PARIS — How would New Jersey have done as a country at the Paris Olympics? Put it this way: You would have heard Born to Run — our national anthem, of course — nearly a dozen times to celebrate our athletes’ victories in the iconic venues around the city.
In fact, you would have heard it more often than the national anthems of big countries like Spain, Brazil and Canada. And you would have heard it in an impressive array of sports, including fencing, gymnastics, soccer, golf and basketball.
The French would have had no choice but to tip their berets.
Beyond the medal winners, Olympians from our country — er, state — achieved personal bests, checked off items on their bucket lists or gained value experience for L.A. 2028 over the past two and a half weeks in France. They put on quite a show.
Here is a rundown on how athletes with ties to New Jersey did in Paris:
MEDAL WINNERS
Bam Adebayo
The Newark born NBA star, who moved to North Carolina when he was 7 years old, was a key contributor off the bench for the U.S. men’s basketball team for a second straight Olympics to pick up another gold medal. He is a three-time NBA All-Star with the Miami Heat played collegiately at Kentucky.
Jack Alexy
The 21-year-old Mendham native won two relay medals in Paris — gold in the 4×100 freestyle relay and silver in the 4×100 medley relay — and finished seventh in the 100-meter freestyle in his first Olympic appearance. The experience figures to benefit the former Delbarton swimmer who was described as “the next face of American male sprinting” by the website SwimSwam.
Kahleah Copper
The former Rutgers star earned a spot on one of the most dominant teams in Olympic history — the U.S. women’s basketball team. Now with the Phoenix Mercury, Copper is averaging 24 ppg in her eighth WNBA season and, in Paris, provided a scoring lift off the bench as the Americans won their eighth-straight gold medal.
Jackie Dubrovich
The 29-year-old Riverdale native and Pompton Lakes High took home an historic team gold in the women’s foil after a disappointing performance in the individual competition. Dubrovich, who put her life on hold to build her life around the sport with Paris in mind, announced that she was retiring from fencing after the medal ceremony.
Nic Fink
Fink, a 31-year-old swimmer from Morristown, was one of the biggest success stories for American men’s swimming in Paris. The Pingry School graduate won three medals — gold in the 4×100 mixed medley relay, silver in the 4×100 medley relay and silver in the 100-meter breaststroke — after making headlines for juggling his swimming career with a “9 to 5″ job in engineering.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone
Another Olympics, another world record. The Dunellen native dominated the field in the 400-meter hurdles once again, setting the world record in the event for a sixth time. The 25-year-old former Union Catholic star has established herself as the greatest women’s hurdler of all-time, and with four gold medals on her Olympic resume, is only entering her athletic prime.
Casey Murphy
Murphy, the former All-American goaltender for the Rutgers women’s soccer program, won gold when the U.S. Women’s National Team beat Brazil on Saturday. The Bridgewater native did not see action in Paris but is expected to take the starting goaltender in future international tournaments.
Morgan Pearson
The 29-year-old former lifeguard from Spring Lake won a silver medal in the team triathlon event, matching the same medal he brought home from Tokyo three years ago. The Delbarton graduate, who became the first American man to win a World Triathlon Series event since 2009 when he claimed victory at a prestigious race in Japan in May, finished 31st in the individual triathlon in Paris.
Hezly Rivera
The 16-year-old gymnast from Oradell didn’t compete in the team final for Team USA after a shaky start in qualifying, but she left Paris with a gold medal. “I hope it fuels her forward and makes her want it even more,” Chellsie Memmel told NJ Advance Media. “I want her to go for L.A. 2028 and continue to grow into her gymnastics.”
Sebastian Rivera
A five-time collegiate All-American who finished his career at Rutgers, Rivera won a bronze medal for Puerto Rico at 65 kilograms with a stunning last-second takedown. The 25-year-old Toms River native, who starred at Christian Brothers Academy, was also flag bearer for Puerto Rico during the Opening Ceremony on the Seine River.
Scottie Scheffler
First, a second green jacket. Now, a gold medal. The two-time Masters champion, who was born in Ridgewood and lived in Montvale for the first six years of his life before his family moved to Texas, continued his great year with a thrilling come-from-behind win in the golf competition, then wept on the medal stand to show how much the victory meant to him.
OTHER OLYMPIANS
Paxten Aaronson
The 20-year-old attacking midfielder from Medford was named as one of the 18 players on the U.S. men’s soccer team. Aaronson scored a goal in a 4-1 rout against New Zealand that helped the Americans advance to the quarterfinals for just the third time in a century, but the team’s run ended there with a crushing 4-0 loss to Morocco.
Matt Fallon
The Warren native qualified for his first Olympics in style, setting an American record in the 200-meter breaststroke and pounding the water in joy at the U.S. trials. The Pingry School graduate, however, failed to make it out of the semifinals in his signature event in Paris, a surprising outcome in an event that French sensation Leon Marchand won in front of the home crowd.
Amanda Golini
The 29-year-old Randolph native helped the U.S. field hockey team qualify for its first Olympics since finishing fifth in 2016. The team struggled against elite competition in Paris, recording one win and one draw in five games while tallying just four goals.
