2010s
Yulduz Kuchkarova, 2012
Yulduz “Yulya” Kuchkarova competed for home country of Uzbekistan at the 2012 Olympics in London. She placed 37th in the 200 meters backstroke. After the Olympics, Kuchkarova joined the 2013/2014 KU Swimming and Diving team. She had a successful career at KU, setting two meet records and a new career best at the 2015 Big Challenge meet. Kuchkarova also set a new Robinson Natatorium 200 meter backstroke record, 1:57.83, in 2014.
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Diamond Dixon, 2012
While in high school, Diamond Dixon saw the NCAA Track and Field Championship on television and knew that that’s what she wanted to do – running was the sport for her. Dixon went on to claim two state champion medals and a letter in Track and Field in high school. She decided on the University of Kansas for college, in no small part due to coach Stanley Redwine (who is coaching at the 2024 Paris Olympics). In an article for KU Athletics Dixon said, “I can say coach Redwine had a lot to do with it. I knew I could go to any school and do what I’m supposed to do, but I have to have a coach who believes in me.”
In her first season at KU Dixon was an All American and was crowned Big 12 Champion in the 400m with a time of 51.55. She went on to win her first National Championship in 2012 at the NCAA Track and Field Championship. Dixon was highly motivated, and her hard work paid off. She qualified for the Olympic Trials and made the U.S. Olympic Team for the 2012 Games in London. There, she won a gold medal as part of the 4x400 relay team. Dixon didn’t stop at a gold medal, though. She returned to KU and in 2013 helped the Jayhawks win their first ever women’s Track and Field National Championship, a nice companion to her solo Championship in 2012.
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Daina Levy, 2016
Diane Levy, a hammer thrower, came to KU from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, but competed for Jamaica in the 2016 Rio Olympics. Levy earned the trip to Rio by winning her second Jamaican national title in row. She was the first woman to compete in the hammer throw for Jamaica. When asked by Lawrence Journal World reporter Tom Keegan about the significance of the throw that sent her to the Olympics, Levy said, “People don’t realize, even Jamaicans don’t realize, that there are more than just sprinters in Jamica.”