This story was excerpted from Jessica Camerato’s Nationals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

The 2024 Summer Olympics have been capturing attention around the world, including in the Nationals' clubhouse. The Nats have been appreciating the prowess of the athletes in all events. I wanted to know, if the Nationals – who play baseball on the highest level – could participate in one Summer Olympic sport, what would it be?

INF Nasim Nuñez: “Handball looks fun. I would dominate (laughs). It’s a mixture of basketball, baseball, a little bit of soccer IQ with the goal everything, and agility, speed, finesse. It looks fun. It’s every single sport I like and I’m pretty decent at.”

C Riley Adams: “The one that looks sick is the new event, the kayak cross. They’re racing down the rapid and bumping elbows with each other. I don’t think I’d be good at it, but it would be kind of fun. It just looks like demolition derby or something, pushing and shoving, going down a rapid and dropping from 12 feet in the air. So I would pick that one.”

RHP Jake Irvin: “I’m going to go with water polo, because it looks hard as heck. We used to play it in gym class in middle school, but you’d be in the shallow end so you’d be standing – and that was hard enough. But I obviously like to throw things. Watching them tread water for that long looks impossible, so I’d like to try that and see how taxing it really is.”

LHP Robert Garcia: “I played basketball before and I think it’s fun. I think playing in any Olympic sport would be exciting, but that would be the one I would be most comfortable with. I would be on the bench (laughs), I’d be the waterboy.”

RHP Derek Law: “I think the double [parallel] bars would be fun. That would be awesome to be good at. I feel like it looks like fun, swinging around and flipping. It’s like monkey bars as a kid. I’d want to be good at that, for sure.”

RHP Jacob Barnes: “I think surfing would be cool. I’ve never surfed before, but seeing the spots that they get to go [to] and the waves are massive, so I think it would be pretty cool to experience something like that. I’ve played basketball, I’ve swam, all that stuff I’ve done. But watching that, it’s something I’ve never done and it intrigues me a little bit.”

RHP Kyle Finnegan: “Handball, no question. I feel like the skills translate the most. It’s running and throwing a ball as hard as you can. We were talking about it in the clubhouse – obviously, we would get smoked in the Olympics, but feel like we could field a fairly competitive handball team. … I feel like the infielders would be good because it’s a lot of throwing off balance and leaving your feet to throw the ball. Then, maybe have some of the pitchers to bring in that [velocity]. I’ve never played. It looks like a fun game. It’s kind of like 10 sports rolled into one.”

LHP Mitchell Parker: “I’d have to say swimming. For some reason, not being a good swimmer my entire life, watching those guys, I really want to do the swimming. If I were to do it, it would probably take me a lot longer than they do to get down and back. … The butterfly looks weirdly fun, incredibly hard, but I feel like I’d want to do the butterfly.”

OF Travis Blankenhorn: “I would want to be on the basketball team. I’m a big LeBron [James] fan. I don’t have to play. Put me on the bench, I’ll watch as long as I get to watch them play.”