Olympics: Casey Patterson’s early exit headlines week one for BYU athletes

A week of the olympics in Rio is in the books. Casey Patterson, Taylor Sander, Tatenda Tsumba and Jared Ward all made the long trip south. Luckily for them, they didn’t have to dive into green water. Let’s give you an update.

Casey Patterson

Well, it didn’t go great for Casey and USA beach volleyball partner, Jake Gibb. The duo fell to Spain on Wednesday and ended the medal quest as they dropped their second straight match in pool play.

Casey Patterson is a BYU grad and Jake Gibb is a Utah grad. Perhaps the takeaway here is that ‘Holy War’ grads should never team up in anything.

Taylor Sander

Taylor competes for the USA indoor volleyball team and so far they are 1-2. To start off the olympics they fell to Canada 3-0. If you’re not disappointed that USA lost to Canada in something other than hockey, you need more patriotism.

They lost to Italy 3-1 and bounced back by beating Brazil 3-1. Today, they’ll face off against France for their fourth match in Pool A. This team has the third best odds to win the gold medal and so expect to see them stick around awhile.

Tatenda Tsumba

The only current BYU athlete in these olympic games is Tatenda. Competing for Zimbabwe, Tatenda will run the 200 meter on Tuesday, August 16.

Jared Ward

BYU track star turned statistics professor, Jared Ward, will compete for the USA in the marathon on August 21st. One thing is for certain, he’s got the pacing math in his head on lock.

One week down, and none of these guys have Zika! Stay tuned to Vanquish the Foe for your olympic updates.