Five Oregon State University athletes going to Beijing Olympics

Corvallis — Oregon State University will be well represented at next month’s Olympic Games in Beijing, with five current, former and future athletes competing for four countries. Brian Barden (baseball) and Josh Inman (rowing) will compete for the United States, Saori Haruguchi (swimming) will represent Japan, Heinrich Barnes (wrestling) competes for South Africa, and Olivia Vivian (gymnastics) for Australia.

The five athletes with direct OSU ties are the most for the school since the 1976 Games in Montreal.

Barden, one of 23 players on the baseball roster, was a three-year letterman from 2000-02 at OSU and earned first team all-Pac-10 Conference twice as an infielder. He currently is playing for St. Louis’ Triple-A affiliate in Memphis after making 23 major league appearances last year for the Cardinals and Arizona Diamondbacks. The 2002 sixth round pick of Arizona is the first Beaver Olympian in baseball.

Inman makes his Olympic debut after lengthy international experience. He originally qualified for the games in the men’s pair, but two weeks later was moved the men’s eight. The 2005 U.S. Rowing male Athlete of the Year lettered from 2000-02.
The Hillsboro native was a first team all-Pac-10 selection as a senior and led the Beavers’ varsity-8 to a fourth-place finish in the 2002 Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championship, the highest finish ever for OSU.

“Competing in the Olympics has been a dream of mine since I started rowing at Oregon State,” Inman said. “This honor represents the culmination of a lot of hard work.It is a great privilege to be able to represent my country and compete in a sport that I love at the highest level.”

Haruguchi won the 400-individual medley competition at the Japanese Olympic Trials to qualify.In March, she became OSU’s first ever women’s swimming NCAA champion when she won the 200-butterfly in Columbus, Ohio.

Barnes will wrestle in the 66 kilograms freestyle category for his native South Africa. He wrestled at 141 pounds last season recording a 22-7 record after transferring from North Idaho College prior to the season. He was a South African Junior champion and was 125-7 overall while at Centurion High School in Pretoria.

Vivian is an incoming freshman for Tanya Chaplin’s program. She was nominated to the Olympic Team by Gymnastics Australia after competition earlier this summer at the national championships in Melbourne and her performance at the Australia Institute of Sport.

Former Beaver soccer standout Robbie Findley is also a possible participant, being named an alternate for the team this week.

Other known connections include 1968 gold medalist high jumper Dick Fosbury serving as the World Olympians Association President and former OSU assistant coach Matt Imes is on the U.S. Rowing team staff.