Delta Arranges Departure of Team USA Olympic Athletes from Atlanta Airport

ATLANTA (AP) — Delta Air Lines celebrated members of Team USA Wednesday at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport before the athletes fly to Paris for the Summer Olympics.

The airline had T-shirts and water bottles at the gate where archers, fencers, basketball players and other athletes were to depart. Signs read: “Good luck to Team USA!” and “A big thank you from us to you.”

Atlanta-based Delta manages 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 athletes celebrated.

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

Gillian Tran, a 17-year-old passenger from Tallahassee, Florida, was thrilled to learn she would be on the same flight as the athletes when she arrived at 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 looking forward to going to the Olympics because I did a historical fair project about the 1936 Olympics two years ago,” she said.

THE opening ceremony The Games are scheduled to start on July 26.