Missing the Olympics already? Let’s peek ahead to Summer Games 2028

The Olympics are over and it has us here at Lookout Eugene-Springfield feeling the way the Canadian men’s hockey team looked while accepting those stuffed animals after their loss to the Americans on Sunday.

The last two weeks have been theater — from Alysa Liu’s triumph in women’s figure skating, to Megan Keller’s beauty of an OT winner to beat Canada for women’s hockey gold, to that one Norwegian cross-country skier who climbs hills faster than I make my way to the pregame buffet table at Autzen.

My floors have never been cleaner with my newfound curling obsession, and it’s a shame I won’t touch the broom again for another four years.

And hey, it wasn’t too shabby a Games for athletes with Oregon ties, either: Aurora skier Jackie Wiles won a bronze in the team combined, and 17-year-old Portland snowboarder Alessandro Barbieri finished 10th in the men’s halfpipe.

So it wasn’t the most prolific medal count for athletes with Oregon connections. But that’s what the Summer Olympics are for — at the 2024 Paris Games, more than 50 athletes with Oregon ties competed.

And since we’re not quite ready to let that Olympic spirit go, we figured now’s a good time to zero in on some of the athletes and storylines with Oregon affiliations to keep tabs on as we wait two years for the Games to begin again.

Can Ryan Crouser keep doing this?

It’s kind of hard to believe the Portland native is only 33, considering he’s been the world’s best shot putter for a decade.

Crouser won the 2016 gold in Rio, the 2020 gold in Tokyo, the 2024 gold in Paris and, despite an elbow injury that kept him on the sideline for most of 2025, returned in September to win the world championship in his only competition of the year.

“This World Championship I think is probably the most special to me,” Crouser told the media afterward. “This one was definitely the most challenging from a mental and physical side. This was the first time I’ve really thrown hard since last September — the elbow [discomfort] has really lingered. 

“I did some long-lasting damage in the preparation for the Paris Olympics, and threw through it but paid the price for it. I didn’t really start to see progress until May so it was just a bit of a nightmare getting the elbow healthy.”

Crouser has some changes ahead — he’s moved to Nashville for his wife’s medical residency — and said he’s going to take a little time off from the sport to get back to 100%.

He’ll be 35 in 2028. And as long as he has his health, he’ll again be the thrower to beat.

Can Jaida Ross ascend the throne?

While Crouser has sat on the shot put throne for the last three Olympics, former Duck Jaida Ross is trying to make the climb.

The North Medford alum, who set a collegiate record with the Ducks (20.01 meters), won the 2024 NCAA outdoor title, punched her ticket to Paris with a third-place finish at the U.S. Olympic Trials at Hayward Field and placed fourth at the 2024 Paris Games.

She has some work to do over the next two years to get into medal contention, though. Ross took a step back with an eighth-place finish at the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo — though her 20.13-meter throw at the Prefontaine Classic in July stood as the fifth-longest throw in the world last year.

Dillon Brooks becomes a hero to more than just Oregon

People don’t like Dillon Brooks.

That’s nothing new. There aren’t many NBA fans walking around with the jersey of the former Oregon basketball star unless he’s playing for their team. And it’s been that way since the brash, cocky and talented Canadian first arrived in Eugene as a temperamental 17-year-old in 2014.

But here’s the thing about Brooks: He’s won a lot of basketball games.

He reached a Final Four with Oregon, has been to the NBA playoffs multiple times and was having a career year (21.2 points, 3.7 rebounds) this season with the 33-25 Phoenix Suns before breaking his hand earlier this week.

While many countries have closed the gap to the Americans on the hardwood over the last two decades, Canada presents a formidable challenge in 2028 with a roster loaded with NBA starters such as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jamal Murray, RJ Barrett and Brooks.

The Canadians won’t be the favorites. But if Brooks can help his team medal for the first time since 1936, he’ll have an entire country feeling the same way about him as the people here in Eugene do.

Hocker’s home turf

My favorite moment from the 2024 Paris Games? Outside of Raygun’s performance in the breakdancing competition, it was Cole Hocker’s kick — and that final-stretch pass of two runners — to win gold in the men’s 1500 meters.

Hocker’s win came as a surprise as hype swirled around Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Great Britain’s Josh Kerr before the race, but there will be no going under the radar in 2028.

Hocker, 23, who spent one year at the University of Oregon before going pro with Nike, gets to defend his crown on American soil — and will look to add a medal in his other specialty, the 5,000 meters.

He seems to be in pretty good form: Hocker won the 5,000-meter gold at the World Championships in September. And earlier this month, Hocker took a half-second off the fastest American indoor mile time in history, running a 3:45.94.

Oregon — and Portland’s? — stars go for gold

For a moment, close your eyes and imagine it’s 2028.

