Red Bulls Defender Tolkin Speaks About his Chatham Roots and the USA's July 24 Match vs. France in the Paris Olympics

BORDEAUX, FRANCE -- Chatham native and Red Bull defender John "JMi" Tolkin spoke about the upcoming Paris Olympics in a Zoom call from France on Monday morning. The team began training in Bordeaux on July 10.

"Once we realized it will be France in the first game, everybody, myself included, you start to think what that's going to look like," Tolkin said. "Walking out to the field, seeing all the French flags and the tiny American section, hopefully it won't be that tiny. Yeah, just what that will look like and seeing our families in the stands and playing alongside each other in a huge game."

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The USA U-23 team's opening Olympic match vs. France, at Stade de Marseille is on Wednesday, July 24 (3 p.m. ET).

"I always say, if I'm not nervous then I don't really care enough," Tolkin said. "When the nerves are there, that's good and usually they're always there, and I think everyone will be feeling the nerves for these games coming up. I think the biggest thing is getting into that mindset of every game is a must-win for us."

Tolkin remembers that he had to get serious about soccer at a young age, transitioning from fun to serious when he was nine or 10.

"It started where I grew up in Chatham and I feel like I was just playing for fun with my friends," Tolkin said. "Everybody I played with was in my neighborhood. I must have been nine or 10 and I was still playing other sports at the time. I had to cut those off, which was tough."

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The 21-year-old began playing with the Red Bulls Academy in 2015 and was signed as a homegrown player in 2020. He signed a four-year MLS contract with the New York Red Bulls in 2022.

Former Olympic player and TV analyst Sacha Kljestan spoke to the group in previous training camps about the opportunity to make their mark on the big stage of the Olympics.

"It's one of the conversations we have within the group," Tolkin said. "(Kljestan said) A lot of guys use it as an opportunity to go with the senior team in the future and make moves to new clubs. He kind of established the importance of it and how big of an opportunity it is. I think everybody took that to heart and everybody knows that here."

After the match vs. France, the USA will meet New Zealand on Saturday, July 27, in Marseille (1 p.m. ET), and finish the group stage vs. Guinea on Tuesday, July 30 (1 p.m. ET).

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