A Middlesex County discus thrower is gearing up to pursue the Olympic dream.

East Brunswick resident Sam Mattis punched his ticket to Tokyo at the Olympic trials last month. He says it was the culmination of hard work and hard decisions.

“I think I've learned a lot about myself and kind of struggling through and getting through adversity and having actually accomplished this definitely makes it all worth it, but I think it would have been worth it regardless,” says Mattis.

The discus thrower graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2016 and turned down a job on Wall Street to pursue his dreams.

“Definitely was sitting there the first couple years before I made really any money at all from the sport thinking that I could have made more my first year working for a bank than I had in three years combined,” says Mattis.

However, the former NCAA national champion is finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Although his parents are unable to attend, Mattis says it’s still a special moment because they attended the Olympic trials and his father was his first discus coach.

“It was really great to see him there considering he started me out on this journey and some friends from my high school track team and college track team were there, so it was really cool to see them too,” says Mattis.

While the journey for Mattis had plenty ups and downs, he wants the next generation of athletes to know dreams are worth fighting for, saying in part, “Go for it and chase your dreams, don't worry about how different they are from the regular path that everyone else is following, you only get one life so try to make the most of it.”