Tag Archives: U.S. Gymnastics Championships

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.

Laurie Hernandez to Appear in Peacock’s Women’s Gymnastics-Themed Docuseries “Golden”

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Laurie Hernandez is golden…

The 20-year-old Puerto Rican Olympic gold medal gymnast and Dancing with the Stars champion will appear on Golden, a docuseries about women’s gymnasts vying for a spot on the U.S. team heading to the Tokyo Olympics.

Laurie Hernandez

The six-episode series, which hails from Peacock and LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s Uninterrupted will track five hopefuls competing for four spots on the U.S. Olympic team.

A premiere date hasn’t yet been confirmed for the show, which is part of a broad array of live and on-demand Tokyo programming heading to NBCUniversal platforms.

In addition to Hernandez, the series also features Morgan Hurd, Sunisa Lee, Konnor McClain, and MyKayla Skinner.

A major theme will be the coronavirus pandemic, which forced the postponement of the Games from 2020 to 2021 and also dramatically altered athletes’ preparations and training.

Each hour-long episode of Golden will center on one of the individual gymnasts, with storylines of the other competitors woven into the narrative.

Hernandez is known to Olympic viewers for winning a gold medal as a member of the “Final Five” team and an individual silver on beam at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The series will cover a five-month span and milestones like national team training camps, the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, and the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, which start June 24.

Three-time Olympian Dominique Dawes is executive producing, along with James, Carter and Uninterrupted’s Jamal Henderson and Philip Byron.

“When I look back, I remember the tremendous sacrifice it took me to achieve my own Olympic pursuits,” Dawes said. “Similarly, these gymnasts have and will continue to endure physical, emotional and mental hurdles that most cannot fathom. The millions of viewers who watch the Summer Games are accustomed to witnessing the short-lived glory of the podium without truly understanding the demands these young female athletes face.”