.
Dan Pippin
Mizzou’s first non-track and field Olympian, Pippin was part of the gold-medal winning Team USA basketball squad of the 1952 games in Helsinki.
The team won each of the eight games they played, including a low-scoring win over the USSR in the gold-medal game 36-25.
Natasha Kaiser-Brown
While 15 different Tigers qualified for the Olympics between 1952 and 1988, it wasn’t until Barcelona 1992 that a Tiger captured a medal.
Natasha Kaiser-Brown, who now serves as Associate Head Coach for Mizzou’s Track & Field squad, won silver at the 1992 games as part of the 4x400m relay team.
The team lost out on gold by 0.72 seconds to athletes from the Unified Team of former Soviet republics.
Kaiser-Brown also competed in the 400m dash in 1992 and again at Atlanta 1996, though she did not place in those events.
J’Den Cox
The second Mizzou wrestler to qualify for the Olympics (The first was Jake Paul victim Ben Askren), J’Den Cox was the first Tiger wrestler to win a medal when he captured bronze at Rio 2016.
Karissa Schweizer joins quite an impressive club. She’ll try to earn herself a spot on the podium in Tokyo, with Round 1 of the women’s 5000m kicking off on Friday, July 30 at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium.