Palisadians Shine at Olympics

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Three Palisadian athletes experienced the thrills of a lifetime the last two weeks at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. One of them even left with a medal.

Equestrienne Lucy Davis, swimmer Jordan Wilimovsky and soccer player Ali Riley represented themselves and their teams proudly after reaching the pinnacle in their chosen sports.

Davis helped Team USA win the silver medal in show jumping at Deodoro Olympic Park. Aboard her 12-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding Barron, the 23-year-old had zero penalties in the second round of qualifications despite being the youngest rider (male or female in the field).

Davis, Kent Farrington, Beezie Madden and McLain Ward tied for first place with Brazil, the Netherlands and Germany (all with zero penalties) in Round 1 of the team finals, but Madden, a four-time Olympian, had to withdraw when her horse, Cortes ‘C,’ suffered an injured tendon. In Round 2, Davis, Farrington and Ward accrued five points between them to secure second place.

France took the gold medal with only three penalties and Germany (eight penalties) won the bronze in a jump-off with Canada.

Davis tied for 32nd with 12 penalties in the individual competition Friday. Farrington (fifth place) was the highest American finisher.

Davis grew up in and around Pacific Palisades and played soccer while attending St. Matthew’s. She won the U.S. Equestrian Team’s 2012 Lionel Guerrand-Hermes Trophy, presented to a young rider exemplifying sportsmanship.

Wilimovsky took fourth place in the men›s 1,500-meter freestyle and fifth in the 10K open-water swim.

The 22-year-old from Sunset Mesa just missed a medal in his pool event, winning his qualifying heat and clocking a personal-best 14:45.03 in the final. Gregorio Paltrinieri from Italy won the gold in 14:34.57, Wilimovsky’s USA teammate Connor Jaeger (14:39.48) won the silver and Italy’s Gabrielle Detti won the bronze in 14:40.86.

Wilimovsky, who began swimming at the Palisades-Malibu YMCA pool in Temescal Gateway Park and was a Junior Lifeguard at Will Rogers State Beach, swam the 6.2-mile open-water marathon at Copacabana Beach in one hour, 53 minutes and three seconds—1.2 seconds behind fourth-place Zu Lijun of China.

Ferry Weertman of the Netherlands, who was runner-up by 12 seconds to Wilimovsky at the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia, clocked 1:52:59.8 to capture the gold medal by less than one-tenth of a second over Spyridon Gianniotis of Greece. Marc-Antoine Olivier of France took the bronze.

Wilimovsky, a senior at Northwestern University, is the first U.S. swimmer to qualify for the Olympics in both pool and open-water events.

In her third Olympics as a member of the New Zealand women’s national team, Riley played all three games at left fullback for the Football Ferns, who narrowly missed advancing to the knockout phase after finishing 1-2-0 in group play. They lost their first game to the USA 2-0, beat Colombia 1-0 in their second game and fell to France 3-0 in their last contest to finish with three points. The United States won the group with seven points and France was second with six points. Both moved on to the quarterfinals.

The 28-year-old Riley, who grew up in the Alphabet Streets and was a multi-sport star at St. Matthew’s, also played in the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing and the 2012 Summer Games in London for New Zealand.

(See more in Sports, Page 9)