Hezly Rivera: “It kind of just clicked”
It was a turning point, too.
At the U.S. Championships two weeks later, the 16-year-old made her struggles in Hartford seem like a distant memory, stringing together eight hit routines for a sixth-place finish in the all-around.
“It kind of just clicked. I didn’t overthink much,” she said of that performance. “I kind of just let my body do what I needed to do because once I do my normal, I knew I would be fine.”
Rivera says she “didn’t have big expectations overall” heading into the 2024 season.
“I just wanted to take it one step at a time, one competition at a time, and set little goals,” she added.
But her performance sparked a belief: “I was like, ‘Okay, there’s a chance. You know, anything can happen. Let’s just keep working hard, see what happens and just trust my coaches on this because they always have full faith and belief in me.’”
Rivera kept the momentum going from there and finished fifth in the all-around at the U.S. trials, earning a ticket to Paris 2024. Weeks later, she joined Simone Biles, Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, and Jade Carey on the gold medal podium after the squad won the team event in Paris.
“I was just soaking it all in, but also not trying to get too overwhelmed with things. I say this a lot, especially to my friends, it did not feel like the Olympics,” Rivera reflected on her time in Paris.
Gold medal in tow, the 2023 U.S. junior champion says her epic summer finally hit her when she was back home.
“I’d say about a month after the Olympics, that’s when it really hit,” Rivera said. “I was looking back at old photos and stuff, and I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s crazy. That’s actually insane that I was at the Olympics…. I’m an Olympic gold medallist.’ That’s crazy because I have always dreamed of that since I was like 7 or 8 years old.”
