Twinning and Winning

Meet the twin athletes of the 2024 Olympic Games

I’m probably not the only one whose Instagram feed has been consumed by the Olympics. Between interviews with Simone Biles and memes about Stephen Neodoroscik, I saw a video of Bregje and Noortje de Brouwer – artistic swimmers from the Netherlands who are twins. It made me curious about how many other sets of twins are competing together and after a disappointing Google search, I decided to compile a list myself.

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So here they are! The 2024 twin Olympians!

🩱 Artistic Swimming

• Maryna and Vladyslava Aleksiiva from Ukraine

• Anna Maria and Eirini Alexandri from Austria

• Charlotte and Laura Tremble from France

• Bregje and Noortje de Brouwer from Netherlands

🏸 Badminton 

• Annie and Kerry Xu from the US 

🏀 Basketball 3x3

• Katherine and Michelle Plouffe from Canada

🛶 Canoeing

• Madison and Michaela Corcoran from Ireland

🤸🏿‍♀️ Gymnastics 

• Lieke and Sanne Wevers from the Netherlands

🤾🏻‍♂️ Handball 

• Sanna Solberg-Isaksen and Silje Solberg-Osthassel from Norway

🚣🏽 Rowing 

• Antonia and Melita Abraham from Chile

• Guillaume and Thibaud Turlan from France

• Anton and Patrik Loncaric from Croatia 

• Alessia and Valeria Palacios from Peru

• Domantas and Dovydas Stankunas from Lithuania

⚽️ Soccer

• Delphine and Estelle Cascarino from France

🏊🏻‍♀️ Swimming

• Aaron and Alexandra Shackell from the US  

🏓 Table Tennis 

• Anna and Katarzyna Wegrzyn from Poland

🎾 Tennis

• Lyudmyla and Nadiia Kichenok from Ukraine

🏃🏿‍♂️ Track and Field

• Jonathan and Kevin Borlee from Belgium 

• Maria Isabel and Marta Perez from Spain

• Sanaa and Sole Frederick from Trinidad and Tobago

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It’s important to note that this list leaves out the twins competing without their counterpart, whether they be an athlete or not, or in different sports. Nonetheless, I found it interesting just how many twins are competing in the Olympics together either as partners or rivals. There’s no shortage of siblings or relatives in the games, but for twins in particular, I feel that their competing together at such a high level ties into the nature vs nurture argument on how athletes make the Olympics.

On one hand, twins, especially identical twins, could have similar physiques and mentalities which could suit them for athletics. A number of headlines favored twin athletes as having an advantage with their “twin connection.” Coordination and teamwork is undoubtedly important in team and duo sports, but is twinship really such a big factor in that? It could just be that these twins (presumably) have access to the same resources and follow the same training schedules. Twin athletes may have more intertwined lives than other competitors, but it likely isn’t that different of a path than the others dedicating their lives to their sport.

Whatever the case on why these twins chose to be athletes, their talent is undeniable to be competing in the Olympics. I’m looking forward to watching them all compete and crossing my fingers that at least one pair gets gold.

I asked Joanna what she thinks our Olympic sport would be. She was cautiously confident in our synchronized diving ability, but I voted for speed walking. We both agreed that we’re better off just watching from our couch.