Rivera Carries Weight of Nation into Paris Olympics - Rutgers University Athletics (2024)

Former Rutgers wrestling standout and Toms River native Sebastian Rivera will have the proud distinction of being the flag bearer for Team Puerto Rico in the opening ceremonyat the2024 Summer Olympics in Paris that will be broadcast on Friday, July 26 beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET. onNBC and its family of channels.

According to Olympics.com, “the flag bearer for a national delegation is, in some ways, akin to a team captain, but it is also much more than that. By carrying their national flag during the Parade of Nations, the flag bearer becomes an enduring symbol of their national values and indeed of Olympic ideals, not to mention an inspiration for future generations.”

Rivera, who will compete in men's freestyle wrestling in the Olympic Games, began his collegiate wrestling career at Northwestern. After wrestling unattached as a true freshman in 2016-17, the former New Jersey state champion earned All-American honors in each of his next three seasons for the Wildcats, amassing a 73-12 record in the process.

While wresting for Northwestern in the 2020 Big Ten tournament held at his future home, jam-packed Jersey Mike’s Arena, a 133-pound Rivera , who goes by the moniker “Seabass”, walked off the mat after defeating Penn State’s Roman Bravo-Young and memorably roared lungs into the public address microphone at the top of his lungs, "WHO DOESN’T WANT TO WIN IN JERSEY?!"

And then, on June 26, 2020, Rivera set the collegiate wrestling world on its collective ear by delivering these three words on his social media accounts.

“I’m Coming Home…”

In his two seasons at Rutgers, Rivera compiled a sparkling 42-4 record, highlighted by posting a 30-1 record en route to a third-place finish at the 2022 NCAA Wrestling Championships in Detroit. In doing so, he joined Anthony Ashnault (2019), Nick Suriano (2018 & 2019) and Mike Leta (1960) in becoming the fourth individual to secure a top-three finish at nationals and the only national bronze medalists in program history. Rivera also finished as the nation's leader in tech falls that season with 14 and won 25 of his matches by bonus points.

“I loved everything about wrestling for Rutgers and Coach Goodale,” Rivera said. “I had a lot of freedom. At a high level of wrestling, that’s kind of what you want, you want a lot of freedom. So you do what’s right for you and with their guidance, I was able to find what was perfect for me and what I needed. They helped me find that. Goody is a great coach and he’s a great people person and a whole great staff. It was just a great spot to be for me.”

Always competing with a distinct flare and carrying a swagger all his own, Rivera closed his collegiate career as a five-time All-American (four NCAA, one NWCA) and two-time Big Ten Champion. Rivera produced 115 career wins at Northwestern and Rutgers, which included 20 at the NCAA Championships.

Rivera is proud of the honor and eagerly looking forward to doing so when he marches into the Stade de France, alongside his Puerto Rican teammates, for the opening ceremonies in front of 80,000 fans and millions more watching on TV across the globe.

“I don’t really know what the criteria was in terms of my being selected as the flag bearer,” he continued. “Maybe finishing second in the World Games was the best result they had all year from a Puerto Rican athlete, so that could be it. We were in the blind but I was lucky enough to be picked. I’m just really excited and humbled to be the flag bearer for Puerto Rico at the Olympic Games.”

Rivera’s first of countless signature wrestling moments came back in 2016 when, as a senior at Lincroft’s Christian Brothers Academy (CBA), he captured the 2016 NJSIAA state championship in the 113-pound division at Atlantic City’s famed Boardwalk Hall. Rivera was forced to overcome a 4-0 deficit to pin heavily-favored two-time state runner-up Patrick Glory of Blair Academy in the closing seconds of a hotly-contested battle. The bout was tied 5-5 with 36 seconds remaining when Rivera converted an ultra-daring and dartingly quick takedown and pinned Glory an instant

before the final buzzer. Rivera capped the moment, becoming CBA’s first individual state champion in 47 years.

Fast forward seven years on a mat some 9,000 miles away in Belgrade, Serbia, Rivera pulled off an eerily similar and improbable victory. Trailing Vazgen Tevanyan of Armenia 9-4 in the final period, Rivera produced back-to-back takedowns and followed with a two-point turn at the buzzer in earning a come-from-behind 10-9 win to secure his spot in the championship match. Though he would lose to Hungary’s Ismail Musukaev in the championship match, Rivera’s silver medal finish was good enough to punch his ticket to Paris.

“The biggest thing that comes to my mind was when I won that World Silver Medal. And jumping into the arms ofDonny Pritzlaff andJeff Bruxton,” he said. “That’s a big-time Rutgers moment right there and I think of that moment a lot. It felt good and I want to feel that moment again.”

A decorated freestyle wrestler, Rivera also finished second at last year's Pan-American Championships, placed fifth at the 2022 UWW Senior World Championships and won the Mattero Pellicone and the Grand Prix of Spain.

Rivera credits much of his success on the mat to the influence of his father, Steve, a former state champion at Manalapan High School who went on to become a four-time All-American at the Trenton State (now the College of New Jersey), who owns and operates Elite Training NJ, a wrestling club in Toms River.

“I’ve been on a mat since I was like four years old,” he said. “My dad’s definitely been the inspiration for me throughout my wrestling career.”

Following his son’s state championship victory in 2016, Steve Rivera said in the Asbury Park Press,"As a father, and in the bigger picture of life, because wrestlingis a small picture of what we are, I know my son is a fighter and he's going to fight for what he wants in life, and I'm psyched to see the man he's going to be.”

That man will be carrying a proud honor, holding the Puerto Rican flag at the 2024 Olympic Games.

A recipient of seven NJ Press Association Awards for writing excellence, John Beisser ('86) served as Assistant Director in the Rutgers University Athletic Communications Office from 1991-2006, where he primarily handled sports information/media relations duties for the Scarlet Knight football and men's basketball programs. In this role, he served as managing editor for nine publications that received either National or Regional citations from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). While an undergraduate at RU, Beisser was sports director of WRSU-FM and a sportswriter/columnist for The Daily Targum. From 2007-2019, Beisser served as Assistant Athletic Director/Sports Media Relations at Wagner College, where he was the recipient of the2019 Met Basketball Writers Association "Good Guy" Award.Beisser resides in Piscataway with his wifeAileen(RC '95,)a four-year Scarlet Knight women's lacrosse letterwinner, and their 15-year old daughter Riley.