Local Brewer From West Michigan Will Compete At 2024 Paris Olympics

The Great Lakes State will be well represented at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

Athletes from all over the state are set to compete this summer for gold and glory, and that includes a few of our own right here in West Michigan.

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Kalamazoo native Heath Baldwin has qualified for the Decathlon, John Risch of Grand Rapids will compete in race walking, and now we have another name to add to that list:

Andrew Evans

A local brewer from one of Kalamazoo's highly acclaimed breweries, Wax Wings Brewing Co., Evans recently took gold at the Olympic discus trials and will soon head to Paris!

If you look at the Wax Wings Facebook page there is no shortage of praise and support for their guy; his friends and coworkers seem to have been behind him every step of the way.

I guess it helps when your best friend is the owner! In a post-qualifying interview Evans said,

[the job] is a lot of manual labor...it's not easy to go out and practice after....my best friend actually is the owner so he cuts me some slack...he lets me go out and train before and you know, take my little vacations here to go win a medal...he's really supportive

The 33 year old Portage, Michigan native attended Portage Northern High School before heading to the University of Michigan and then the University of Kentucky. He is now a two-time national champion and two-time Olympian.

Local Brewer Takes Gold at Olympic Trials
byu/twaldofs inkzoo

When asked if Evans and his crew at Wax Wings would brew a special Olympic beer in his honor he responded, "For sure. For sure." and the brewery agrees sharing on Reddit:

One of our brewers at Wax Wings Brewing is headed to Paris for the summer Olympics. Andrew Evans clinched gold in men’s discus at the Olympic trials on Saturday. We will post more details later, but we are brewing a beer in his honor and will be donating a portion of the proceeds to help him on his journey.

Cheers, Andrew! We're wishing you the best of luck in Paris.