Palisadians Johnny Hooper and Jordan Wilimovsky can hold their heads high after representing their country proudly at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
The 24-year-old Hooper, an avid surfer who grew up in the Highlands and attended Village School, was tough to defend as an attacker for the USA men’s water polo team. He scored twice in the team’s 14-11 loss to Croatia in the fifth-place game. Team USA finished the tournament with a 3-5 record. Hooper scored the clincher versus Japan, had three goals versus South Africa and netted the game-winner versus Italy. The result equals the second-best Olympic finish for Team USA in the last 25 years, tying a sixth-place mark at the 2000 Games in Sydney.
While Hooper was making his Olympic debut, the 27-year-old Wilimovsky was appearing in his second Games, having narrowly missed medaling in the 10K open water swim and 1500-meter freestyle in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, where he was the first American to compete in pool and open water events in the same Olympiad.
Wilimovsky, who was raised near the Getty Villa in Sunset Mesa and was a Junior Lifeguard at Will Rogers State Beach, took 10th place in the marathon swim August 5 at Odaiba Marine Park. His time of one hour, 51 minutes, 40.2 seconds was over three seconds behind winner Florian Wellbrock of Germany (1:48:33.7), who beat silver medalist Kristof Rasovszky of Hungary by 25.3 seconds.
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