Share

Lowcountry native Raven Saunders to go for Olympic Gold

Ole Miss has plenty of athletes in Rio for the Olympic games this year, and one of them is going for gold tonight.

Advertisement

MS could have its first Rio Olympics medalist today.

Raven Saunders has had a stellar 2016 in the shot put. Saunders’ official throw was 19.35 meters. She was throwing with her role model, who is now an Olympic champion.

Raven’s first throw of 61 feet, 11.5 inches had her in the top 5.

Saunders finished 5th in the shot put final. She dropped to 6th but Saunders responded in her final throw. Her throw ranked 4th for the morning session with New Zealand’s Valerie Adams leading the way with a throw of 19.74 meters. Now attending Ole Miss, the 20-year-old Olympian graduated from Burke two years ago.

Advertisement

Ole Miss volunteer assistant coach Gwen Berry also suited up for Team USA on the first day of track & field competition at Rio’s Olympic Stadium.

Ole Miss sophomore Raven Saunders made her Olympic debut Friday