Oklahoma high school athletes competing in 2024 Paris Olympic Games

Meet the Olympians and Paralympians representing Oklahoma at the 2024 Summer Olympics

Sam Brown | Jul 31, 2024

Vernon Turner (Yukon High School) is one of three Olympians or Paralympians representing Oklahoma in Paris this summer. / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games are in full swing as the top athletes from around the world assemble in France looking for their shot at Olympic glory.

There will be a trio of athletes from Oklahoma representing Team USA at the Olympics and Paralympics.

For all three, competing at an Oklahoma high school was part of their hard-fought journey to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Here is a look at the former Oklahoma high school athletes chasing their dreams in Paris this summer.

Oklahoma high school athletes competing for Team USA in 2024 Olympics

Vernon Turner - Track and Field

An alumnus of Yukon High School and the University of Oklahoma, Turner will be participating in the Men's High Jump at his first Olympics.

At 25-years-old, he was the youngest man to qualify for that event at the 2024 U.S. Olympic trials.

Derek Loccident - Para Track and Field (Paralympics)

Loccident is a graduate of Westmoore High School and the University of Central Oklahoma.

He will be making his Paralympic debut in Paris, but he has four medals from previous world championships, including three silver and one bronze.

Cassie Mitchell - Para Track and Field (Paralympics)

The 41-year-old Mitchell is making her fourth Olympic appearance after competing for Team USA in 2012, 2016 and 2020.

She was the valedictorian at Warner High School and earned a collegiate track scholarship, but developed a neurological condition shortly after graduation that left her completely paralyzed from the chest down.

Since then she has gone on to win three Paralympic medals (two silver, one bronze), but maybe even more impressive is her 75 research publications that helped earn her the International Motoneuron Society Young Investigator Award in 2014.

You can find more of the latest Olympic coverage on SBLive.

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-- Sam Brown | sam@scorebooklive.com | @sblivesports

Published Jul 31, 2024

SAM BROWN

Sam Brown covers high school sports as well as NCAA football and basketball. Sam began his professional career as a high school sports reporter for The Tennessean in Nashville where he covered boys and girls prep sports full-time and helped cover Vanderbilt football, Tennessee Titans football and Nashville Predators hockey. He graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a double major in journalism and communication studies and currently lives in Seattle with his girlfriend and dog.