New Jersey teen gymnast heads to Paris Olympics after stunning weekend at U.S. trials

Hezly Rivera was considered the longest shot to make Team USA's Olympic gymnastics squad when the U.S. trials began Friday night. After all, it's the toughest team in the world to make, and the 16-year-old from Oradell is just starting her career at the sport's highest level.

Then the injuries started to pile up. And faced with an unexpected opportunity, Rivera wowed the crowd in Minneapolis – and, more importantly, the selection committee – with a stellar performance this weekend in two events Americans will need most.

The Bergen County kid with the memorable first name is headed to Paris, and when casual fans tune in to see if Simone Biles can build on her legacy as the sport's all-time greatest player, they might also get a glimpse of the sport's bright future.

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

“It’s crazy to me. It happened so quickly. It feels like it was yesterday watching him and now to have the opportunity to be a part of the team is just amazing,” Rivera told a Dallas TV station recently.

All four of her teammates competed for Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics. The fifth gymnast on the team also seemed to have considerable experience, until a series of unthinkable injuries changed everything.

Skye Blakely, a member of the last two U.S. teams to win gold at the world championships, injured her Achilles tendon during training. Kayla DiCello, another strong candidate to make the team, also injured her Achilles tendon on vault and left the track in a wheelchair. Then, in the final, Shilese Jones, who was all but guaranteed to make the team after medaling at the last two world championships, injured her knee and was limited to just one event during the trials.

“Simone Biles and… who will still be there to represent Paris?” was the headline of USA Today.

Unlike the do-or-die nature of the U.S. Olympic Trials in other sports, Team USA has only one automatic qualifier for the event — the winner — and it will always be Biles. Still, given the injury turmoil, most observers believed a strong performance Sunday night could help a gymnast earn the team's fifth and final spot.

Rivera was close to perfection. She started the night with a 14.3 on the uneven bars and followed that up with a 14.275 on the beam, a score that was one of the best of the competition. Those were the two apparatuses the U.S. team needed most from the fifth-place gymnast. Rivera finished fifth in the all-around with an impressive score of 111.15, two-tenths of a point behind Jade 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, won 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 a 16-day telecast, and having the fresh face of Rivera competing alongside the legend Biles will become a fascinating side story that plays out in prime time.

She won't be the first New Jersey teenager to compete on the world stage. Old Bridge native Laurie Hernandez, who will be part of NBC's coverage from Paris, won an individual silver and team gold medal at the 2016 Rio Games as a 16-year-old.

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

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

Yes she is.

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Steve Politi can be contacted at [email protected].