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Who are Team USA's Most Anticipated Competitors at the Olympics & Paralympics

Team USA speaks to SELF about the countries and athletes they're most excited to compete against at the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics.

Released on 07/09/2024

Transcript

[upbeat music]

I am excited to play Argentina

because we lost them in PanAm

and that would've been our first chance to qualify,

and so I kind of want a little bit of revenge

when we open against them, so that would be fun.

Me, myself, and I. [laughing]

I'm excited to just compete against myself.

I mean, I'm excited to compete against the world.

That's the coolest part about, you know, the Olympics,

but it's an individual sport,

so I try to just keep my focus on me

and keep my focus on what the goal is.

Yeah, I don't even think like that.

Not looking forward to competing with anyone.

It's Jamal and Jamal in the pool.

You know, all the Jamal's are coming together

for the best swim that Jamal will ever have in his life

up until that present moment.

Best of luck to everyone else though, you will need it.

We have two girls in my class.

India and Thailand, they put up really big totals

earlier in the qualifications

and we haven't really seen them compete to that level since,

so I kind of have no idea what they're capable of.

I know what I'm capable of, which is what I'll focus on,

but I'm interested to see how the competition plays out.

I have a lot of really, really good friends

who I've competed against a lot.

Very talented women, really, really experienced,

so, regardless of what happens,

I know it's gonna be really close,

but I'm really proud of them too.

One of my very good friends is competing for Canada,

another good friend competing for France on her own turf,

Chile, and then obviously there's a couple of countries,

like Russia and China, that have been big rivals for me

that I'm really excited to go against.

I love our hundred breaststroke group

from all around the world.

Tatiana is like the sweetest person ever.

She's from South Africa.

Ruta's absolutely amazing.

She's from Lithuania.

Obviously our USA contenders are incredible,

Lily and all those girls,

so I'm just excited to be there and race with those women.

I'm wondering if they're gonna watch this.

Team Canada, we, er...

Man, I just really wanna play against them.

I'm most looking forward to compete against,

and I don't know if he'll be playing yet,

but Mbappe, I know he said it a lot.

I'd really like to compete with World Number One.

Actually she's from Korea.

Her name's An Se-young.

Because she's really young and she's really talented,

so I can't wait to compete her in the Olympics.

Well, I just love competing against my own teammates.

I feel like it's always fun,

especially some of the older guys

that I've been playing with for the longest time.

So like Trevon Jenifer, Steve Serio,

some of those guys, I just love competing against.

We always joke in practice,

you know, about like, you can't guard me,

or things of that nature.

I feel like it just makes it very competitive and very fun.

You know, I compete against these guys

for a year and a half straight,

so most of them are my friends.

I'm anxious to see what they pull out.

You know, it is the Olympic games, anything can happen,

but I'm pretty excited for them to see my stuff.

[upbeat music]