DURHAM – Three Duke women’s golfers – Ana Belac (Slovenia), Celine Boutier (France) and Leona Maguire (Ireland) — have qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games as the final women’s Olympic Golf Ranking was released on Tuesday, following a two-year qualification period.
It will mark the third straight Olympics the Blue Devils will have golfers representing their home countries. In 2016, Maguire represented Ireland and Laetitia Beck competed for Israel in Brazil. Duke once again had two competitors in 2020 in Japan as Maguire and Boutier of France competed.
Belac will make her Olympic debut in August representing Slovenia.
The women’s Olympic Golf Ranking featured 60 qualifiers representing 33 different countries. The women’s qualification period for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games began on June 24, 2022 and concluded following the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship on June 23, 2024. The top 15 world-ranked players were eligible for the Olympics, with a limit of four players from a given country. Beyond the top 15, players were eligible based on the Rolex Women’s World Golf Ranking, with a maximum of two eligible players from each country that did not already have two or more players among the top 15.
The host country – France – was guaranteed at least one spot, as is each of the five continents of the Olympics. Two women qualified to represent Team France at Paris 2024 based on their top-60 finish in the final women’s Olympic Golf Ranking: Boutier (No. 6 in the Olympic Golf Ranking) and Perrine Delacour (No. 30 in the Olympic Golf Ranking).
This summer’s competition marks the fifth time golf has been featured as an Olympic sport and just the third time since 1904. Maguire is one of 15 women that have the opportunity to compete in their third consecutive women’s Olympic golf competition: Aditi Ashok of India, Carlota Ciganda of Spain, Brooke Henderson of Canada, Lydia Ko of New Zealand, Minjee Lee of Australia, Xiyu Lin of China, Gaby Lopez of Mexico, Nanna Koerstz Madsen of Denmark, Stephanie Meadow of Ireland, Azahara Munoz of Spain, Alena Sharp of Canada, Klara Davidson Spilkova of the Czech Republic, Mariajo Uribe of Colombia and Albane Valenzuela of Switzerland.
With the women’s Olympic Golf Ranking finalized, the International Golf Federation (IGF) will send confirmation of the men’s…
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