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Cover 3: Which Giants player would make the best Olympian?

Jul 08, 2024 at 10:00 AM

by John Schmeelk, Dan Salomone & Matt Citak

With the Olympics coming up later this month, we had some fun and discussed which current Giants player would have the best shot at winning a gold medal. There's also bonus points for picking the event.

Here's what we came up with:

John Schmeelk: My initial instinct is to choose someone like Jalin Hyatt in track and field, but I'm not sure people realize exactly how fast some of these Olympic sprinters are. So, instead, I'm going to take Dexter Lawrence in wrestling. I understand it will take some training, but his combination of strength and agility should be unmatched in the ring. Good luck pinning that dude.

Dan Salomone: In four more years, this would be an easy question. Flag football will make its Olympic debut at Los Angeles 2028. Malik Nabers and Deonte Banks should definitely try out. Can you imagine trying to get the flag from the former or escape the latter?

For 2024, though, my mind first went to Bobby Okereke. He could add Olympian to his "Most Interesting Man on the Team" title. Did you know he once performed at Carnegie Hall in high school? Plus, he went to Stanford, a factory for producing Olympians.

I ultimately landed on Brian "Spider" Burns, however. His physical traits would be dominant in volleyball. He is 6-5 with 33 7/8-inch arms. I wouldn't want to see him on the other side of the net. I'll take it a step further and put him in beach volleyball. He already has the cool shades.

Matt Citak: To answer this fun question, I first looked at some of the new sports set to be introduced at this year's Summer Olympics. Unfortunately, I cannot say with any level of confidence that any member of the 2024 Giants would succeed in breakdancing, skateboarding, sport climbing or surfing. And while there might be some players in the locker room that believe they could succeed in table tennis at the Olympics, I don't think they could quite live up to the standards set by the greatest table tennis players in the world.

With all of that said, I have to disagree with John on this one and go with Dante Miller in track and field, more specifically the 100-meter dash. Hear me out. Miller, who earned the nickname "Turbo" due to his immense speed, used to run track and field in high school while attending Richmond Senior High (North Carolina). It was at Richmond that Miller posted a personal-best of 10.2 seconds in the 100-meter dash. Let's keep in mind, this was over six years ago. Miller is likely now in even better shape having played college ball at Columbia and more recently South Carolina. In fact, he registered an unofficial 4.27 40-yard dash at South Carolina's pro day earlier this year. This would have been among the fastest 40 times ever recorded at the NFL Combine. During the 2020 Olympics, Italy's Lamont Marcell Jacobs took home the gold medal in the Men's 100m after posting a 9.80. If Miller was .4 seconds away from gold medal time six years ago, I'd imagine he would be much closer to that mark today. Or I could be completely wrong, who knows. I spent way too much time researching this one, but that's life in the NFL in July.