Tokyo Olympics: 11 cool N.J. storylines to follow | Sydney McLaughlin, Jessica Springsteen and more

The Tokyo Olympics begin this week, and while NBC will focus on international stars like gymnast Simone Biles and swimmer Katie Ledecky, nearly two dozen New Jersey athletes will compete for Team USA at the highest level.

Some will expect nothing short of a gold medal. Others are hoping to cap years of training with their best performance. All of them will be inspiring in their own way — and, after a yearlong delay because of the pandemic, a welcome sign that the world is returning to some level of normalcy.

Here are the 11 best Jersey-centric storylines that will unfold on the other side of the planet in the coming weeks:

11. A gymnast’s prophecy

When Elizaveta Pletneva was a third grader at Washington Elementary School in West Caldwell, she was already traveling the country, competing in national rhythmic gymnastics competitions and convinced she knew where her journey was headed. Patch.com asked her if she thought she would compete in the Tokyo Olympics.

“No,” she replied. “I know I will make it.”

The 19-year-old Russian-born, Jersey-raised gymnast will fulfill that prophecy as part of an historic American team. This is the first time Team USA has sent a full rhythmic gymnastic team — think ribbons and balls, not Simone Biles — to the Olympics since the sport was added 37 years ago.

10. From COVID to gold?

There are more prominent storylines to follow in track and field, but none will match English Gardner’s for its sheer 2020/21-ness.

Gardner, a Voorhees native and one of the world’s top sprinters, was training for her second Olympics when she was flattened by a difficult case of COVID-19 this spring. She suffered muscle cramps, leg pain, joint swelling and an entire body rash. When she tried to start training again, she had respiratory problems.

“I had the opportunity of training and building a great foundation for this upcoming year — and then, in the middle of my training, I was down for about a month,” Gardner said. She climbed off the mat to make it to Tokyo.

9. A jumping pioneer

Given Team USA’s success in track and field over the past century, it is hard to imagine an event in which an American has failed to win a single medal. But there is one: The women’s triple jump, which debuted in 1996.

Keturah Orji came heartbreakingly close in Rio, where she finished fourth, and now the Mount Olive native — who has twice set the U.S. record in the event — will return to the Games with an excellent shot climbing onto the medal stand.

Orji, who started competing in the event because she hated running in middle-distance races, said she wants to “put America on the map for women’s triple jump.” A first-ever medal would be a good place to start.

8. The end of a long wait

Olympic coverage so often focuses on the overnight sensations, which means NBC might not spend much time telling the story of Nic Fink. That doesn’t mean the Morristown swimmer doesn’t deserve the attention.

Fink, a 28-year-old Pingry grad, is making his first trip to the Olympics despite nearly a decade competing at the top of his sport. He failed to make the U.S. team for the 2012 and 2016 Games and then had the narrowest possible loss — by six hundredths of a second — at the trials this year in the 100-meter breaststroke.

He bounced back days later to win the 200-meter breaststroke with a personal best at 2:07.55. “There was enough water in the pool, and I didn’t need to add more with waterworks there,” he said after qualifying. He will likely need another record-setting performance to reach the medal stand in Tokyo.

7. Field phenoms

New Jersey athletes are good at throwing stuff. Who knew? The state has one entrant in three field events — the hammer throw, the discus and the javelin — that involves hurling an object as far as possible.

Rudy Winkler, who threw the hammer at Rutgers for a season, is the best shot at a medal. He shattered an American record that had stood a quarter century with a 271-foot, four-inches throw at the Olympic trials, and if he repeats that feat in Tokyo, he’ll have a chance to win the first U.S. medal in the event since 1996.

But it only takes one good throw to shock the world in the field events. Sam Mattis, an East Brunswick native who volunteered as a Rutgers track coach last season, will have a shot to do that in the discus after qualifying third at the trials. So will Curtis Thompson, a javelin thrower from Florence who tops the list of American entrants and won the NCAA title at Mississippi State in 2018.

6. Laurie H. is back

The Olympics are basically a TV show for most Americans. Laurie Hernandez was one of the stars of that show in 2016 when the Old Bridge native helped lead the dominant U.S. gymnastics team to a gold medal. And, despite not making that team this year, she’ll be back in your living room in a different role.

