Palisadians in Paris

Athletes with Local Roots Are Going for Gold at the Summer Olympic Games

Miles Partain

Miles is making his Olympic beach volleyball debut with his playing partner Andy Benesh. The duo qualified for the Paris Games after sweeping Norwegians Anders Mol and Christian Sorum on June 9 in the bronze medal match at the FIVB World Beach Pro Tour stop in Ostava, Czech Republic.

The American pair tied for fourth in the men’s rankings to earn their Olympic spot following a grueling qualification period that started in January 2023. Joining Partain and Benesh on Team USA’s Olympic roster will be Chade Budinger and Miles Evans, who tied for 13th in the rankings.

Partain is only 22, making him the youngest US Olympian to date in his sport, and has been playing with the 29-year-old Benesh since 2022. In their final Olympic tune-up they made the quarterfinals of the Elite16 in Vienna, Austria last week. The beach volleyball competition in Paris begins Saturday and concludes August 10 at Eiffel Tower Stadium. Partain played in his first organized beach volleyball tournament at Will Rogers State Beach when he was 10 and starred at Palisades High.

Johnny Hooper

The 27-year-old who grew up in the Highlands is making his second appearance at the Summer Olympics, having helped the Team USA men’s water polo team to sixth place at the Tokyo Games in 2021. Johnny was a four-time All-American at Cal, scoring 245 career goals and leading the Bears to the 2016 NCAA Championship. An avid surfer, he went to Village School and then Harvard-Westlake High, helping the Wolverines win back-to-back CIF-Southern Section Division 1 titles.

Hooper was one of 15 players competing for his country at the 2024 World Aquatics World Championships in Doha, Qatar in February and he scored a goal in a shootout loss to Montenegro. The Americans finished ninth. At the Tokyo Games, the Palisadian tallied twice against Croatia in the fifth-place game. He scored the clincher versus Japan, had three goals versus South Africa and netted the winner versus Italy. The result equals the second-best Olympic finish in 25 years for the USA. 

Team USA begins water polo action Sunday morning against Italy and faces Romania on Tuesday morning. 

Ali Riley

Captain of the New Zealand women’s national soccer team since 2017, Ali is playing in her fifth Olympic Games, having debuted for the Football Ferns in the 2008 Games in Beijing. The 36-year-old defender from the Alphabet Streets has topped the Palisadian-Post’s Athletes of the Year list more times than anyone and last July she helped New Zealand notch the country’s first World Cup win ever., a 1-0 upset of Norway to open pool play.

Riley was a multi-sport star at St. Matthew’s, earned All-CIF honors at Harvard-Westlake High, enjoyed a stellar collegiate career at Stanford and played for the Pali Blues of the USL-W League in 2009 before joining the WPS and later playing for Rosengard in Sweden, Chelsea in England and Bayern Munich in Germany. She currently plays for NWSL’s Angel City FC in Los Angeles.

Ali will try to lead New Zealand to its first Olympic medal. The Ferns open  Group A against Canada this morning before taking on  Colombia on Sunday and host France on July 31. If NZ advances, quarterfinals are on Aug. 3.

Nick Itkin

After helping the Team USA men’s fencing team win the bronze medal in the foil at the Tokyo Games three years ago, Nick would like to add an individual medal to his resume in his second trip to the Olympics—and he wants the gold. The 2017 Palisades High alum won multiple individual and team championships at the University of Notre Dame and has appeared on the Palisadian-Post’s Athletes of the Year list multiple times, having been first in the foil at the Junior Worlds in 2018 and taking the senior circuit by storm with a bronze medal in Bonn, Germany later that year to become the first American fencer to win individual junior world, USA Fencing Division I and NCAA championship titles in the same season. He rose to No. 6 in the U.S.during his senior year at Palisades.

Now 24, Itkin is coached by his father Michael, once an elite fencer in Ukraine. His mother Tatyana was a member of Ukraine’s rhythmic gymnastics team and his older sister Julia was on the U.S. rhythmic gymnastics team. The men’s foil individual Table of 64 competition starts Monday.

Steve Kerr

Steve is a winner and as head coach of the USA men’s basketball team he will try to guide a squad featuring NBA superstars LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, Jayson Tatum, Bam Adebayo and Joel Embiid to its fifth straight Olympic gold medal and 17th overall.

The 58-year-old Kerr, who grew up in the Palisades and played basketball and baseball at Palisades High (graduating in 1983)  has nine NBA titles to his credit (five as a player, four as a coach) and holds the league record for highest three-point percentage. He returned to his hometown to ride as Grand Marshal in the Palisades Fourth of July Parade in 2014. Assisting Steve at USAB training camp in Las Vegas last month was his s close friend and his mentor at Pali High, Chip Engelland, who led the City in scoring as a senior for the Dolphins in 1979.

Kerr is also the head coach of the Golden State Warriors, earning Coach of the Year honors in 2016 and leading the franchise to titles in 2015, 2017, 2018 & 2022. Team USA opens Group C versus Serbia on Sunday morning.