Who Is Hezly Rivera? 16-Year-Old Who Defeated Olympians at US Gymnastics Trials

Hezly Rivera came, saw, and won everything. That has been today’s picture from the Target Center, in Minneapolis. The 16-year-old phenom did everything to unsettle the final scoreboard that had hardly counted her as the favorite to make it to the final all-around team bound for the Paris Olympics. But as the final contest ended, the LED board displayed her name alongside Olympians like Simone Biles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey, and Jordan Chiles. These names have survived the bagful of years in the battle of gymnastics. Yet that couldn’t deter Hezly Rivera from chasing her dreams. 

As the final leaderboard charmed the ecstatic gymnasts with their top all-around scores from the US gymnastics trials, Hezly Rivera stood at the fifth position with a score of 111.150 (54.825, 56.325). She remained 0.200 points behind the Tokyo Olympic floor exercise champion Jade Carey. But her top AA score from the night bowed only to Simone Biles. In that way, she remained ahead of the Olympians in taking the selection. Expectedly, Simone Biles led the bunch in the all-around list whereas Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles made the second and third. But the stellar rise of Hezly Rivera pushed Joscelyn Roberson from being named the regular member in the top 5. However, the rise had given a few lightnings in this year’s Xfinity US Championships. 

There, in Fort Worth, Hezly Rivera claimed the sixth all-around position after the second day of the contest. Surprisingly, there as well, she defeated Olympic floor exercise champion Jade Carey. Tonight, Jade Carey took revenge on that. Yet, Hezly’s top all-around score in the trial left the OSU star gymnast behind again. Somehow, to the staunch gymnastics lovers, such a meteoric result may have been expected. The reason was her success in the stacked elite contests in the last 18 months. 

Hezly Rivera’s success story started at the 2023 US Gymnastics Championships in California. There she achieved the women’s junior all-around title. In the same category, Hezly Rivera did even better in the Winter Cup that year. However, all the hardware from the junior level motivated the New Jersey native to accept the challenge of senior levels. The results remained stunning. 

In the 2024 Winter Cup, Hezly took up the third all-around position in the senior women’s category. Do you want to know which were the top two names? Kayla DiCello and Skye Blakley. Unfortunately, they have missed the Olympic trials this time because of their injury. Meanwhile, the crafting of Hezly’s success has come after a lot of sacrifice from not only her but also from her parents. 

Hezly Rivera reaps the result of her hard pursuit of success 

Presently, Hezly Rivera lives in Plano with her family, leaving her native place, New Jersey, behind. The reason is to get trained in WOGA, under the tutelage of Valeri and Anna Liukin. The duo coaches the 2012 Olympics all-around champion, Gabby Douglas. Apart from that, they are the parents of five-time Olympic medalist Nastia Liukin. Reasons like those were stunning enough to shift the Rivera family in Plano. However, that wasn’t a smooth deal initially. 

However, Hezly’s string with the gymnastics made every constraint dwarf. In fact, her family decided her choice to go with the sport when Hezly was just 8 years old. Now, she has been training under the legendary duo for almost the last 18 months and has felt fortunate enough to share the mat with the monuments in the training session. 

From that perspective, she added, “It’s amazing because I know I can definitely make it with all these people around me…I never would have thought I would be training with Nastia’s parents and especially with Gabby! It’s crazy because she gives me so many tips and such encouragement.” Ultimately, her labor has paid beautifully as she has gained the Paris Olympics berth. Still, a lot of distance remains ahead to cross. Hezly Rivera is ready for that as she mentions, “I’m always pushing effort with my skills.”