Meet some of the New Yorkers who are competing in the Paris Olympics

On July 26, athletes from across the globe will participate in the opening ceremony for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. Among them are 44 athletes from New York and New Jersey representing Team USA in this year’s Summer Games.

Get to know a few of these hometown heroes before they try to bring home the gold.

Anne Cebula, fencing (Brooklyn, NY)

Did you know that there are fencing academies across New York City and that it’s a popular sport in the city's public school athletic league? Given that, it shouldn't be a surprise that not one but two local fencers are headed to Paris.

Anne Cebula of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, first tried fencing as a student at Brooklyn Tech. She later pursued this interest as a student-athlete at Barnard College, where she won two NCAA titles and become the first student-athlete to claim a title in any sport in the school's history.

After graduating in 2020 with a degree in neuroscience, Cebula decided to take her last shot at making an Olympics and qualified for the épée team. In addition to her interests in science and fencing, she’s also a runway model — represented by Elite — and has walked shows in Milan, New York and London.

Sunny Choi, a breakdancer (or b-girl) from Queens, will compete in breaking.

Sunny Choi, breaking (Queens, NY)

A new sport with roots in New York City will make its debut at this year's Olympics: breakdancing, officially called breaking. Queens resident Sunny Choi is headed to Paris after she won gold in last year's Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.

The 34-year-old grew up as a competitive gymnast and didn’t pick up breakdancing until college, but her background gave her a leg up in the sport.

So how is breaking scored in the Olympics? Dancers (called b-boys or b-girls) face off in battles and are judged across five categories: technique, vocabulary, execution, musicality and originality. Dancers don’t know what music will be played ahead of time, so the sport relies on improvisational skill as well as physical dexterity.

Kate Douglass, swimming (Pelham, NY)

New Yorker Kate Douglass swims for the New York Athletic Club and made her Olympic swimming debut at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, winning a bronze medal in the 200-meter individual medley. That event involves four different strokes: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle, each for 50 meters.

In Paris, Douglass will compete in both the 200-meter individual medley and the 200-meter breaststroke. During her college career at the University of Virginia, she won 15 NCAA titles. (That’s a lot.)

After she finished her bachelor's degree at UVA, she stayed on to get her master's degree in statistics. There are many uses for a statistics degree, and for Douglass it was personal: By gathering statistical data on her swimming techniques, she was able to adjust her times and break a 12-year-old record in the 200-meter breaststroke event in June.

Jesse Grupper, climbing (Upper Montclair, NJ)

When Jesse was 6, his parents enrolled their him in a rock climbing class in Fairfield, New Jersey. By the time he was 11, he was rock climbing competitively.

This is Grupper’s Olympic debut in a sport that officially debuted during the Summer Games three years ago in Tokyo (along with surfing, karate and skateboarding). Grupper’s specialty is lead climbing, which involves climbing up a wall as fast as possible. It can get intense as athletes try to best each other’s times without falling, which drastically reduces the score.

Salif Mane, track and field (the Bronx, NY)

Salif Mane is a track-and-field star born and raised in the Bronx with Senegalese roots. This May, he graduated with a degree in civil engineering from Farleigh Dickinson University, where he was a triple-jump star who won a NCAA national title.

He’s currently favored to win a medal in that event and scored a career record during the Olympic Trials in June. His top jump beat out everyone else by almost two feet.

This moment is bittersweet for Mane. His father passed away in 2020, when the pandemic was just beginning. In interviews, Mane has said he listens to his father’s last few voicemails as he prepares for competitions.

Hezly Rivera, gymnastics (Oradell, NJ)

This Bergen County gymnast has grabbed the attention of fans nationwide. Hezly Rivera, 16, is the youngest member of Team USA in any sport.

Leading up to the Olympic Trials, she wasn’t expected to make the team. Rivera's four teammates — Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee and Jade Carey — were all favored to grab the top four spots on the women’s team.

The fifth spot was up for grabs, and Rivera delivered jaw-dropping performances on the balance beam and uneven bars during the Olympic Trials in June. Her father also made headlines when he cried tears of joy upon hearing that his daughter would be part of Team USA.

Rivera had planned on learning how to drive this summer, but that will have to wait.

Lauren Scruggs, fencing (Queens, NY)

Lauren Scruggs is making her Olympic debut in both individual and team Women’s Foil after winning her first NCAA fencing title for Harvard in 2023.

She was born and raised in Ozone Park, and her resume speaks volumes. She is a six-time world champion and, according to USA Fencing, one of two Black fencers — male or female — to have won an individual world fencing title.

A schedule of Olympics events can be found here .