All The Monmouth County Olympians Competing In Paris

By Carly Baldwin, Patch Staff

Meet Brookdale student and judo wrestler Jack Yonezuka​, Spring Lake triathlete Morgan Pearson and Monmouth U. track star Allie Wilson.

The 2024 Summer Olympic games will kick off this Friday, July 26 and run through Aug. 11, held in Paris.

Patch rounded up all the athletes from Monmouth County who will be competing this year. These are young men and women who either grew up in Monmouth County, or attended college here.

Our list includes judo wrestler Jack Yonezuka, triathlete Morgan Pearson and track star Allie Wilson.

But it would have been longer.

Equestrian Jessica Springsteen came very close, but she did not make the cut this year. She’s Bruce Springsteen’s daughter and the family lives in Colts Neck; Jessica grew up training and riding in Monmouth County. Springsteen won a silver medal in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, and she was one of the finalists this June for the U.S. equestrian jumping team. However, it was announced earlier this July that she did not make the cut for Paris.

“Now that selection is complete, we are 100 percent laser-focused on Paris,” Chef d’Equipe Robert Ridland said here on July 6 after the finals in Kentucky.

Also not competing is Ajee Wilson, also known as the Pride of Neptune. Wilson is one of the fastest women in the world at the 800-meter dash. Wilson competed in the Rio Olympics in 2016, and Tokyo Olympics in 2020. She grew up in Neptune Township and attended the Academy of Allied Health & Science in Neptune, where she first became an international name in track & field.

Wilson tested positive for anabolic agent zeranol in 2017. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency determined she ingested it accidentally, as it is a growth hormone commonly given to U.S. cattle. But they still stripped her of her American indoor 800-meter record. Wilson, now 30, is back to running, but she missed the 800-meter final at the Olympic Trials this June.

Here’s who is competing from Monmouth County this year:

Jack Yonezuka, 21, of West Long Branch, will compete in judo for the United States. This is Yonezuka’s first Olympics and, at only 21, he will be the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic Judo Team in Paris.

Yonezuka hails from one of the most storied families in judo in America: He is the son of 1980 Olympian Nick Yonezuka and the grandson of two-time Olympic coach Yoshisada Yonezuka. The judo club his grandfather founded, Cranford Judo JKC, has produced nine Olympians from 1980 – 2021.

Jack is about as local to Monmouth County as he gets: He grew up in West Long Branch and graduated from Shore Regional High School in 2021. When not training in judo, he is currently enrolled at Brookdale Community College, where he is working towards his associate degree in education.

Patch reached Yonezuka and his mother Monday morning, July 21, while they were headed to the airport to fly to France, but Yonezuka was too busy for an interview.

Yonezuka said he was 8 years old when he watched his first judo Olympic competition, and he dreamed of competing at that level.

“It’s really special. To see that as a kid and fulfill those dreams is really awesome,” he said in this interview on July 19. “Now I’m an Olympian.”

UPDATE: Jack will compete on Monday July 29, at 4:00 a.m. NJ time, 10:00 a.m. Paris time. Streaming live on Peacock.

Morgan Pearson, 30, of Spring Lake, will compete in triathalon for the United States. This is his second Olympics; he competed in Tokyo in 2021, where he won silver. Look for Pearson to go for the gold in the next two weeks.

Although Pearson no longer lives in New Jersey, he grew up in Spring Lake. The bucolic Shore town is where Pearson first started swimming competitively when he was in the third grade. The family then moved to New Vernon, where Pearson was a promising runner at Delbarton prep school in Morris County. In the summers, he returned to the Jersey Shore to work as a lifeguard.

He attended the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he was a seven-time All-American in cross-country and track & field. Pearson currently lives and trains in Boulder.

The Olympic triathlon is a 1,500-meter swim, 40-kilometer bike ride and 10K run. Watch Pearson compete in the men’s triathalon final on July 30, 2 a.m. Paris time.

Allie Wilson: 28, a graduate of Monmouth University in West Long Branch. While Wilson is originally from Wallingford, PA, she ran track for Monmouth U, from which she graduated in 2019. This is her first Olympics and she will run the women’s 800-meter race. Her best time running the race at Monmouth University was 1:58.32.

“I knew I had a chance,” Wilson said in this interview after qualifying for the U.S. Olympic team. “Given the depth of the 800m talent in this country, it was not going to be a small feat to make this team. I’m so honored.”

She will run her first race Aug. 2, the women’s 800-meter dash.

The entire list from NJ: Meet The NJ Athletes Competing In The 2024 Summer Olympics In Paris (July 11)