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{shortcode-429a20a43b31c14ee603587b9f7215faac9b0e1d}or most Harvard seniors receiving their diploma this May, graduation marks the start of a transition into the professional world. Some, though, have already reached the peak of their field, having taken their talents to the Olympics last summer.

Seniors Graham Blanks and Lauren Scruggs both competed at the 2024 Summer Games — with Scruggs securing a silver and gold medal and Blanks finished ninth overall in his event.

The Crimson spoke to the two seniors about their journey in their respective sports, the Olympics, and their plans for the future.

From the Beginning

Foil fencer Scruggs represented Team USA for the first time last summer, picking up an individual silver and a team gold. Even with her massive success, Scruggs still remembers her beginnings.

“My older brother fenced first, and my mom originally put him in fencing as a way to get into college,” Scruggs said “I come from an immigrant family, so college is a big thing in our household.”

“Then I started fencing after just because it was easy to put us in the same sport so we could travel places together and things of that nature,” she added.

Soon enough, her talent for fencing began to shine through.

“My mom saw that I was pretty good at fencing. When I was 10 years old, I was winning tournaments for Y14 Y12, Y10.”

Given her success, she was eventually recruited to play for the Crimson.

“They had their eye on me, so I came here, had a great time,” she said. “The coaches here are great. I feel like everyone at Harvard was really supportive of my journey and what I needed.”

Distance runner Blanks, who recently departed the NCAA world for his professional career with New Balance, achieved many feats during his time at Harvard — two-time NCAA Division I Cross Country Champion, collegiate record-holder for the indoor 5000m, and 2023 Ivy League title holder in the indoor mile, 3000m, outdoor 5000m, just to name a few.

In addition to these successes, Blanks ran in the qualifying and final of the 5,000 meters in 2024 Paris Summer Olympics and placed ninth. However, his running started rather casually.

“I would always do the turkey trot 5k with my mom,” Blanks said. “I would always be pretty good at it because I knew how to pace myself, but never really thought anything more of it.”

By his sophomore year of high school, though, running became his main sport as he began to recognize his talent when he would win events like state championships.

“And that’s what brought me here,” Blanks said, “Now I’m a professional runner which I didn’t really expect to happen back when I was in middle school, or running those Turkey trots.”

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At the Games

For both athletes, the Olympics were an exciting opportunity, but also an intimidating environment since neither had much experience on the world stage before.

For Scruggs, training for the Olympics looked much like the rest of her schedule — though it required working around her other commitments..

“I didn’t really do anything special, truth be told. I just did my normal thing. So I did an internship and after my internship, practiced until 9,” Scruggs said. “But I guess I was practicing a lot more.”

The Paris Games were a new experience for Scruggs, and she had to adjust to the atmosphere of the Olympic Village.

“The first few weeks were very tense,” she said. “The village was much quieter, people seemed a little less friendly. I definitely was much more stressed out and not really socializing. But after I was done and as more athletes started to finish up, it definitely became a lot much more lively and fun in the village.”

The stress was well worth it for Scruggs, who triumphed in the most important competition of her life thus far.

“It felt surreal,” she said. “Something you obviously think about, you see other athletes do in past years, But it’s hard to put yourself in their shoes and in that scenario. So to do that was kind of just unbelievable to me.”

Overall, Scruggs described the Olympics as “a really fun time.”

“You’re with the world’s greatest athletes, all in one place, the whole world is watching you,” she said.

Blanks, for his part, had not realized the cultural scale of the Olympics until he experienced it himself. He said that many people ask him about the Olympic Village, and he described it as a “very cool” place.

“It was pretty inspiring that we have this human tradition where we can all come together peacefully and be a part of this one big event,” Blanks said. “So for me, that was the best part — getting to just soak that Olympic environment.”

Competing was also a novel experience for Blanks, who described the Olympics as the peak for track and field.

“Getting to compete in front of like 80,000 people two times — that was amazing,” he said.

The Future

Following the Olympics, Scruggs has gained confidence that “when you work hard and you put all your attention into something, it’ll pay off.”

With that, she has new goals to work towards.

“Honestly, you never know what’s going to happen. So right now, I think I’m just trying to see where I can go with my fencing,” Scruggs said. “Truth be told, I technically skipped a lot of steps, like you usually win a few World Cups before you get an Olympic medal, so getting some more World Cup wins just be pretty cool.”

Scruggs also hopes to compete in the next 2028 Summer Olympics in LA.

“I would love to go to L.A. That’d be really cool to fence in the home crowd,” she said.

When asked about what she hopes to achieve in LA, Scruggs said she wants “hopefully to replicate Paris.”


You never know what’s gonna happen,” she added. “So I try not to put any expectations on myself. Just to work hard and try my best.”

Looking for new challenges at a larger scale, Blanks transitioned from Harvard to the professional world. He felt that he had outgrown the NCAA and was ready to take the steps necessary to keep participating in events like the Olympics.

Post-Olympics, Blanks’ first thought was how much he wanted to compete in the games again.

“So now that’s my goal for the next three years — to make it to Los Angeles and then onward to wherever the next ones are,” he said.

Since leaving Harvard Athletics, Blanks has made health his top priority, which he notes was more difficult in the NCAA world of back-to-back competitions. He is structuring his training to be in his best condition for the upcoming World Championships at the end of this summer.

In the meantime, Blanks looks forward to traveling to new places thanks to his races — something he had enjoyed during his time at Harvard.

“Now that I’m professional, I’m just excited to be able to do that at a world-scale now and have a reason to travel to all these different countries and go to really cool races,” Blanks said.

“And I hear that they’re bigger fans of athletics in Europe, so I’m excited to run in front of bigger crowds there and hopefully make a name for myself out there as well.”

– Staff Writer Kaylyn H. Kim can be reached at kaylyn.kim@thecrimson.com.

– Staff Writer Tiffany Oh can be reached at tiffany.oh@thecrimson.com.