SAN ANTONIO – A pair of former UTSA track & field student-athletes, Alanah Yukich and Diego Pettorossi, recently qualified for the 2024 Olympic games and will journey with their respective national team entourages to Paris. Athletics (Track & Field) competition at Stade de France is set to be contested August 2-10.
The pair goes down as the Roadrunners’ third and fourth all-time Olympians, with all previous Olympic performers representing the track & field program.
“We are extremely excited to have two of our former Roadrunners going to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris! While with us at UTSA, Alanah and Diego were prime examples of hard work, dedication and devotion to this team,” Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Aaron Fox said. “They excelled academically and athletically in their respective years with us and continue to make us proud on their post-graduate performances that now lead them to the biggest stage in Paris!”
Representing Australia and hailing from Perth, Yukich has ranked as high as 32nd in the world rankings and is currently 36th in the 400-meter hurdles – making her first Olympic appearance with Athletics Australia. Working to secure her spot while competing in five meets with three 400m hurdles wins in the month of June, Yukich came away with her top time of 55.15 at Meeting Madrid 2024 on June 21 in the Spanish capital’s Estadio Vallehermoso.
Yukich ranks second among UTSA’s all-time 400m hurdles performers and was a nine-time Conference USA medalist and three-time NCAA Regional performer for the Roadrunners. A two-time UTSA graduate who finished up in 2023 with a master's in business degree, Yukich was C-USA’s 2021-22 Spirit of Service Award winner, in addition to back-to-back 400m hurdles conference crowns in 2022 and 2023, also registering a 2021 silver medal on her collegiate best of 57.00 seconds.
Heading to Paris wearing Italy’s colors, Pettorossi was the 2022 Italian National Champion in the 200m dash and will represent his home nation on the Olympic stage for the first time. His current career best of 20.45 seconds is 57th in the world. Pettorossi also competed in six meets last month, including a victory at the Cybulski Memorial in Poland for his new career mark. Pettorossi is fresh off silver at the Italian Championships on June 30 – only edged out by Tokyo Olympics relay champion Fausto Desalu.
Coming originally from Bologna, Italy, Pettorossi joined the Roadrunners for the 2022 season, departing San Antonio with a graduate degree in data analytics. He earned the Conference USA Outdoor Championships 200m silver medal, clocking a collegiate-best 20.61 in the preliminary. He was also second leg on UTSA’s runner-up 4x100m relay at the championships, with the quartet setting a then-school record with a combined 39.34. Pettorossi also collected 200m silver at the C-USA Indoor Championships, producing the school record at the time with a 21.04 clocking.
- UTSA -