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Who Is Hezly Rivera? All About the 16-Year-Old Gymnast Headed to Paris
“This has been my dream ever since I was 8,” said the athlete, who is from New Jersey.
At 16, gymnast Hezly Rivera has spent half of her life envisioning herself as an Olympian.
“This has been my dream ever since I was 8,” she told NBC News.
Following her clutch performance at the Olympic Trials in Minnesota, Rivera’s dream came true. She made the cut for Team USA and will be competing in the 2024 Paris Games.
Sporting red, white, and blue alongside Tokyo 2020 veterans Simone Biles, Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey, Rivera has already earned a spot of distinction.
In addition to being the youngest women’s gymnast — she turned 16 on June 4 — she’s the youngest member of the whole U.S. delegation in the City of Light.
Rivera, a high school junior and the 2023 U.S. junior gymnastics champion, originally had her sights on competing at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. But fate doesn’t wait.
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The rising-star gymnast from New Jersey — she now lives in Texas — seized an opportunity at Trials after other gymnasts were injured including Skye Blakely, Shilese Jones, and Kayla DiCello. She had a shot to prove herself — and she did.
Rivera was rock solid overall, particularly in the beam and uneven bars, where she excels. It was textbook right time, right place: she had the skills that were needed by the team.
“I’m so excited to represent Team USA at the Olympics,” she told NBC’s TODAY show.
How to Pronounce Her Name
Hezly Rivera’s amazing feat at Trials in Minneapolis announced her to the world as a gymnast to watch. Remember her name — and how to say it right. It’s hez-lee.
Pronouncing Hezly’s name correctly came up after former gymnast MyKayla Skinner, a vault silver medalist at Tokyo 2020, posted a YouTube stream about the women’s gymnastics 2024 Olympic roster.
Besides questioning some of Team USA’s “work ethic,” Skinner seemed clueless about how to say Rivera’s name, asking, according to essentiallysports.com, “Was it ‘Hazeley’ or ‘Hezly?”
Hezly’s older sister, Carhelis, took to Instagram to defend her Olympian sibling, athlonsports.com reported. “I’m sure you heard the commentators say her name correctly every time,” she said. “Also, you personally handed Hezly a medal at the Hopes U.S. Classic 2018 in Utah.”
Skinner apologized for her comments.
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Her parents are proud supporters
Growing up in New Jersey, Hezly’s next-level gymnastics skills were observed by a coach who encouraged her parents, Henry Rivera and Heidy Ruiz, to enroll her in classes.
Hezly’s ever-supportive mom and dad did that. Since then they’ve encouraged Hezly every step, leap, vault, and somersault along the way. By age 10, Hezly was hooked on the sport, reported olympics.com.
Two and a half years ago, the family transplanted themselves from the Garden State to Plano, Texas. The move enabled Hezly to train with Valeri Liukin, the father of five-time Olympic medalist Nastia Liukin.
Rivera, an engineer from the Dominican Republic, knows that the mind comes into sports. He gave his daughter a copy of Kobe Bryant's book, The Mamba Mentality: How I Play.
The late Los Angeles Lakers’ legendary drive served as an inspiration, according to The New York Post. “Her ticket was always outworking everyone,” Hezly’s dad told The New York Post.
Henry Rivera’s tearful reaction to the announcement of his daughter to Team USA was caught on camera and went viral faster than a gymnast’s run-up to the vault.
“I couldn’t hold back,” he said. “We’re still pinching ourselves.”
Don’t expect 16-year-old phenom Hezly Rivera to hold back one bit in Paris.
