Updated 
The official start of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games is less than a month away and former student-athletes Helen Maroulis, Danielle Lappage, Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe and Natasha Wodak will be competing in their second Olympic Games while middle distance runner Lindsey Butterworth has qualified for her first. Former diver Tony Revitt is also Tokyo bound as a physiotherapist with the Canadian Fencing Team.

The complete roster of SFU athletes who will attend the Tokyo Olympics may grow in the days ahead as qualifying events are completed and team rosters are officially announced.

Over 100 SFU student-athletes, students, coaches and support staff have competed in the Olympics, some multiple times and some in multiple sports, since Wilf Wedmann competed in high jump in Mexico City in 1968. See the complete list here.

SFU's first medalist was Bruce Robertson in Munich in 1972, winning silver and bronze in swimming. SFU has amassed 18 Olympic medals (10 gold, 5 silver, 3 bronze), and Maroulis, Lappage, Raincock-Ekunwe, Wodak and Butterworth will be aiming to add to those totals.

The Olympics officially begin July 23^rd while the Paralympics are set to begin August 24^th.
 
Helen Maroulis
 
Four-time collegiate champion Helen Maroulis will head to Tokyo in 2021 to defend her Olympic gold medal.
 
At the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Maroulis became the first American woman to win wrestling gold. Maroulis upset heavy favorite, three-time Olympic gold medalist and 13-time World champion, Saori Yoshida of Japan 4-1. Yoshida had pinned Maroulis in their two prior matches.
 
Maroulis, now 29-years-old, qualified for her second Olympic Games on April 3, 2021. A two-time world champion, Maroulis needed all three matches against Jenna Burkert in the final round to win her weight class. In the deciding third match, Maroulis pinned Burkert in 24 seconds to claim victory and continue her remarkable Olympic comeback.
 
At one time, Maroulis told her mother that she was retiring from wrestling following her last concussion in 2018. She spent much of the next two years dealing with the side effects.
 
Maroulis won WCWA championships in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014, the last three while wrestling at SFU, and she is one of only three athletes to win four collegiate titles.
 
 

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Danielle Lappage
 
Danielle Lappage had focused on the 2016 Rio Olympics for much of her time wrestling at SFU only to suffer a ruptured hamstring muscle during warmup three hours before her very first Olympic match.
 
Emotionally devasted, her dream shattered, Lappage spent the next few years reflecting on the journey and the goal. She finally decided to wrestle again. Lappage, 30, will represent Canada in the 68-kilogram weight class at the Tokyo Olympics.
 
At SFU, Lappage won collegiate wrestling championships in 2010, 2011, and 2013 and completed her BA and Master's Degree in Criminology. She recently earned a law degree from the University of Calgary.
 
"I saw having a law degree, being a lawyer was the best way I could help the less fortunate and my community," Lappage told United Wrestling World.com recently. "Formal education was actually helpful to me to be a great wrestler and also be a good student. It was an opportunity to have a balance – the physical and mental, both."
 
Now she is dreaming of being an Olympic champion again.
 
At an international event in Poland this month that featured eight wrestlers who qualified for the Olympics at her weight, Lappage lost in the bronze medal match. It was her first international competition during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
"Since Rio, I have not taken any day for granted, any competition for granted, any experience for granted," the Olds, Alta., native explained to United Wrestling World.com. "For years, I count this as my bonus life, my second life and in the sport my second chance. It's been awesome."


  Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe

Since departing SFU after her senior season in 2013, it has been a meteoric rise on the international basketball court for former Vernon high-school star Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe.
 
After being named GNAC Player of the year and a NCAA All-American as a senior, Raincock-Ekunwe began a professional career in Switzerland.  She later played in Germany, Australia, Russia and France, plus suited up for the New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association in 2017 and 2019.
 
She was playing in Russia before the league shut down in March 2020 due to COVID-19.  Raincock-Ekunwe, 29, played for Lyon of France's Ligue 1 this year where she averaged 12 points and 6 rebounds.
 
After opting out of two straight WNBA seasons to prepare for the Olympics, Raincock-Ekunwe has sacrificed more than many potential Olympians.
"I love to represent our country. I love to play with the women on our team. It's like a sisterhood or a family. And it's just such a great thing to be a part of and work together to that one goal," she told CBC in January.
 
Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe made her Olympic debut as a member of the Rio 2016 Olympic Team, which placed 7th. While still competing at SFU, Raincock-Ekunwe participated in Canada's basketball development program and in the 2011 Summer Universiade, setting the stage for what has become an eight-year career with the national team.
 
Raincock-Ekunwe was a member of Canada's FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament team that went 3-0 and secured Canada's third consecutive Olympic appearance. Raincock-Ekunwe averaged 6 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists during the OQT in Belgium.
 
 

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 Natasha Wodak
 
In just the second marathon of her career – and her first in more than seven years – Natasha Wodak became the second-fastest female marathoner in Canadian history.
 
In one of the rare race opportunities in 2020, Wodak finished The Marathon Project in Chandler, Arizona in 2:26:19, putting her well under the Olympic entry standard of 2:29:30. She achieved that by persevering through hamstring pain and nausea over the last seven kilometres.
 
In January 2020, Wodak, 39, set the national record in the half marathon only to see it broken a couple of weeks later by Andrea Seccafien. Wodak had been the first Canadian woman to ever break the 70-minute mark in the half marathon and now owns two of the top three Canadian times all-time in the distance.
 
Wodak has represented Canada at the World Championships on three occasions (2015, 2017 and 2019 – all in the 10,000 metres), captured a gold medal in the 10,000 metres at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games and competed in the same distance at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, where she finished in 22nd-place in her Olympic debut.
 
Wodak competed at SFU in the early 2000s and led SFU to its sixth NAIA cross country championship in 2003 with an upset win over the defending champion and top-ranked Northwest College. Wodak was the West Region champion that season. Wodak was also on championship-winning relay teams and an All-American in track and field.
 

Lindsey runs standard. Maddy improves her ranking score to 1194. Bish goes sub 2.
Absolutely brilliant.

Huge probs to Addy Townsend sacrificing her own race to pace make for these girls, giving them the best chance to do just this. pic.twitter.com/ukCsBZ7buu

— Evan Dunfee (@EvanDunfee) June 25, 2021

 Lindsey Butterworth
 
This past weekend, Lindsey Butterworth became just the seventh Canadian woman to run the 800-metres in under two minutes to book her ticket to Tokyo.
 
Butterworth won the 800-metres with a finishing kick off the final turn to pass Tokyo-bound Melissa Bishop-Nriagu and capture the Canadian Olympic Trials in 1:59.13, dipping under the automatic Olympic standard of 1:59.50 — and shattering that elusive two-minute mark.

Butterworth overtook world silver medallist Melissa Bishop-Nriagu a few feet from the finish line to win in front of no fans in Montreal. Bishop-Nriagu was second in 1:59.50. Recent alum and training partner Addy Townsend helped Butterworth achieve her goal by setting the Olympic qualifying pace in the opening lap of the race and then dropping out.

Butterworth competed for SFU from 2012 to 2015 and was the 2015 NCAA Division II champion in the 800 meters both indoors and outdoors. She was a three-time GNAC outdoor champion (800, 1,500 and 4x400 relay) and a five-time indoor champion, which included three titles in the mile. Butterworth represented Canada in the 800 meters at the 2017 and 2019 IAAF World Outdoor Championships.

Butterworth is thriving in her role as the Athletic Department's NCAA Program Coordinator in Student Engagement and Retention, working with SFU's athletic stars. She was recently honoured with a Staff Achievement Award. 

Tony Revitt

Tony Revitt, who competed at SFU from 1991 to 1996 as a diver on the swim team while studying Kinesiology, will be part of Canada's medical staff with the Canadian Fencing Team. A former Canadian National Team diver who competed at the Commonwealth Games, Pan Am Games, World Championships and numerous other international competitions throughout his athletic career, studied physiotherapy at Brunel University in London, England after his SFU days. He enjoys working with dedicated athletes in order to help them get back to performing at their highest capability. 
 
Becoming a member of the medical personnel is a long process with limited opportunities but Revitt is thrilled to be headed to Tokyo. "I know this is a slightly different approach to getting to the Olympics but I will say that my athletic career did play a role in leading me on this adventure," he says.
 
These days Revitt can be seen keeping healthy and active by training for triathlons, golfing, skiing and snowboarding.