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

Hezly Rivera was considered the unlikeliest candidate to make the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team when the U.S. trials began Friday night. It's the toughest team in the world to make, after all, and the 16-year-old from Oradell is just beginning 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 standout performance this weekend in two events the 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. Her family moved to Texas two years ago so she could train at one of the country's top gymnastics centers, WOGA Plano, for a weekend like this.

“It’s crazy to me. It happened so fast. It feels like yesterday just watching him and now the opportunity to be a part of the team is just incredible,” Rivera recently told a Dallas television station.

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

Skye Blakely, a member of the last two U.S. teams to win world championship gold, tore her Achilles tendon during training. Kayla DiCello, another strong contender to make the team, also injured her Achilles on vault and left the arena in a wheelchair. Then, in the final stunner, Shilese Jones — a virtual lock to make the team after medaling at the last two world championships — injured her knee and was limited to one event at the trials.

“Simone Biles and… who’s left for Paris?” read a headline in USA Today.

Unlike the do-or-die nature of the U.S. Olympic trials in other sports, the U.S. team has only one automatic qualifier for the event — the winner — and that will always be Biles. Still, given the injury turmoil, most observers thought a strong performance Sunday night could help one gymnast clinch 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, though recent performances should give Team USA reason to be optimistic. 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 balance beam.

When she performed flawlessly 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 television spectacle, and seeing a fresh-faced Rivera compete alongside the legend Biles will become a compelling parallel story that will unfold 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!” her father, Henry Rivera, told the crowd.

Yes she is.

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You can reach Steve Politi at [email protected].