Former Mountaineer to Represent USA in Marathon Swimming Final at Olympics

There’s still one more Olympian with a WVU or West Virginia connection to cheer for before the Olympics wrap up at the end of the weekend.

Ivan Puskovitch, a former WVU swim team member, will represent Team USA in the marathon swimming event on Friday. Puskovitch qualified for the Olympics after placing 14^th in the men’s 10 km (1:48:54.40) event at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar.

Up next for Team USA 🇺🇸

Ivan Puskovitch swims in the 10km event at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games at 1:30 a.m. ET on Friday! #HailWV | #OlympiansMadeHere pic.twitter.com/KFF37C7ME0

— WVU Swim & Dive (@WVUSwimDive) August 8, 2024

At the time, Puskovitch was only the fifth American male in history to qualify for the Olympics in open water swimming since the event was added in 2008, per the WVU press release.

At the 2024 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships, Puskovitch set program records in the 1650-yard freestyle (15:15.34) and the 1000-yard freestyle (9:08.91) in one event. He placed second in the 1650 freestyle and the 400-yard individual medley (3:47.61). With those finishes, Puskovitch was named First Team All-Big 12.

Puskovitch also placed first in the B final of the 500-yard freestyle (4:22.83) at the conference championships.

Stay up and watch Puskovitch and the rest of Team USA swim for a medal at 1:30 a.m. ET.

In other WVU swimmers at the Olympics news, Sydney Pickrem, an assistant coach on the WVU swimming and diving team, finished in sixth place in the 200 IM.

Pickrem, who is representing Canada in the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France placed ninth in the breaststroke semifinal earlier in the week.

WVU hired Pickrem to its swimming and diving coaching staff this spring, making the upcoming 2024-2025 season her first with the program.

After wrapping up her Olympic experience, Pickrem will be part of a revamped staff that hopes to get the Mountaineers headed in the right direction following a tough 2023-2024 season. WVU placed sixth out of eight teams and last of five teams at the Big 12 Swimming & Diving Championships this March.

WVU fans can watch Pickrem compete in the medal round on Saturday at 3:08 pm ET. The event will air on the Peacock and the NBC Olympics app.

For a related story, a former member of the WVU women’s basketball team was part an historic Olympic run for Nigeria.