Two months ago, 16-year-old Olympic gymnast Hezly Rivera won gold in Paris, and now she is headed to Baton Rouge.
The Tigers won their first national championship in April, and not even six months later have recruited possibly the most coveted young gymnast in the nation.
If you didn’t follow the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, you may have missed the teenage phenomenon that is Hezly Rivera. Barely 16, she became the youngest member of Team USA this summer. She will make her college debut as a member of the LSU gymnastics squad in 2026.
Here is everything you need to know about Hezly Rivera:
In 2013, Rivera attended a birthday party at a gymnastics facility where she was spotted by a coach who told her parents that their daughter may have a knack for tumbling.
After instantly falling in love with the sport, Rivera competed in various junior-level events and began gaining national attention.
Rivera and her family moved from New Jersey to Texas in 2022, so she could be coached by the parents of Olympic gold-medalist Nastia Liukin.
In 2023, she became the U.S. junior all-around gymnastics champion and won silver on floor exercise in the junior world championships.
Once Rivera turned 15, she could start competing at the senior level.
At the 2024 Winter Cup, she picked up first place on balance beam and third in floor exercise and all-around, qualifying her for the Olympic trials.
Not even a month after her 16th birthday, Rivera took the fifth and final spot on the Olympic team with the top score on beam of 14.275 and took fourth place on the uneven bars.
In Paris, she competed side-by-side with returning gold-medalists Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey, collectively nicknamed the “Golden Girls.”
The only rookie on the U.S. lineup, Rivera competed on the balance beam and uneven bars in the qualification round of the Olympics on beam and bars. After a stellar performance in the trials, all eyes were on the 16-year-old prodigy when she stepped up to the beam.
Unfortunately for Rivera, she made a few errors in her routine and her score of 12.633 was ultimately dropped from the team’s total. She did not qualify for the final in either category, but her score of 13.900 on bars placed her 13th and contributed to the team’s advancement. So, when the team won gold in the final, so did she.
Since Paris, Rivera has visited multiple universities including the University of Florida and Oklahoma, which she shared online via Instagram. On Sept. 23, she posted about her visit to LSU and, three days later, made it official with another post announcing her verbal commitment.
LSU gymnasts such as Olivia Dunne, Haleigh Bryant and Aleah Finnegan along with members of the Olympic squad shared their support on the platform and in the comments of Rivera’s post congratulating the young star.
With two years until her arrival, the Tigers will be striving to maintain their champion status and bring new talent to their team with the loss of many senior athletes in the upcoming seasons.
If getting the national championship was first on LSU’s bucket list, Rivera was next. Even after reaching what would seem to be the pinnacle of college gymnastics, LSU continues on an upward trajectory.
Having already competed on the national, international and Olympic levels, who knows what else Rivera can accomplish before her time at LSU. In the upcoming season, all eyes will be on the teenage Olympian with the 2025 Winter Cup and U.S. National Championships taking place.
It is safe to say LSU struck gold with the addition of Rivera to their roster, but in the meantime, they need to keep their eyes on the prize.
From Paris to the SEC, Hezly Rivera will be a key component of the future of LSU gymnastics.