Hernandez has taken a role with NBC as a gymnastics analyst as she transitions to her post-competition life. This was a work in progress, of course, long before a knee injury kept her out of the Olympic trials. Hernandez won “Dancing with the Stars” just a few months after her golden performance in Rio.

TV work is a new challenge, though, and could be the start of a broadcasting career. Hernandez also wants to attend college and study acting, which means she could be on the screen (big or small) much more after Tokyo.

5. Yes, that Springsteen

Let’s get this out of the way: Jessica Springsteen did not make the U.S. equestrian team because she has a famous father.

To be sure, the fact that she grew up on a 600-acre farm near the Jersey Shore and had the resources to acquire the best horses helped launch her career, but that’s hardly unusual in show riding. This is a sport for the super wealthy, after all, and Bruce Springsteen is worth about $500 million.

But the 29-year-old is ranked 27th in the world and earned her spot with a series of strong international performances. She’ll have a great chance at leaving Tokyo with a medal: The United States won a team gold in 2004 and 2008 and silver in 2016. Her dad, because of the COVID travel restrictions, will have to watch it all unfold from New Jersey.

4. Frazier, full circle

Todd Frazier has a chance to bookend his memorable baseball career with victories in the sport’s two most important international events.

He led his team from Toms River to the Little League World Series title as a 12-year-old, an accomplishment that still overshadows his successful stints at Rutgers and with the Yankees and Mets. Now, as a 35-year-old, he’ll try to lead Team USA to a gold medal as baseball returns to the Olympics after a nine-year absence.

That would be a sweet redemption of sorts for the unabashed Jersey Guy, who found himself on baseball’s trash heap this spring after the Pittsburgh Pirates cut him loose. He found the perfect landing place with USA Baseball, which has only won the Olympic tournament once — in Sydney in 2000 — in the five times it has been held.

3. Athing in the spotlight

Few athletes have blazed onto the international stage in the months leading into the Olympics quite like Athing Mu. Had the Games been held a year ago as scheduled, it is likely that she wouldn’t have even made the team.

Instead, because of the pandemic postponement, she has a chance to become one of Team USA’s breakout athletes. Mu ran the best time in the world in the 800-meter race at the Olympic trials in June, in 1:56.07, just her latest eye-popping accomplishment after a record-setting freshman season at Texas A&M.

The 19-year-old Trenton native will be favored to become the first American woman to win the 800 meters since 1968. If she falters, it is possible that another New Jersey native — Ajee Wilson of Neptune — will be the one who beats her to the top of the medal stand.

2. Carli’s final act

Carli Lloyd is motivated more by her few failures than her many successes, so despite a resume that already includes two gold-medal-winning goals in the Olympics, she’ll arrive in Tokyo with plenty to prove.

The U.S. Women’s National Team was bounced in the quarterfinals at the Rio Games five years ago, and while she was part of the team’s World Cup win in 2019, she was unhappy with her limited role. That will change in Tokyo. Lloyd, at 39, won’t only be the oldest American woman to play for the U.S. soccer team in the Olympics, but she’ll be a fixture up front expected to provide a scoring punch.

She won’t say that this is her last international event, but it is likely that the Delran native — after over 300 caps, two Olympic gold medals, two World Cup titles and two FIFA player of the year awards — will retire regardless of the outcome. Can she exit on top?

1. Syd vs. the World

From her earliest days as a high school phenom at Union Catholic, it felt like everything was building toward this moment for Sydney McLaughlin. She will step onto the track in Tokyo as one of the biggest stars for Team USA, and after her world-record time at the Olympic trials, she’ll be expected to win a gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles.

It is not, however, a foregone conclusion, and that’s what makes her second trip to the Olympics so compelling. The Dunellen native will resume her duel with fellow American Dalilah Muhammad, who won the gold medal in the event at the Rio Games.

McLaughlin already has a transcendent presence in track and field thanks to her endorsement deals with New Balance, Gatorade and several other high-profile clients. If she can match her blazing 51.90-second performance last month, Tokyo will be remembered as the springboard that launched her to superstardom.

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Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com.