By Aaron Stark

Last Friday, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games began, with the U.S. leading the largest delegation, with 593 athletes competing. The American delegation includes five competitors from Northern Virginia — one of whom has already won a gold (one of just four U.S. golds so far) and silver medal for the Red, White, and Blue in Paris.

Three years ago at the Tokyo Olympics, Arlington native and Yorktown High School graduate, swimmer Victoria “Torri” Huske, tragically failed to make the podium in the 100m Fly — by just one-hundredth of a second. Huske persevered, however, and just this Sunday the Stanford Swimmer took home gold in the same event, pulling ahead of fellow USA teammate Gretchen Walsh with just moments left in the race. One day earlier she earned silver in the 4×100 Freestyle relay, representing her team in the third leg.
Huske graduated from Yorktown High School in 2021 after earning an extensive list of swimming accolades, including breaking six Virginia state records, winning 15 VHSL Class 6 championships, setting the national high school record for the 200-yard individual medley, and becoming the first high schooler to ever beat 50 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly. As swim captain her senior year, she led Yorktown to a state championship victory.

Claire Collins, a 27-year-old McLean native, will row for the United States in Women’s Eight on August 1, taking the six-seat, typically reserved for the strongest athletes. Collins attended boarding school in Massachusetts before committing to Princeton University for rowing. In 2019, her senior year at Princeton, she won the C. Otto Von Keinbusch Award as the college’s most outstanding female athlete — as well as a nomination for NCAA Woman of the Year. She placed seventh in the Women’s Four in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Thus far the USA Women’s Eight rowing team has failed to qualify for finals, but will compete on August 1 in a repechage round to potentially stay afloat.

A fencer hailing from Oakton, 21-year-old Hadley Husisian — also a Princeton Tiger — made her Olympic debut this past Saturday, competing in Women’s Épée Individual. Initially eking out a narrow comeback against Poland’s Pauline Brunner, she was later defeated by Hong Kong’s Vivian Kong Man Wai, who went on to secure gold.

Husisian attended The Potomac School in McLean before committing to Princeton for fencing. After finding interest in fencing after watching an iCarly episode, Husisian started working with Fencing Sports Academy in Fairfax, then Elite Fencing Academy in Springfield.

In a brief interview with the News-Press just days before competing, Husisian detailed how her origins in Northern Virginia helped her blossom as a fencer.

“The Virginia-based fencing club system was really beneficial for getting me to where I am now,” Husisian said. “Now I train in the New York area, and it’s definitely a powerhouse. There are a lot of skilled fencers in the area. But I found that it was a more welcoming community in Virginia.”

Husisian credits her thriving fencing career, in part, to her high school. “The Potomac School was always very welcoming in terms of all the days of schools that I had to miss. They were quite accommodating to my schedule,” she said. “I definitely wouldn’t have been able to get to this level if I weren’t competing nationally and internationally a great deal. Their flexibility with my tournament schedule was really necessary in order for me to get to achieve my dreams.”

On Tuesday Husisian competed in the Women’s Épée Team, coming in seventh place.

27-year-old runner Noah Lyles was born in Gainesville, FL, but moved to Alexandria, VA at around 11 years old. While attending Alexandria City High School, Lyles won gold in the 2014 Youth Olympic Games for the 200m sprint. This gained Lyles serious recognition, and in 2023 he took first place at the World Athletic Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m sprints. Lyles’ goal in Paris is to take home gold in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m, and 4x400m races.

Christian Tabash, also from Alexandria, is competing in the Paris Games as a rower for the Men’s Eight. The 25-year-old Harvard graduate attended Gonzaga College High School in D.C., and is proficient in five languages. 100 years ago, at the 1924 Olympic Games — also held in Paris — the USA Men’s Eight earned gold. Now, after taking first in their heat, the USA Men’s Eight is seeking a historic reclamation of the gold medal, competing in the finals on August 3.

This year, the Olympic Games started on July 26 and will continue through August 11. Schedules, results, stories, and more can be found on the Paris Olympics website, and the games can be viewed live on Peacock, NBC, USA Network, or CNBC.