Tag Archives: Hezly Rivera

Hezly Rivera Claims U.S. All-Around Women’s Title at U.S. Gymnastics Championships

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Hezly Rivera has added to her medal collection.

The 17-year-old Dominican-American Olympic gold medalist gymnast, the youngest U.S. Olympian across all sports at the 2024 Paris Games, is now an all-around national champion.

Hezly RiveraRivera totaled 112 points in two nights of competition in New Orleans, prevailing by eight tenths over Leanne Wong, a two-time Olympic alternate. Joscelyn Roberson, another 2024 Paris Olympics alternate, was third.

Rivera led Wong by two tenths going into the last rotation, then delivered the best floor exercise score (14.2) by anyone on either night.

“I was aware it was pretty close, right before I went on the floor, probably a minute or two,” she told NBC Sports. “It’s a little bit nerve-racking, but I just tried to trust the process and trust God and just let my body do what it knows how to do.”

While the rest of her Paris gold-medal teammates are taking this season off, Rivera took a major step in her young career by becoming the youngest U.S. all-around champion since Ragan Smith in 2017.

She’s also the first woman to win junior and senior all-around titles since Jordyn Wieber (2008 and 2011-12), as well as the sixth American woman since 2000 to pair Olympic gold with a national all-around title (Simone Biles, Wieber, Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin and Carly Patterson).

Rivera, the 2023 U.S. junior all-around champ, opened the 2024 Olympic selection season by placing 24th at the U.S. Classic (about a week after her grandmother died).

She climbed to sixth in her senior U.S. Championships debut, then fifth at the Olympic Trials as some veteran gymnasts became sidelined by injuries.

Rivera was picked to be the lone rookie on the Olympic team alongside Biles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles. She competed on uneven bars and balance beam in the qualifying round in Paris.

“My mindset is kind of like, I achieved my dreams, I achieved my goals, but I still have more (goals), so I kind of like to put that (the Olympics) in the back of my head for now,” she said in July. “Every time in the gym, I don’t think that I went to the Olympics. I’m just kind of training like I’ve almost never been, in a way.”

This week, Rivera had the highest scores on beam and floor, plus shared the bars title with Skye Blakely.

Wong, the most experienced woman in the field at 21, won vault. She was bidding to become the second non-teen in the last 50 years to win a U.S. all-around title after Biles.

Next up: a selection competition in early autumn, after which four women will be named to compete at October’s World Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia. These worlds include individual events only.

The all-around winner at the selection event automatically makes it. A committee picks the other three, taking into account results at nationals and other 2025 meets.

Hezly Rivera & U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team Claim Gold at 2024 Paris Games

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2024 Paris GamesShe’s only 16 years old, but Hezly Rivera is an Olympic gold medalist.

The Dominican American artistic gymnast and her Team USA women’s gymnastics team mates earned the gold during the 2024 Paris Games team finals on Tuesday at Bercy Arena.

Hezly Rivera & Team USAPowered by a brilliant performance by Simone Biles, the U.S. women’s gymnastics program returned to the top of the sport after finishing in second at the 2020 Tokyo Games

It’s the ninth straight time the U.S. team has reached the podium and its first Olympic championship since the 2016 Summer Games.

Rivera was not selected for an event in the team finals but competed in the qualification rounds on Sunday in the uneven bars and balance beam.

Hezly Rivera & Team USAShe’s the youngest of nearly 600 American athletes at this year’s Olympics and the lone rookie on the U.S. women’s gymnastics team – joining Biles, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles and Suni Lee.

The United States finished the team finals with 171.296 points to hold off Italy in second (165.494) and Brazil in third (164.497).

Biles closed out the night with a floor routine en route to her eighth Olympic medal, passing Shannon Miller for the most by an American gymnast.

Hezly Rivera Earns Spot on U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team Set to Compete at 2024 Paris Games

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Hezly Rivera is heading to Paris…

Considered a long shot to make Team USA’s Women’s Olympic Gymnastics team when the U.S. trials began on Friday, the 16-year-old Latina gymnast wowed the crowd in Minneapolis — and, more importantly, the selection committee — with a clutch performance over the weekend in a pair of events that the Americans will need the most.

Hezly RiveraIn the process, Rivera earned a coveted spot on the team, finishing in fifth place behind Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey.

“I’m so grateful for everything. I’ve made a lot of sacrifices to be here, so I”m so incredibly grateful forever,” said Rivera after making the team. ”I could not be more happy. I’m ecstatic.”

Rivera, who turned 16 on June 4, started in gymnastics when coaches spotted her at a friend’s birthday party at the age of 5. Her family moved to Texas two years ago so she could train at one of the nation’s best gymnastics centers, WOGA Plano, with an eye on a weekend like this one.

“It’s crazy to me. It came so fast. I feel like it was yesterday just watching it and now the opportunity to make the team is just amazing,” Rivera said told a Dallas TV station recently.

Hezly RiveraHer four teammates competed for Team USA in the 2020 Tokyo Games. It seemed like the fifth gymnast on the team would have significant experience, too, until an unthinkable rash of injuries changed everything.

Skye Blakely, a member of the last two U.S. teams that won gold at the world championships, suffered a ruptured Achilles during training. Kayla DiCello, another strong contender to make the team, also hurt her Achilles on the vault and left the arena floor in a wheelchair. Then, in the final stunner, Shilese Jones — a virtual lock to make the team after winning a medal at the last two worlds — injured her knee and was limited to a single event at the trials.

“Simone Biles and … whoever is left standing for Paris?” read a headline in USA Today.

Unlike the do-or-die nature of the U.S. Olympic trials in other sports, Team USA only has one automatic qualifier from the event — the winner — and that was always going to be Biles. Still, given the turbulence with the injuries, most observers believed a strong performance on Sunday night could help a gymnast claim the fifth and final spot on the team.

Hezly Rivera & Team USARivera was close to perfect. She started the night with a 14.3 on the uneven bars and followed that with a 14.275 on the beam — a score that was one of the best in the competition. Those were the two apparatus that Team USA needed the most from the fifth gymnast.

Rivera finished fifth in the all-around competition with an impressive score of 111.15, two two-tenths of a point behind Carey.

Rivera’s star turn wasn’t supposed to come until 2028, although recent performances should give Team USA reason for optimism. She competed in the senior women’s division at the 2024 Winter Cup and finished third in the all-around — behind DiCello and Blakely — and, perhaps as importantly, took gold on the balance beam.

When she nailed her performance on the uneven bars earlier this month at the U.S. Championships, a video of her father, Henry, celebrating in the crowd went viral.

For NBC, the Olympics are 16-day TV show, and having the fresh-faced Rivera compete alongside the legend Biles will become a fascinating side story that will play out in primetime.

She won’t be the first Latina teenager to compete on the world stage. Laurie Hernandez, who’ll be part of NBC’s coverage from Paris, won an individual silver and a team gold medal at the 2016 Rio Games when she was 16.

Now, Hezly Rivera will try to follow in her footsteps.

“We’re going to Paris, baby!” her father, Henry Rivera, said in the crowd.