Seacoast Olympians Begin Olympic Competition

Editor's Note: This story was last updated on Sunday. Please visit seacoastcurrent.com for continuing coverage.

Olympians with ties to the Seacoast have started to compete as Team USA got on the medal board at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo earning ten medals, including six in swimming.

After Team USA was shut out of the medals on the opening day of the games Chase Kalisz helped open the floodgates at the Tokyo Aquatics Center with American swimmers winning six of seven possible medals.

Kalisz won the men’s 400-meter individual medley with a time of 4 minutes, 9.42 seconds for Team USA’s first gold medal of the Games. Teammate Jay Litherland, his training partner since their days at the University of Georgia, came in second.

The first Seacoast Olympian to compete was rower Michelle Sechser, who along with rowing partner Molly Reckford, finished first by a commanding six seconds in the lightweight women's double sculls to make the semi-finals on Wednesday.

They'll row against Russia, Canada, Romania, Italy and Japan.

The U.S. swim team's success bodes well for Dover's Jessica Parratto who hits the pool for the first time on Tuesday diving at 2 a.m. EDT. On her Instagram page, Parratto posted a picture of herself standing at the edge of the pool.

"Competition starts today in this beauty of a venue! can’t wait to cheer on da squad," she wrote.

Elle Purrier St. Pierre and Rachel Schneider will begin to compete later in the week and were not in Tokyo for the Opening Ceremonies.

St. Pierre posted a picture of herself on Instagram training before departing from Logan Airport in Boston captioned "1…2…3….Tokyo Bound!!!"

Schneider posted on her Instagram page about her packing and she said she was traveling over the weekend.

Material from US Rowing and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee was used in this report.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNH