Local Heroes: How Our Olympians Fared in This Year’s Games

The Paris Olympics ended Sunday, with the US becoming the first country to have more than 3,000 Olympic medals.  

American athletes took home 126 total medals this year, topping China (91), Britain (65), and France (64). The US finished the Olympics with 40 gold medals, 44 silver, and 42 bronze.

While we watched and took in all the emotion with the athletes, there are some New England natives who left an indelible mark and rose to fame on social media—not just for their medals. Here are the highlights: 

Gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik, 25, of Worcester, Massachusetts, went viral on social media—some called him the “Pommel Horse Guy,” others called him “Clark Kent,” for his thick-rimmed glasses. No, he doesn’t need them for his eyesight. He just wears glasses for comfort and for superstitious reasons. Before the event, Nedoroscik further captured America’s hearts after he solved a Rubik’s Cube in 9.5 seconds for stress relief. He also proved just how athletic he is. Nedoroscik became the second American to ever medal in the pommel horse event. He left Paris with two bronze medals in the pommel horse, and team final.

Ilona Maher, 27, of Burlington, Vermont, now has a huge following on social media for her empowering body-positive posts and funny memes. She was part of the women’s rugby history-making team, along with Dartmouth-native Ariana Ramsey, after beating Australia 14-12 and taking home a bronze medal. The third-place finish is the first medal in 7s for the US. The last time the US brought home a medal in rugby was in 1924, when the men’s team won gold in 15s.

Three Boston Celtics stars were part of the gold-medal team. Shoutout to Jrue Holiday (point guard, shooting guard); Jayson Tatum (power forward, small forward); and Derrick White (shooting guard). 

Seven athletes with New Hampshire ties represented the Olympics. 

Rugby

Ariana Ramsey

This was the second time 2023 Dartmouth College graduate Ariana Ramsey, 24, attended  the Olympics. Before taking home bronze and making history at the Olympics, she participated in the 2020 Tokyo games, where her team made it to the quarter-finals and placed sixth. The Philadelphia native graduated from Dartmouth College in 2022 with a degree in economics. Ramsey, who happens to speak French, is also a National Academy of Sports Medicine certified trainer. 

Rowing

Chris Carlson

Bedford native Chris Carlson, 27, won bronze in his first Olympics as part of an eight-person team. Carlson, who has been part of six national teams, graduated from Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro where he first started rowing, and continued at the University of Washington, where he graduated in 2019. 

Molly Reckford

Another Dartmouth alum, Molly Reckford, 31, class of 2015, is a two-time Olympian. She placed sixth this year in the lightweight double sculls event, down from a fifth-place finish in the 2020 Olympics. Reckford is a New Jersey native who graduated high school from Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. Her grandfather, William Spencer, competed in two Olympics and coached the United States biathlon team. When she’s not rowing, Reckford works at a Boston financial firm as a member of their elite athlete management program.

William Bender and Oliver Bub

The rowing duo of Dartmouth College, graduates William Bender, 22, and Oliver Bub, 26, placed 10th place in the rowing pair event in their first-ever Olympics. Bender, a Norwich, Vermont native, qualified while he was still a senior engineering major at Dartmouth. He  finished fifth at this year’s World Rowing Championships at the qualifying trials where he partnered with Bub, who graduated from Dartmouth in 2020 with a degree in economics.

Bub, a Connecticut native, comes from a long line of rowers. His mother and father rowed at Boston University and his brothers also participated in the sport. Every year, the family headed to Boston to watch the Head of the Charles Regatta, according to the “06880” website. The two athletes never teamed up at college.

Track and Field

Ellie Purrier St. Pierre

Track-and-field athlete Elle Purrier St. Pierre, 29, is a 2018 University of New Hampshire graduate who grew up on a dairy farm in Vermont. The two-time Olympian got eighth place in the 1,500-meter run this year, improving from her previous 10th-place finish at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. In 2023, after a break to have a baby with her husband, Jamie St. Pierre, she returned to the sport with a vengeance, winning a gold medal in the 2024 World Indoor Championship and breaking the women’s indoor mile record at the Millrose Games. While at the University of New Hampshire, Purrier St. Pierre was the NCAA champion and an 11-time All-American. She graduated with a degree in nutrition. When she is not competing, she works on a dairy farm.

Diving

Jessica Parratto

Jessica Parratto, 30, from Dover, placed sixth in the women’s synchronized 10-meter platform diving event with diving-partner Delaney Schnell. This was her third Olympics. 

In 2020, Schnell and Parratto made history after a silver medal performance at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, where they became the first American women to ever make the Olympic podium in the event. She placed seventh in the event at the 2016 Olympics.

Parratto’s family is deeply rooted in diving. Her father, Mike Parratto, coached Olympic gold medalist swimmer Jenny Thompson, whom Jessica considers a sister. Her mother, Amy, was a five-time All-American diver at Wellesley College and coached Jessica until she was 14. Her older sister, Melissa, was a swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania.

Jessica began diving at the age of five and relocated to Indianapolis from New Hampshire in 2009 due to limited facilities in her hometown, which only had a single 1-meter springboard.