Who Is Hezly Rivera? 16-Year-Old Who Defeated Olympians at US Gymnastics Trials

Hezly Rivera came, saw, and won everything. That has been today's picture from the Target Center, in Minneapolis. The 16-year-old phenom did everything to unsettle the final scoreboard that had hardly counted her as the favorite to make it to the final all-around team bound for the Paris Olympics. But as the final contest ended, the LED board displayed her name alongside Olympians like Simone Biles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey, and Jordan Chiles. These names have survived the bagful of years in the battle of gymnastics. Yet that couldn't deter Hezly Rivera from chasing her dreams.

As the final leaderboard charmed the ecstatic gymnasts with their top all-around scores from the US gymnastics trials, Hezly Rivera stood at the fifth position with a score of 111.150 (54.825, 56.325). She remained 0.200 points behind the Tokyo Olympic floor exercise champion Jade Carey. But her top AA score from the night bowed only to Simone Biles. In that way, she remained ahead of the Olympians in taking the selection. Expectedly, Simone Biles led the bunch in the all-around list whereas Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles made the second and third.