A New London, Connecticut native who played basketball for Team Puerto Rico in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics is to be honored this weekend.
The city where India Pagan grew up will be holding a parade to celebrate her first Olympic appearance.
Pagan said she’s humbled by the attention.
“They see me in New London," she said. "They see what I did in New London for the school of New London, so they were there throughout that journey. I think they’re just in awe to see how far I’ve come and they just want to support me the whole way and I am so grateful. I hope everyone can show up. I don’t know if anything like this has been done. Obviously we’ve had parades but I’m so excited to see the turn out.”
Pagan said one of the best moments at the Olympics was being part of the opening ceremony.
“I cried like three times in the whole ceremony because I just couldn’t believe that I was there. Like I’ve seen it on TV and the Rio Olympics and the previous one and I watched it on TV and just the fact that I was there, I was walking, they presented Puerto Rico and we waved. It was so beautiful and surreal to me. It was probably my favorite part,” she said.
Pagan is also a women’s basketball player for Stony Brook University. Her team said they are excited to have her back this season after she held Stony Brook reach its first NCAA Tournament back in January.
Pagan is the third Stony Brook athlete to go to the Olympics, and the first to do so while active during their collegiate career.
Pagan and Team Puerto Rico lost before they could enter the quarter-finals. Team USA’s women's basketball team brought home the gold.