With the WNBA season on hiatus, the star guards from the league-leading Portland Fire — Sabrina Ionescu and Jazzy Davidson — leave the Northwest for a quest for gold down in Los Angeles.

It would be quite the story here in Oregon, where Ionescu set records at Matthew Knight Arena with the Ducks and Davidson grew up playing in Clackamas.

A few things have to happen first, mainly centering around the fact that Ionescu currently plays for the New York Liberty and Davidson is a freshman in college at USC.

Talent is not an issue, however. Ionescu already won gold with the U.S. in 2024 and will be in the prime of her career as a 30-year-old in 2028. Davidson is just 19, but the 6-foot-1 guard is lighting up the nets at USC, where she’s averaging 18 points, 6.2 rebounds and 4.4 steals a game for the Trojans. And with a gold medal at the 2025 FIBA U-19 World Cup, she’s well on track for a call-up to the senior team.

The one catch to the Portland side of this vision? Davidson will be just 21 in 2028, and current WNBA rules require a player to be either 22 or have already graduated from college to declare for the draft.

But remember, we’re pretending it’s 2028 now. The rule has changed. And after winning gold in LA, Ionescu and Davidson are going to return to a hero’s welcome in Portland as they get back to winning the Fire a title.

Raevyn Rogers’ redemption

Raevyn Rogers isn’t running at her peak right now.

The Oregon runner, who was so good during her time at Oregon her likeness has been immortalized on the Hayward Field tower, failed to make the 2024 Games after finishing seventh at the trials in Eugene and hasn’t medaled on the international stage since taking home a bronze medal at the 2020 Games in Tokyo.

There still might be some gas left in the 29-year-old’s tank, though.

Rogers’ 1:57.52 time in the 800 at the Silesia Kamila Skolimowska Memorial in Poland was the third fastest time of her career — and the third fastest run by an American in 2025.

Rogers is living and training in Los Angeles now, and while it may be a long shot to reach her second career Olympics, remember: There’s a reason why she’s on Eugene’s most iconic tower. 

A Hayward moment?

A few regrets I have from my 12-plus years covering Oregon:

1. I was barely there for the Ionescu era.

2. Thinking a Goodwill sport coat over a hockey T-shirt was somehow a good look for a Pac-12 baseball round-up video that, 10 years later, has 13 views on YouTube.

3. I missed the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials at Hayward Field. I covered a couple of Pre Classics at the new/old $270 million facility — and raced a 400 around the track — but I didn’t see the jewel of USA Track & Field host its premier event.

And while USA Track & Field has said it would like to host the 2028 qualifiers in Los Angeles, there’s a chance Hayward might have a kick to the finish.

Logan Auxier’s number to chase

Logan Auxier isn’t going to win gold in 2028. Nor will he find himself on the podium.

But for the 23-year-old Eugene marathon runner, the goal over the next two years is clear: He’s got his eyes set on 2:16 — the time needed to qualify for the 2028 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.

And, frankly, it was something the former Springfield High School and Lane Community College runner had never thought about until he ran the Eugene Marathon last summer in 2 hours, 20 minutes and 26 seconds.

It was his debut marathon.

Now, bigger things are in play.

“He grew up here in Eugene, Tracktown USA, where he’s been to copious numbers of trials,” said Ben Blankenship, Auxier’s coach. “Then to put his name on that starting list, I think will be a full circle moment for him.”

My Olympic debut

A text from my mom on Aug. 21, 2016, during the Rio Games: “Dad is just watching rhythmic gymnastics and muttering under his breath — occasional swearing bursting forth.”

My dad is no bitter man. But as a former professional squash player, who was once the best player in the United States, it was guaranteed every four years we’d get some outburst about, “How is this in the Olympics and squash isn’t?”

Team Corridor takes on the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships

Well, I lose that in 2028 as squash joins baseball, softball, cricket, flag football — I can only imagine him watching that if squash didn’t make it — and lacrosse as new additions in Los Angeles.

Despite beating a 15-year-old girl in the loser’s bracket finals of a tournament I played in over the weekend, at 36, I’m afraid my window to qualify for the 16-athlete field has shut.

An Alger playing Olympic squash is going to have to wait another generation. 

However, the Olympics have long been on my reporter’s bucket list — to be frank, I can’t take the FOMO of another two weeks of Instagram stories from people I’ve worked with in the past covering the Games.

Seeing as they’re just down the coast in 2028, and there are an incredible number of stories to write about Oregon athletes competing, I’m going to start greasing the wheels with the brass here at Lookout to make our Olympic debut.

And maybe I’ll sneak over to the squash center and file a story for my old man about a sport’s inclusion that someone else, assuredly, is upset about.