Rhode Island
2024 Olympics: From basketball to sailing and everything in between here’s how RI is contributing
There is a certain feeling that comes with having a local connection to Team USA.
The Olympics have the ability to awaken something visceral inside us. It’s our nation against the rest on a grand stage, and our fellow citizens have provided us with more than a few recent memorable moments.
Elizabeth Beisel is perhaps the best example of this. Her three trips to the summer games in Beijing, London and Rio de Janeiro brought two medals back to her North Kingstown home.
This comes back to the surface now with the Summer Games in Paris. Here are the folks the Ocean State has put on the world stage to represent Team USA.
- Tammi Reiss, assistant coach, 3×3 basketball
- Stu McNay, sailing
- Emily Sisson, distance running
- Emily Kallfelz, rowing
- Jovana Nogic, basketball
Be sure to follow along at Providencejournal.com for all the news about RI’s Olympic athletes.
Here’s what we know so far: Who are the Summer Olympians with RI connections?
In detail: Now that Rhode Island women’s basketball coach has reached the Olympics, she has one more goal
When RI’s acclaimed woman’s basketball coach, Tammi Reiss was growing up there was no WNBA there was only the Olympics and she’s had her sights set on that podium since elementary school.
Reiss was a star at Virginia — that’s one dream down. The next will come true later this month when the University of Rhode Island women’s coach travels to Paris as a member of the Team USA 3×3 women’s basketball staff.
She’s chancing a gold medal on the sport’s biggest stage.
More: Now that Rhode Island women’s basketball coach has reached the Olympics, she has one more goal
In detail: Former Providence basketball star Jovana Nogic eager to play for native Serbia in Olympics
Jovana Nogic’s time on the Providence College’s women’s basketball team reminded her of the “American Dream” she saw in movies and television shows as a youngster in Portugal. But competing in the Olympics for Team Serbia is a whole different type of dream come true.
“It’s something that I’ve worked toward for my entire life and something that I had set up as a goal since I was a little girl,” Nogic said. “It’s a fulfillment of a dream.”
Born in Serbia, Nogic didn’t live there for long as her parents left when she was 2 years old.
Now she’s representing them on the big stage.
More: Former Providence basketball star Jovana Nogic eager to play for native Serbia in Olympics
In detail: Jamestown’s Emily Kallfelz lands on U.S. Olympic rowing team for 2024 Summer Games
Emily Kallfelz’s rowing career began levels above water.
Her training started in the attic of her family’s Jamestown home. There, Kallfelz learned the grueling sport on the family’s rowing machine during sessions every morning with her father in their home. It eventually produced
Rhode Island’s newest Olympian
.
The 27-year-old qualified for her first Olympics and will compete at the Paris Games in the Women’s Four.
“It’s not necessarily like being anxious or nervous, but I’m definitely feeling like this is kind of the culmination of what we all have been working toward for so long,” Kallfelz said of the Olympics.
More: Jamestown’s Emily Kallfelz lands on U.S. Olympic rowing team for 2024 Summer Games
In detail: NBC broadcaster on Providence’s Stu McNay’s chances at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris
The world-class sailor from Providence will compete in his fifth Olympic Games this summer, this time in the mixed-470 class alongside Lara Dallman-Weiss. This is the first time the 470 will be a mixed class at the Olympics and McNay attempts to improve on his ninth-place finish at Tokyo in 2020 and fourth-place spot at Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
The 42-year-old also scored 14th and 13th finishes at London (2012) and Beijing (2008). McNay was a two-time All-American at Yale and is a three-time national champion.
More: Gary Jobson on Providence’s Stu McNay’s chances at the 2024 Summer Olympic in Paris
What about the 2022 Olympics? 8 people with ties to Rhode Island who will be at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics
While there are several other states without native athletes competing in the Olympics, a closer look finds that there are multiple connections to the Ocean State in these Games, which are to open officially on Friday.
Here are the Rhode Island connections to the 2022 Olympic Winter Games:
More: 8 people with ties to Rhode Island who will be at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics
It’s filled in now, but in its prime Rocky Point pool hosted Olympians. Here’s the story.
At Rocky Point State Park, vestiges of an old saltwater pool remain along the right side of the road that used to be the main entrance to the amusement park.
These days, it’s full of grass, outlined by the cement perimeter from which kids used to jump in on a hot summer day. It’s marked by a sign explaining what used to be there — how it was 12 feet deep in the center and had three diving boards and two slides.
A note on the bottom of the sign reads, “Fun Fact: The 1936 U.S. Olympic Men’s swimming trials were held at this pool.”
Here’s the story: It’s filled in now, but in its prime Rocky Point pool hosted Olympians.
Did you know RI Olympic medalists get a special license plate? Here’s who has one.
In Rhode Island, scoring a coveted single-digit license plate is almost like winning the Olympics.
And winning an Olympic medal entitles you to a low-number plate.
Since 2016, the Division of Motor Vehicles has honored local Olympians with a special series of plates featuring bronze, silver and gold medals and the interlocking Olympic rings. Text printed at the bottom identifies the driver as an Olympic medal winner.
Currently, the plates are only registered to five vehicles, according to DMV spokesman Paul Grimaldi.