Trying to follow all of the athletes from New Jersey at the Olympic Games in Paris? Our USA TODAY Network team across the Garden State has you covered.
Check back here throughout the Games for the latest updates, from the first soccer kick and rugby try on July 24 — two days before the Opening Ceremony — through the Closing Ceremony on Aug. 11.
More Olympics: Our guide to NJ athletes headed to the 2024 Summer Games
Nic Fink, a Pingry grad from Morristown, earns breaststroke silver
Is Morris County USA Swimming's new Olympic Titletown?
About 24 hours after Jack Alexy of Mendham led off the gold-medal-winning 400-meter freestyle relay, Nic Fink tied for silver in the 100-meter breaststroke Sunday. Fink, who grew up in Morristown, finished equal to two-time defending Olympic champion Adam Peaty from Great Britain at 59.05 seconds.
They were two hundredths of a second behind gold medalist Nicolo Martinenghi of Italy. Fink and Peaty received their silver medals from Princess Anne of Great Britain standing together on the podium, to Martinenghi's right.
Following the Italian national anthem, the bleached-blonde Martinenghi invited Fink and Peaty onto the top step and posed for a selfie – which Fink showed to the television cameras.
Fink, 31, is the oldest first-time USA Swimming Olympic medalist since Edgar Adams earned silver in 1904.
Fink, the reigning world champion in the 100 breast, was fourth after the semis, with Peaty the No. 1 seed.
Fink is the veteran among both USA Swimming's "Jersey Boys" − the contingent of top American swimmers that includes three competitors in Paris this summer. Matt Fallon of Warren, another graduate of The Pingry School, is slated to compete in the 200-meter breaststroke on July 30.
More: USA Swimming's 'Jersey Boys' ready to take on the world at 2024 Olympics
Hezly Rivera , USA Gymnastics moves on to team final
Simone Biles tweaked her left calf while warming up for the floor exercise on Sunday morning. However, the superstar gymnast got taped and was the United States' top qualifier with 59.566 points, her second-best total from this Olympic cycle.
Biles and Suni Lee will represent Team USA in the individual all-around competition. Lee, who won the all-around in Tokyo after Biles withdrew, edged Jordan Chiles by 0.067 on the uneven bars – the Americans' final rotation – to snag the second spot.
Hezly Rivera, a 16-year-old who spent her early years in Oradell, was the first American up on beam and bars . She had the lowest score of the three Team USA competitors, and was not counted on either apparatus.
Rivera was the 2023 U.S. junior champion.
Delbarton grad Jack Alexy captures New Jersey's first Olympic medal
Jack Alexy of Mendham led off as the United States won gold in the 400-meter freestyle relay by more than a second on July 27. Alexy threw his arms up in the air in triumph as anchor Caeleb Dressel touched the wall first, then gave a double thumbs up.
Alexy had the United States in second place by 75 hundredths of a second after the opening leg. He was shown on NBC's online feed loudly encouraging his American teammates as they swam.
Alexy, 21, stood on the far right of teammates Chris Giuliano, Hunter Armstrong (46.75) and Dressel, and was the first to receive his gold medal after the race.
"It's amazing," Alexy said on the live feed, after waving at a clip of his family back home cheering during the race. "I think this relay is the excellence of Team USA. It's an honor to be part of it with these guys here. I knew after Trials it would be really special. Coming here, first swim at the Olympics, it's truly special to be part of."
The swimmers walked around the perimeter of Paris La Defense Arena, slapping hands with fans, many of whom held American flags.
This is Team USA's first gold medal of the 2024 Summer Games. It is also the Americans' 10th men's 400 free relay gold in 13 appearances. The American men have never failed to medal in the event.
Alexy did not swim in the relay prelim on Saturday morning, when the United States qualified fourth. He returns to the pool for the 100-meter freestyle individual prelims on July 30.
Can U.S. Soccer survive the group stage?
Midfielder Paxten Aaronson of Medford scored a goal as the United States men's soccer team defeated New Zealand, 4-1, in the second game of group play.
It's the first Olympic victory for the USMNT in 5,833 days – the opening match of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. It is also the first time the American men have scored four goals in a single Olympic match.
The Americans were able to even the goal differential they'd created in a 3-0 opening loss to host France.
Both Aaronson and outside back John Tolkin of Chatham have started both matches.
France defeated Guinea, 1-0, on July 27, to remain unbeaten in group play. Team USA faces Guinea in its third group match on July 30, with a quarterfinal berth on the line.
Sebastian Rivera of Toms River was the flagbearer for Puerto Rico in the Opening Ceremony on July 19. The parade of nations took place on boats on the Seine River.
Rivera, who won the 2016 NJSIAA 113-pound title at Christian Brothers Academy, also wrestled for Northwestern and Rutgers, will compete in men’s freestyle wrestling as the No. 4 seed in the 65-kilogram weight class. He qualified after earning a silver medal at the World Championships in Serbia last September.
After transferring from Northwestern, Rivera went 42-4 in two seasons with the Scarlet Knights.
This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Olympics tracker: Keep up with New Jersey's athletes at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris
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