Jesse Grupper
The Montclair native, who qualified in bouldering and lead for Team USA, failed to advance into the finals of the event. The 27-year-old Tufts University graduate, who has been climbing since he was 9, overcame ulcerative colitis and a fear of heights to become one of the highest ranked North American athletes in the sport.
Ezinne Kalu
The Newark native, who became the first girl to score more than 2,000 points at Science High, averaged 18.8 points per game for the Nigerian women’s basketball team. “She is a bad girl right here. She never stops,” six-time gold medal Diana Taurasi said of Kalu, who helped Nigeria become the first African team to advance to the Olympic quarterfinals.
Salif Mane
Another Cinderella from FDU? After soaring to a personal-best 57-5.75 in the triple jump to win the U.S. trials by nearly two feet, Mane finished sixth in Paris. The Bronx native graduated from the Bergen County university last month with a degree in civil engineering.
Jaden Marchan
Just weeks removed from his graduation at Leonia High, Marchan ran in the 4×400 meter relay for Trinidad and Tobago. The 17-year-old future Georgetown athlete ran his team’s best leg in the race at 45.63 seconds, but Trinidad and Tobago did not advance through to the event’s final.
Sam Mattis
Mattis, a 2012 graduate of East Brunswick High who competed collegiately at Penn, failed to advance to the finals in the discus in his second Olympics. He placed eighth in the event at the Tokyo Olympics after working as a volunteer assistant coach at Rutgers and helping pay the bills with online gambling while training during the pandemic.
Keturah Orji
The Mount Olive native became the first American woman won to reach the final in the triple jump in three Olympics, finishing ninth. She announced before leaving for Paris that this would retire after the Olympics, ending of one of the best U.S. careers in the event.
Ethan Ramos
The Hawthorne, who was a 2015 All-American wrestler at North Carolina, represented Puerto Rico at 86 kilograms and lost in the first round to Dauren Kurugliev of Greece. The 29-year-old narrowly missed qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Molly Reckford
Reckford, a Short Hills native who competed at Dartmouth, competed in her second Olympics in lightweight women’s double sculls with teammate Michelle Sechser. The duo finished sixth in the final Olympic running of the event. Her Olympic roots run deep as her grandfather, Bill Spencer, competed in the biathlon at the 1964 and 1968 Winter Games.
Anthony Rincon
The Elizabeth swimmer, who started his career with the Union Boys and Girls Tidal Wave Swim Team, competed for Colombia in the 100-meter backstroke. Harvard’s 2024-25 team co-captain and a neuroscience major at the Ivy League school finished with the 37th-fastest time, falling short in his bid to advance to the semifinals.
Mitchell Saron
The 23-year-old Ridgewood native and Harvard graduate won his first bout in the Olympic saber competition but lost in the quarterfinals. The U.S. saber team, one of the favorites to win the gold medal, was upset in the first round of the team competition by Iran and finished seventh.
Elizabeth Tartakovsky
The 24-year-old Livingston native, a former NCAA national champion at Harvard, fell in her first match in the individual competition but bounced back to lead the Americans to a fifth-place finish in the team event that was capped by an upset victory over Hungary.
Curtis Thompson
Thompson, a Florence native, failed to advance to the finals of the javelin. The two-time Olympian, who won an NCAA title with Mississippi State after a decorated high school career in New Jersey, claimed his fourth national title in the javelin at the U.S. Olympic trials this spring with a season-best 272-5 feet on his first throw.
John Tolkin
The 21-year-old Chatham native, who plays on defense for the MLS Red Bulls in Harrison, was a starter for the U.S. men’s soccer team that advanced to the quarterfinals. Now in his fifth season with the Harrison-based pro team, he had a franchise record 10 assists last season and early a spot on the MLS All-Star roster.
Cheickna Traore
From Division 3 Ramapo College to the Olympics? Traore made that journey — with a one-year stop at Penn State — to compete in the 200 meters for the Ivory Coast. The runner with roots in Linden and Jersey City failed to advance out of the preliminary round after an injury forced him to pull out of his repechage race.
Amy Wang
It was an eventful trip to Paris for the Sewell native, who had a viral moment with Steph Curry at the Opening Ceremony and appeared on Good Morning America to give the hosts a demonstration in her sport. The UCLA student won her first singles match in Paris but lost in the round of 32, and in the team competition, Team USA lost to Germany in the Round of 16.
Allie Wilson
The middle-distance runner became the first track athlete ever from Monmouth University to compete in the Olympics. The 28-year-old, who finished second in the 800 meters at the U.S. trials after Trenton native and two-time gold medalist Athing Mu fell to the track, failed to advance to the finals of the event in Paris.
Rudy Winkler
The 29-year-old former Rutgers star, a four-time U.S. champion in the hammer throws, finished sixth in Paris three years after he finished seventh in the Tokyo Olympics in the event. Winkler, now an assistant track coach at Maryland, had a best throw of 77.92 meters which was his career high in three Olympic appearances.
Jack Yonezuka
The 21-year-old West Long Branch native, who is the youngest qualifier from Team USA in judo, lost in his first bout in Paris. He said the experience would make him stronger for 2028. “Making it (back) is not going to be a question,” he said. “It’s going to be winning. That’s going to be the main goal — winning the Olympics.”
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Publish date : 2024-08-11 01:15:00
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