Meet the More than Dozen LDS Athletes Competing in the Tokyo Olympics

With the July 23 opening ceremonies officially starting the 2020 Tokyo Olympics a year after a pandemic delay, athletes are lifting, kicking, throwing, shooting, dribbling, running and swimming as they compete on the world stage.

More than a dozen athletes who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be part of the Olympics. They are listed approximately in the order of when they compete. Events run through Sunday, August 8.

If you know of any other Latter-day Saints competing in the Tokyo Olympic Games, please email their name, country and sport to [email protected].

This is the third Olympics for Brazilian soccer defender Bruna Benites. The 35-year-old professional soccer player was team captain of the 2012 team that competed in Great Britain. She helped win the CONMEBOL Copa América Femenina in 2014, and the Brazilian women were fourth in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

She was born in Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil, and was baptized a member of the Church with her family at age 15. She spoke at RootsTech earlier this year and shared how she relies on the Lord for strength on and off the field.

When to watch: Brazil women’s soccer team is in Group F in the preliminary pool rounds. They beat China 5-0 on Wednesday, July 21, and will play the Netherlands on Saturday, July 24, and Zambia on Tuesday, July 27. The quarterfinals are on Friday, July 30, and semifinals on Tuesday, August 3. The bronze-medal match is on Thursday, August 5, and the gold-medal match on Friday, August 6.

Pistol Shooting

A first-time Olympian, Alexis “Lexi” Lagan, 28, is competing for Team USA in women’s sport pistol, women’s air pistol and in mixed air pistol events. The Nevada native started Olympic shooting while attending the University of Utah and after graduating, moved to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She won the national championships in sport pistol in 2017 and 2019 and in air pistol in 2016, 2018 and 2019.