Olympic-Bound Dons
Three former members of the University of San Francisco cross country and track and field teams will compete at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, beginning later this week.
Two Dons, Lizzie Bird MA ’19 (Great Britain) and Lea Meyer (Germany) will compete in the 3,000 meter steeplechase, while Maor Tiyouri ’14 (Israel) is set to run her third marathon in the Olympic Games. All three competed in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Tiyouri qualified by finishing eighth in the NH Marathon Rotterdam on April 14. Achieving her best-ever time in the marathon, Tiyouri crossed the finish line at 2:26:39, surpassing her previous record of 2:29:04 set at the Cheshire Elite Marathon in Pulford, England, on April 25, 2021.
In the previous two Olympics, Tiyouri participated in the marathon at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro and 2020 Tokyo Summer Games. In Tokyo, held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tiyouri earned her best-ever finish of 48th place out of 73 competitors with a time of 2:37:52, shattering her previous Olympic best of 2:47:27 in 2016 set at Estádio Olímpico in Rio de Janeiro.
Tiyouri excelled with the women's cross country and track and field programs while on the Hilltop, specializing in long-distance events. On the track, she set career bests in her final season in 2014, including her first-ever sub-35 minute 10,000 meters at the Stanford Invitational on April 5, 2014, with a time of 34:33.46.
The 2024 Paris Olympics commences with the opening ceremony on July 26, and the women's marathon takes place on August 10.
Fresh off her bronze medal performance at the 2024 European Championships held at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome in early June, Bird placed first at the UK Athletics Championships and Olympic Trials last weekend to punch her ticket to Paris. Her mark of 9:29.67 was a championship record and 21 seconds off her personal best in the event set in August of 2022.
A member of the San Francisco women's cross country and track and field teams from 2017-18, Bird competed in nine total cross-country races in two seasons for the Dons. Bird earned three top-15 finishes, highlighted by a ninth-place finish at the 2017 West Coast Conference Championships, setting a personal best of 20:12.8 in the 6,000 meters.
Bird received her MA in international studies from USF. She has been involved in advocacy and support for the human rights organization Detention Action.
Meyer was a teammate of Bird's on the Dons' 2018 track and field team. In 2022, she was ranked 28th in the world in the 3,000 meter steeplechase. At the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, she miscalculated the final water jump and went head first into the water. She still finished the race in 9:30.81 but was not quick enough to make the final.
For updates on USF's Olympic Dons follow Dons track and field on Twitter and Instagram at @DonsXCTF.
