Summer 2024 was a massive summer for sports, whether it was the Olympic Games in Paris or key offseason moves in the football and basketball worlds. For New Orleans, the summer’s focus was preparing  for the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans seasons, as far as their professional teams go. Here are some of the big moves and events that have happened these past couple of months:

New Orleans Saints

The Saints season is coming up, with their final preseason game set to kick off on Sunday against the Tennessee Titans. While their  head coach Dennis Allen, starting quarterback Derek Carr and Pro Bowler skill players Alvin Kamara and Chris Olave remain , the Saints have made some critical fringe moves that can help them improve from a disappointing previous season. One of these was the signing of pass rusher Chase Young, who has shown out throughout training camp.

The Saints also drafted Spencer Rattler from the University of South Carolina in the fifth  round. Despite occupying a backup role  for the time being, Rattler will certainly play a role in the future of the Saints .

New Orleans Pelicans

The Pelicans made a big splash this offseason, trading for star guard Dejounte Murray in exchange for Larry Nance Jr, Dyson Daniels, E.J Liddell  and several draft picks. Murray brings to the Pelicans ball handling and on-ball s coring that they lacked in the last couple of years. That being said, trading Nance away, as well as losing their  previous starting center   makes the Pelicans thin up front, with their only bigs being Zion Williamson, rookie Yves Missi and  late pickup Daniel Theis. The Pelicans season does not start until late October, with their media day being

Green Wave at Paris Olympics

Four people represented  the Green Wave at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, each representing a different country. One of them was Rena Wakama, an assistant coach to Tulane women’s basketball, who helped coach Nigeria’s women’s basketball team at the Olympics. The team finished 2-2 and made the quarterfinals, becoming the first African basketball team to reach the quarterfinals, men or women,  in the Olympics.

Graduate Thad Lettsome competed in sailing for the British Virgin Islands, specifically in the men’s one-perso n dinghy, the ILCA 7,  laser event. Lettsome finished 37th overall out of 43 sailors, putting up his best result in the fourth  race, finishing second.

Graduate Dominik Koepfer competed in men’s tennis for Germany, playing singles and  doubles matches. In singles, Koepfer made the third round where he lost to the eventual gold medalist, Novak Djokovic. In doubles, Koepfer and his partner, Jan-Lennard Struff,  also fell to the eventual gold medalists in the quarterfinals, losing to Australia’s Matthew Ebden and John Peers.

Tulane’s last participant was incoming freshman Tharushi Karunarathna, who represented Sri Lanka in the 800m track race. Karunarathna placed eighth and seventh in the two rounds, finishing with time s of 2:07.76 and 2:06.66.