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By: Benyamin Davidsons
New Jersey athletes made the whole country proud at this year’s Summer Olympics.
In the past two and a half weeks, the world has watched in wonder as star athletes from all over the world have competed at the 2024 Olympics World Championships held in Paris, France. As reported by NJ.com, athletes from the Garden state won more Olympic medals in Paris than most countries did. New Jersey athletes won more medals than large countries including Spain, Brazil and Canada. Also, NJ athletes impressed by reaching their own personal bests, and achieving their own goals. The winners brought home medals in a wide range of events, including fencing, gymnastics, soccer, golf and basketball.
Per NJ.com, Bam Adebayo, the 27-year-old born in Newark, who later moved to North Carolina, was a key contributor off the bench for the U.S. men’s basketball team for a second straight Olympics to win another shiny gold medal. Adebayo is a three-time NBA All-Star player for the Miami Heat, who was the 14th overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft. He won a gold medal with the 2024 and 2020 U.S. Olympic teams.
The USA’s winning Woman’s basketball team also had a player from NJ. Kahleah Copper earned a spot on the dominating team. She had played in college for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights women’s basketball team in NJ from 2012 to 2016. She currently plays for the Phoenix Mercury and is averaging 24 ppg in her eighth WNBA season. The women’s basketball team was unstoppable in Paris, winning their eighth-straight gold medal. Copper helped the team with a scoring lift off the bench.
Another true star is Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, world record hurdler and sprinter. The 25-year-old Dunellen native dominated the field in the 400-meter hurdles, setting the world record in the event for a sixth time. She now has four Olympic medals under her belt- winning both the woman’s 400 m hurdle and 4×400 m relay in 2024 in Paris, and in 2020 in Tokyo. She is known as the greatest women’s hurdler of all-time.
Another athlete to make waves was Jack Alexy, who won two relay medals in swimming — including gold in the 4×100 freestyle relay and silver in the 4×100 medley relay. A native of Mendham, NJ, this was the 21-year-old’s first year at the Olympics and he raked in two medals and also finished seventh in the 100-meter freestyle.
Alexy had attended Delbarton School where he won state titles at the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association Meet of Champions in the 50- and 100-meter freestyle events as a freshman and again as a junior.
Also, swimming sensation Nic Fink from Morristown, NJ enjoyed tremendous success in men’s swimming in the 2024 Olympics. The 31-year-old 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. He made newspaper headlines for reaching his swimming championship goals while juggling “9 to 5″ job in engineering.
In fencing, Jacqueline Dubrovich, the 29-year-old born in Peterson, NJ and raised in Riverdale, took home an historic team Gold in the women’s foil fencing. A Jew, who currently resides in Maplewood, NJ, she also competed as an individual but lost in her first bout. Dubrovich, who put her life on hold to compete in the Paris Olympics, announced after the medal ceremony that she is retiring from fencing. Dubrovich is a Columbia University graduate, with degrees in Psychology, Human Rights, and Russian Literature and Culture.
In Women’s Soccer, Casey Murphy, won gold on Saturday when the U.S. Women’s National Team beat Brazil’s team. Per NJ.com, the Bridgewater native and former All-American goaltender at Rutgers women’s soccer program, did not get to play in Paris but is slated to take the starting goaltender role in future international tournaments.
The list goes on, with Morgan Pearson, the 29-year-old former lifeguard from Spring Lake, won a silver medal in the team triathlon event in Paris. He also won a silver in the same event at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. The Delbarton graduate 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, per NJ.com.
Scottie Scheffler, won Gold in the men’s individual golf tournament in Paris. The 28-year-old wept at the medal’s stand, despite having so many other professional victories in the sport. The two-time Masters champion was born in Ridgewood and lived in Montvale for the first six years of his life.
Freestyle wrestler Sebastian Rivera won a bronze medal for Puerto Rico at 65 kilograms with a remarkable last-second takedown. The 25-year-old Toms River native, a five-time collegiate All-American who finished his career at Rutgers, was also flag bearer for Puerto Rico during the Opening Ceremony, per NJ.com.
The gold-medal winning woman’s gymnastics team, dubbed the “Golden Girls”, included 16-year-old Hezly Rivera. Born in Hackensack, she was the youngest athlete on the entire U.S. delegation. She herself did not complete in the team final for Team USA, but won gold as part of the team. “I want her to go for L.A. 2028 and continue to grow into her gymnastics,” said Chellsie Memmel, a former medalist who now coaches the team.
The men’s USA soccer team did not win a medal in the Olympics, but one of the players was axten Aaronson, from Medford, NJ. The 20-year-old attacking midfielder scored a goal in a 4-1 rout against New Zealand that helped Team USA to move on to the quarterfinals for only the third time in a century.
The Olympics in Paris also featured about a dozen other stars from NJ. They did not win medals in 2024, but they won our hearts and our respect. Among them is Jesse Grupper, a Montclair native who has been climbing since he was 9. He qualified in bouldering and lead for Team USA, but didn’t make it to the finals. The 27-year-old Tufts University graduate overcame ulcerative colitis and a fear of heights and is considered one of the highest ranked North American athletes in the climbing sport. Other notable mentions include: Keturah Orji, the first American woman to reach the final in the triple jump in three Olympics, finishing ninth in Paris;
Molly Reckford, who finished sixth with her partner Michelle Sechser in lightweight women’s double sculls; triple jumper Salif Mane who finished sixth in Paris; Saber fencer Elizabeth Tartakovsky who lead the Americans to fifth-place in Paris; swimmer Anthony Rincon; basketball player for the Nigerian women’s basketball team Ezinne Kalu; wrestler Ethan Ramos; and Mitchell Saron who competed on the USA’s saber team.
