A pair of Olympic synchronized divers threw out synchronized first pitches on Sunday at a Boston Red Sox game. Michael Hixon, a native of Amherst, Massachusetts, and Jessica Parratto, a native of Dover, New Hampshire, shared the honors before the team’s 6-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday.
While neither pitch was a particular ripper, both were on target.
Both divers came away from the Tokyo Olympics with silver medals. Hixon’s came in the men’s 3-meter synchro event, where he dove with partner Andrew Capobianco. Parratto, meanwhile, took silver in the women’s 10-meter (platform) synchro event diving with partner Delaney Schnell.
This wasn’t Hixon’s first time throwing out a first pitch – he also received the honor after the 2016 Olympic Games, where he also won a silver medal in the men’s 3 meter synchro event, then diving with Sam Dornan.
The two were part of a two silver, one bronze medal performance for Team USA Diving at the Tokyo Olympics that matched the medal output from Rio. The US ranked 3rd on the overall medals table behind the dominant Chinese team (7 gold, 5 silver) and Great Britain, whose men’s platform gold medal pair of Tom Daley and Matty Lee were the only non-Chinese divers at the meet to beat any Chinese divers.
Jessica is the daughter of Mike Parratto, the head coach of the Riptide Swim Club in Minneapolis and primary coach of Regan Smith, who won 2 silver and 1 bronze medal of her own at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Mike was also the coach of famed Olympian Jenny Thompson, a four-time US Olympian who won 12 total Olympic medals in her career, including 8 gold medals.
Jessica’s mom Amy was a five-time All-America diver as Wellesley College in Massachusetts.