Meet All The Olympians From Monmouth County

MONMOUTH COUNTY, NJ — The 2020 summer Olympic Games are here! And now you can cheer for these athletes who will be competing, several of whom grew up, live or train right around the corner from you in Monmouth County.

Opening Ceremony is this Friday, July 23 and the games will end Sunday, Aug. 8. These are technically the 2020 Olympics as they were supposed to be held last summer, but were postponed due to the pandemic.

"We are proud to support Team USA and especially the athletes that have Monmouth County roots!," said Monmouth County Clerk Christine Hanlon, who called these athletes "hometown heroes."

There are five Monmouth County natives who will represent the United States in Tokyo — four competitors and one coach. Their backgrounds, ethnicities and stories are as diverse as the country they represent in these games.

They are:

1. Ajee Wilson, from Neptune Township: Track + field; 800-meter dash

Wilson was a stand-out high school track star when she attended Academy of Allied Health & Science in Neptune Township; the high school track is named after her.

Look for her competing in the 800-meter dash this Olympics.

Wilson, 27, currently holds the U.S. record for the 800-meter dash, with a time of 1:55.61. Incredibly, she has won 11 gold medals in U.S. championships and two bronze medal at world championships, and is said to be a strong contender for the Olympic gold again this year. This is her second Olympics; she competed in Rio in 2016.

After leaving Neptune, Wilson ran track for Florida State, followed by Temple University and then turned pro. Here's her Team USA bio.

2. Morgan Pearson, from Spring Lake: Triathlon

Pearson grew up in Spring Lake, where he was not only a competitive swimmer and runner, but also an ocean lifeguard — how perfectly Jersey is that? He went on to run cross-country and track & field at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he was a seven-time All-American. He currently trains in Boulder. Here's his Team USA bio.

Now at the age of 27, he will compete in Tokyo as part of the U.S. triathlon team. This is his first Olympics.

Tragically, in March of this year Pearson shared on his personal Instagram that his older brother had died.

"Last Monday, March 1, my older brother Andrew passed away peacefully in his sleep," Pearson wrote. "Andrew had a bigger than life personality and impacted so many lives in a beautiful and positive way."

"I couldn’t stop thinking of all the ways that my older brother influenced where and who I am today. Andrew was the reason I stuck with swimming for so many years, and the reason I started running cross-country at Delbarton. Some of my favorite memories are of us racing together and I’ve probably never had more fun than goofing off at junior guards with him," Pearson wrote on his personal Instagram account.

"Andrew - You were always one of the best guys on the cross-country team, swim team, or lifeguards squad yet you always were having the most fun. I always looked up to that. From the outside most people probably think I’m super serious but if they know me well they’ve seen that goofy side and that’s the always been you shinning through. Love you man, and miss you so much already."

3. Robert Grisold, from Freehold: Swimming, Paralympics

Griswold's hometown is Freehold and he's a graduate of Freehold High School, class of 2015, although he now lives out of state. He holds multiple American records in backstroke, butterfly and freestyle.

Born with cerebral palsy, Griswold started swimming when his parents took him to the Ocean County YMCA at the age of six, thus propelling him to the competitive track by age nine.

Grisold won bronze in the 100-meter backstroke at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He's obviously hoping to come home with gold this year.

This year, look for him competing in the 400-meter freestyle, 100-meter backstroke and 200-meter medley as part of the U.S. Paralympics Swimming team. Here's his Team USA Paralympic profile: https://www.paralympic.org/rob... and his Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robe... and his Patch story: Here's The Freehold Native Competing In The Tokyo Olympics

4. Jessica Springsteen, from Colts Neck: Equestrian, jumping

How can we forget Bruce Springsteen's daughter? Daughter of famed New Jersey rocker Springsteen and singer-songwriter Patti Scialfa, Jessica was recently named to the U.S. Olympic equestrian team's jumping squad. She will compete aboard her 12-year-old Belgian Warmblood stallion Don Juan van de Donkhoeve, which she keeps at her family's 368-acre Stone Hill Farm in Colts Neck.

Springsteen, 29, grew up in Rumson. She began riding at the age of four (she now resides in Los Angeles), and she is ranked 27th in the world in horse jumping. She will be competing as one of the four members of the U.S. equestrian team. Read her Patch profile: https://patch.com/new-jersey/m... and her Team USA profile: https://www.usef.org/team-usa/...

5. Tatiana Kovaleva, from Middletown/Holmdel: Coaching in gymnastics, trampoline

Kovaleva will serve as a coach for Team USA Gymnastics, specifically on the trampoline.

Originally from the Soviet Union, Kovaleva owns Elite Trampoline Academy in Middletown. She lives in Holmdel. She was selected to coach two trampoline athletes for Team USA: Aliaksei Shostak, 26, and Nicole Ahsinger, 24, on the trampoline, who both train in Louisiana.

Of course, Kovaleva and many others were hoping local Monmouth County's own Jeffrey Gluckstein would qualify for the 2020 Olympics this summer.

Gluckstein, 28, is from Atlantic Highlands and he just won his seventh national title on the trampoline. He also won the silver medal in the most recent Pan American Games. He and his older brother, Steven Gluckstein, 31, are the two most famous athletes to come out of Kovaleva's gym. Steven is now a coach himself and Jefferey is a student at Brookdale Community College.

"Jeffery unfortunately did not have enough points to qualify," Coach Kovaleva told Patch before flying to Tokyo. "He just didn't do as well as we expected. He's disappointed; he's devastated it went that way. It just didn't happen for him this time, unfortunately."

"It's a stressful, complicated process to be an Olympian and get to the Olympics," she said. "But there have been a lot of accomplishments in his career so far and I'm proud of him. There will be other opportunities."

Kovaleva herself is a world champion on the trampoline and this will actually be her second time going to the Olympics as a coach: In 2012, she coached U.S. gymnasts in the London summer Olympics. Team USA did not medal that year in trampoline. Read her interview with Patch: Middletown Trampoline Academy Owner Will Coach In Tokyo Olympics

Related: All The New Jersey Athletes Competing In The Tokyo Olympics

Be the first to know. Sign up to get Patch emails: https://patch.com/subscribe Contact this Patch reporter: Carly.baldwin@patch.com