Xander Schauffele’s 2020 Tokyo Olympics win remains his most special because of his father - Exploring the heartwarming tale of a father & son
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics was an immensely successful campaign for Xander Schauffele as he managed to win the gold medal. This victory in Tokyo was also special because Schauffele had an amazing story related to it which involved his father Steffan Schauffele.
For those unaware, Stefan was an athlete who played multiple sports and aspired to compete in the Olympics as a decathlon athlete. However, an accident while traveling for training in Stuggart caused Stefan an injury that also ended his ambitions of participating in the Olympics.
Thus, when Xander Schauffele participated in the Tokyo Olympics and won a gold medal, he fulfiled not only his own dream but also his father's. Schauffele, after winning the medal, said in an interview that the first person he thought about after making the putt to win was his father. He said (via Olympics.com):
"I did think of him as soon as I made the putt. I knew he was going to be there crying. He put all his eggs in one basket for quite some time … to compete as a decathlete in the Olympics. Life came at him fast, it was swiped away from him, but he saw potential in me … and so he put all his eggs in my basket. For this to come full circle, … I just feel very fortunate and really happy to share this with him.”
Apart from this, another reason why this victory was special for Xander Schauffele was because he won the Olympic gold in a country his mother was raised in. At the 2024 Olympics in Paris, Schauffele will have the chance of winning his second consecutive Olympics gold for Team USA.
A list of the golfers Xander Schauffele will face at the 2024 Paris Olympics
At the 2024 Olympics in Paris, Xander Schauffele will team up with talented golfers such as Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa, and Wyndham Clark to represent Team USA. However, he will also go up against other talented golfers from around the world. Here is the list of players he will compete against at the Le Golf National:
- Argentina - Emiliano Grillo, Alejandro Tosti
- Australia - Jason Day, Min Woo Lee
- Austria - Sepp Straka
- Belgium - Thomas Detry, Adrien Dumont de Chassart
- Canada - Corey Conners, Nick Taylor
- Chile - Mito Periera, Joaquin Niemann
- China - Zecheng Dou, Carl Yuan
- Chinese Taipei - CT Pan, Kevin Yu
- Colombia - Nico Echevarria, Camillo Villages
- Denmark - Nicolai Hojgaard, Thorbjorn Olesen
- Finland - Sami Valimaki
- France - Matthieu Pavon, Victor Perez
- Germany - Stephan Jaeger, Matti Schmid
- Great Britain - Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood
- India - Gaganjeet Bhullar, Shubshankar Sharma
- Ireland - Shane Lowry, Rory McIlroy
- Italy - Matteo Manassero, Guido Migliozzi
- Japan - Hideki Matsuyama, Keita Nakajima
- Malaysia - Gavin Green
- Mexico - Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz
- Netherlands - Darius van Driel, Joost Luiten
- New Zealand - Ryan Fox, Daniel Hillier
- Norway - Viktor Hovland, Kris Ventura
- Paraguay - Fabrizio Zanotti
- Poland - Adrian Meronk
- Puerto Rico - Rafael Campos
- South Africa - Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Erik Van Rooyen
- South Korea - Byeong Hun An, Tom Kim
- Spain - Jon Rahm, David Puig
- Sweden - Ludvig Aberg, Alex Noren
- Thailand - Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Phachara Khongwatmai
- United States - Wyndham Clark, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler