Samyr Laine '06 made headlines leading up to the games both for his famous freshman roommate, Facebook creator Mark E. Zuckerberg, and for his support of Haitian athletics.
Born and raised in the USA, Laine competed for his parents' home country of Haiti in the Triple Jump. After qualifying for Thursday's final, Laine finished 11th out of 12 finalists, with a final distance of 16.65 meters, 0.74 meters less than his personal best jump of 17.39 which would have put Laine in fourth at time of publication.
Laine's elimination extends Haiti's individual medal-less streak that dates back to 1928. It also leaves just one more Harvard athlete left to compete, with Alex Meyer '10 swimming in the men's 10k open water on Friday.
So far these Olympics, Harvard athletes have claimed two golds (Esther Lofgren '07-'09 and Caryn Davies '04-05 in the women's eight), one silver (Malcolm Howard '06 in the men's eight) and one bronze (Henrik Rummel '09 in the men's coxless four). This medal count would place the Crimson 29th overall in total medals, just behind Croatia and ahead of Switzerland.