Though the city of Eugene is TrackTown USA, track and field is an international sport. Ten out of 100 athletes on the Oregon track and field team represent countries outside the United States.

Several Oregon athletes have qualified for the NCAA Tournament in June and have the opportunity to head to the 2024 Olympics in Paris this summer. With a couple of the biggest track and field events approaching, multiple Ducks have an opportunity to represent both Oregon and their home countries this summer.

Champions in the Pac-12 and internationally 

The women of Oregon clinched a third straight Pac-12 Championship on May 12. International athletes were featured heavily among the list of Ducks, who scored points and won individual titles.

The team of Shana Grebo, Ella Clayton, Katriina Wright and Shaniya Hall won the women’s 4×400 relay at the 2024 Pac-12 Championships on May 12. Both Grebo and Clayton have experience representing their countries at international events.

Grebo won the Pac-12 Championship in 2023 for the women’s 400-meter hurdles. Coming from Ille-et-Vilaine, France, Grebo was dubbed the 2021 French Champion in the 400-meter hurdles. 

Grebo also represented France in Eugene at the 2022 World Athletic Championships, where she helped it to a fifth-place finish in the 4×400-meter relay. In July, she has a chance to run for France once again in her home country at the Olympics. Meanwhile, Clayton was a champion in the 2022 Canadian U20 Championships in the 200 meters and 400 meters. The Ducks’ junior sprinter also helped them to a Pac-12 Championship in the 2023 4×100 meter relays.

One of the individual Pac-12 champions on the men of Oregon is Rafael Raap. He finished first in the men’s decathlon on May 11 with a score of 7,719 — his collegiate best. Raap has had as much success with the Netherlands as in his first two seasons with the Ducks. He was the runner-up in both the decathlon and the heptathlon in the 2020 Dutch Combine Events. Raap also finished sixth overall in the 2019 European U20 Championships.

Representing the “down under”

In addition to the Oregon athletes competing in Europe in the offseason, the Ducks also have Archie Noakes and Tomas Palfrey competing for Australia and James Harding representing New Zealand.

Palfrey earned points for the men of Oregon at the conference championships with his seventh-place finish in the 800 meters. In Australia, he secured multiple U20 titles in the New South Wales and the Australian 800 meters and 1,500 meters. Noakes is a three-time Australian U20 champion, but his titles came in distance running events like the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

Similarly to many athletes on this list, Harding participated in previous World Athletic U20 Championships. In 2022, he finished sixth in the 800 meters. Harding also set a New Zealand record in 2022 with his time in the 800-meter event.

More names to watch out for

Silan Ayyildiz, who was born in Turkey, has been a key newcomer for the Ducks in 2024. The transfer from the University of South Carolina broke three different program records for the Gamecocks as a freshman. Ayyildiz finished as the Pac-12 runner-up in the 1,500 meters in her first season with Oregon. 

She’s ran for Turkey in various meets, including the 2022 World Athletics Championship in Eugene.

Distance runners Sergio Del Barrio (Spain) and Klaudia Kazimierska (Poland) both competed in the European U20 Championships. Del Barrio is a U20 European Champion in the steeplechase and the European U18 Champion in the 2,000-meter steeplechase, while Kazimierska has finished in the top five in the 1,500 meters in the European U20 and U18 Championships.

The freshman Kobe Lawrence, who represents Jamaica, rounds out the list of international athletes on Oregon’s team this season. His season with the Ducks was highlighted by a lifetime-best performance at the Oregon Twilight to win the shot put. 

The Ducks will return to Eugene on June 5 for the NCAA Championship, which will be hosted at Hayward Field. Eugene will also host the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials in June. Several alumni are expected to compete for a spot on Team USA, as well as current shot put and discus thrower Jaida Ross.