Riverland athletes have done their region and their country proud at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Rower Alex Hill, who hails from Loxton North and won a gold medal at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, again made the Olympic finals in the men’s fours event, with Australia finishing sixth.

In stroke position, Hill was the sole remaining member of the gold medal-winning fours team from three years ago, with his 2024 team including two Olympic debutantes.

Loxton’s Zachery Schubert teamed up with beach volleyball partner Thomas Hodges to win one of three pool matches, beating a French duo at the Eiffel Tower Stadium.

“It was pretty incredible,” Schubert told Volleyball Australia.

“We wanted to win so bad, we’re up a few points, and next thing you know, we’re actually down.

“To go back to the baseline and to serve”¦ we just had to go for it. “There’s nothing to lose and everything to gain, and we did.”

The victory helped Schubert and Hodges into a “lucky loser” play-off against a US team on Sunday, when the Aussies went down 2-0 in a hard-fought encounter that could have gone either way.

Former Waikerie resident Tom Wickham did well for the Australian men’s hockey team, which bowed out of the competition on Monday, losing its quarter final match 2-0 to the Netherlands.

Wickham scored a goal for the Kookaburras in their 5-0 win over New Zealand earlier in the tournament, cleverly deflecting teammate Aran Zalewski’s shot on goal.

Completing the local connection at the Games, the Australian boxing team is enjoying one of its most successful Olympics ever, helped along by the behind-the-scenes work of Loxton’s Phil Goodes, who is among the team’s support staff.

This article appeared in the  Murray Pioneer,  7 August 2024.