BERKELEY – Danny Barrett, a four-time All-American and national collegiate champion in both 7s and 15s during his Golden Bear career from 2009-13, has been named to the United States Olympic Team for Rugby 7s at the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, an announcement from USA Rugby confirmed Monday.
 
"We are all so happy, so proud," said California head coach Jack Clark. "'Danny Barrett, Olympian,' has a forever ring to it. For all of time, an Olympian."
 
Barrett was a member of the 2011 national collegiate 15s champion Rugby Bears and helped California win its first national title in the Olympic style of the game in 2013 at the Collegiate Rugby Championship. A U.S. National 7s Team mainstay and veteran of the 2015 Rugby World Cup who received his degree in American Studies, Barrett will further with his trip to Rio an Olympic rugby tradition at the University that dates back most recently to 1924, when Cal players helped the U.S. win a second straight gold medal at the Paris Games.
 
A vote in 2009 by the International Olympic Committee set the return of rugby to the Olympics for this summer, and the U.S. men and women have both qualified to compete in their respective three-day, 12-nation tournaments.
 
"It's a testament to the Cal rugby ethos because continually, year after year, we put out USA internationals, and that's what we strive to do as a program," Barrett said prior to his selection. His gratitude to everyone in the Cal community who helped him on the road to Rio – "We all did it, we've all done it, we're all going to do it" – has now been verified.
 
Barrett and his U.S. teammates have been placed in Pool A of the 12-nation tournament at the Olympics, where Team USA faces host Brazil, Argentina and Fiji in pool play with action kicking off August 9 at Deodoro Stadium. The medal rounds culminate August 11.
 
Barrett is the youngest of three brothers from Pacifica, Calif., joining Jim and Neill, to have graduated in succession from the University.
 
In the last Summer Olympics, the 2012 London Games, current student-athletes and alumni from the University of California earned 17 medals, 11 of them gold, making Cal tied for sixth in the world compared to entire nations for the number for gold medals earned at that Olympiad. This August, scores of Golden Bears will once again go for the gold at the Rio Games, where these proud competitors will represent themselves, their nation and their University on the world stage.