Another Morris County Native Headed To 2024 Paris Olympics

MOUNT OLIVE, NJ — With a ticket to another Olympic competition punched, Mount Olive native Keturah Orji is among a rare group of these elite athletes, being that this is her third trip to the Games.

At the U.S. Olympic Team Trials last week, Orji secured her spot with Team USA in Paris by placing second in the triple jump event, with a distance of 46 feet, 8 inches.

"The road hasn't been easy, but I'm still here," Orji wrote on her Instagram page, thanking her fans and loved ones for supporting her along the way.

Orij, 28, was born in Hoboken and graduated from Mount Olive High School in 2014, where she set several school records. She graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in financial planning and was an eight-time NCAA champion.

She represented the United States at the 2016 Rio Games and during the last Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and is still pushing for that first medal on the world's biggest stage.

In fact, no U.S. woman has ever won an Olympic medal in the triple jump, and Orji has already made history — becoming the first American woman to compete in this event at three separate Games.

We weren't able to crunch exact stats for how uncommon it is for an athlete to compete in three Olympics, but found a 2016 analysis that indicates only 30 percent of athletes will get to two or more Games.

And the odds of becoming an Olympian in the first place are already long — about 1 in 500,000.

Orji, who is the American record holder in the triple jump, also announced she will retire after the Paris Olympics according to a track and field news website called MileSplitNJ.

In her Instagram post, Orji also quoted a Bible verse from the Gospel of John, which reads, "a person can receive only what is given them from heaven."

"Thankful for everything God has given me," Orji said, later adding the hashtag #OneLastTime.

Check out her Team USA profile here.

Also of note, Morristown native Nic Fink is competing in the 100-meter breast stroke at the Paris Olympics. Check out our Patch article on his qualification here.

Editor's note: We had failed to mention that Delbarton School graduate Jack Alexy, of Mendham, also qualified for the Olympic swim team in the 100-meter freestyle event in June.