Delta organizes send-off for Team USA Olympic athletes at Atlanta airport

July 18th, 2024

Team USA weightlifting athlete, Mary Theisen smiles as they read an encouraging note from a local high schooler as they depart from the airport for the Summer Olympic Games, on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Delta Air Lines celebrated members of Team USA on Wednesday at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport before the athletes flew to Paris for the Summer Olympic Games.

The airline had T-shirts and water bottles at the gate where archers, fencers, basketball players and other athletes were scheduled to depart. Signs read, “Good Luck Team USA!” and “A Merci Beaucoup From Us to You.”

Atlanta-based Delta is managing travel for all U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

Mary Theisen-Lappen, a weightlifter who will compete in the Olympics for the first time, was among the celebrated athletes.

“I’m excited,” she said. “I’m nervous.”

Passenger Gillian Tran, 17, from Tallahassee, Florida, was delighted to learn she would be on the same flight as the athletes when she got to the gate. She said her family won tickets to the Paris Games in a lottery two years ago. She posed for photos with some of the athletes.

“I’m also excited to go to the Olympics because I did a history fair project about the 1936 Olympics two years ago,” she said.

The opening ceremony for the Games is scheduled for July 26.