Reviewed by: Pat Byington
Former Crimson Tide star Luisa Blanco set to represent Colombia at 2024 Olympics
Reading time: 3 minutes
Luisa Blanco has wrapped up an incredible career with Alabama gymnastics and now she is set for another career experience.
Blanco received dual citizenship earlier this year and has now secured a spot to compete in the 2024 Olympics as a member of Team Colombia, where both of her parents are from.
Keep reading to find out more about how Blanco got to Paris + see how you can watch her compete.
This is the third part in our series highlighting Olympians with ties to the state of Alabama. Do you know of any Alabama athletes set to compete in Paris? Let us know so we can add them to our series.
Luisa Blanco
Luisa Blanco got to Tuscaloosa in 2020, immediately making an impact on the prestigious program by earning a spot on the SEC All-Freshman team. During her career with the Crimson Tide, she accomplished several awards and titles including:
- NCAA Balance Beam champion (2021)
- SEC Gymnast of the Year (2021)
- SEC Champion – All-Around, Vault, Uneven Bars and Balance Beam (2021)
- 2x First-Team All-American (All-Around)
- 3x All-SEC
Blanco secured her spot for the Olympic by being the highest-ranked athlete in the all-around gymnastics competition at the 2023 Pan American Games in Chile.
She will be the only Colombian athlete competing in the artistic gymnastics events, competing in all four events—beam, bars, vault + floor. Blanco hopes to become the first Colombian to ever win an Olympic medal in gymastics.
How to Watch
Gymnastics is undoubtedly one of the most popular sports at every Summer Olympics and that’s expected to be the case again this year with the return of Simone Biles for Team USA.
Blanco will certainly have her work cut out for herself to try to make it to the final in any event with the amount of talent expected at the games. Here’s the full schedule:
- July 28: Qualification | Replays at 6PM | NBC
- August 1: All-Around finals | Live at 11AM, Replay at 7PM | NBC
- August 3: Vault finals | Live at 9:20AM, Replay at 7PM | NBC
- August 4: Uneven bars finals | Live at 8:45AM, Replay at 6PM | Live on Peacock, Replay on NBC
- August 5: Beam and floor finals | Live at 5:30AM, Replay at 7PM | Live on Peacock, Replay on NBC
Do you know any athletes with local ties that will be competing in Paris? Send us an email to let us know what they are competing in!
