PARIS — Hezly Rivera’s Olympic journey started 11 years ago at a friend’s birthday party in New Jersey and culminates this month in Paris, a trip through the best and worst of gymnastics that led her to the door of WOGA Gymnastics in Plano, Texas, and leaves her the youngest member of the five-woman team.
Here’s how young: Even though she turned 16 only last month, she’s so much younger than the rest of the women’s team that it remains on average the U.S.’ oldest since 1952.
“I don’t even think she can drive!” Simone Biles famously said when Rivera qualified last month.
For the record, Rivera can drive, though she apparently doesn’t make a habit of it. Whoever’s been at the wheel, it’s been a long, crazy route to Paris.
Watching the 2016 and ‘20 Olympics back in Jersey, Rivera figured her best shot was maybe 2028 in Los Angeles.
Competing for Paris, she said, seemed more like “a steppingstone.”
“I never would have thought this would happen,” she said last month at the U.S. Olympic Trials.
A little ill fortune among her top competition helped her cause. Rivera made her senior debut at 15 this year at the Winter Cup, finishing third in the all-around behind Kayla DiCello and Dallas native Skye Blakely, who also trains at WOGA.
Rivera’s Olympic odds improved considerably when DiCello and Blakely suffered injuries that eliminated them from consideration for Paris.
Rivera took advantage of the opening with one of her best national performances, a first in the balance beam at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Minneapolis last month. Her 111.15 overall points earned the fifth and final spot on the team.
“This,” she said after clinching, “has been my dream since I was 8.”
Which, all things considered, wasn’t that long ago, even if it seems like another life.
Rivera’s journey started at 5, when she attended a friend’s birthday party at a local gym in Oradell, N.J. The organizers were so impressed by her precocious talent, they told her parents they should enroll her in a gymnastics class.
“I went,” Rivera said, “and I just never left.”
Her first instruction came at ENA Gymnastics in Oradell. It didn’t take long for her coach, Craig Zappa, to realize her potential.
“Probably around [the age of] 8,” Zappa told NorthJersey.com recently, “you started to see that this kid had something special that she could actually someday get there if all the cards lined up. She not only had all the talent, but the mental fortitude and drive to be able to attain it.”
Rivera developed at ENA and at national camps before her parents, Henry Rivera and Heidy Cruz, moved her at the age of 12 to MG Elite in Morganville, N.J., to train under Maggie Haney, whose pupils included Laurie Hernandez, silver medalist on the balance beam in the 2016 Olympics, and Riley McCusker, a member of the U.S. women’s national team.
Hernandez and other MG Elite gymnasts later accused Haney with emotional and verbal abuse, charges that drew heightened attention after sexual assault allegations against Larry Nassar resulted in multiple life sentences for USA Gymnastics’ former team doctor.
USA Gymnastics investigated the accusations against Haney and, in 2020, announced an eight-year coaching suspension that has since been reduced to five years.
Hezly told The New York Times in a 2020 interview that Haney “never crossed the line” with her.
Henry Rivera didn’t respond to an interview request from The Dallas Morning News, but he told The Times for the same story that he’d been looking for a gym where his daughter’s potential could be reached.
He found it at MG Elite.
“If I wanted her to come home happy and smiling each day,” he told The Times, “I’d send her to clown school. If my daughter has goals and her goal is to be an elite athlete, I need a coach to teach her the right things and safely, and to push them.
“As parents, we need to be vigilant. And if you don’t like it, get up and leave.”
The family looked far and wide for a gym after Haney’s suspension. Hezly, who’d attended Valeri Liukin’s national camps, told her parents she knew Plano was “kind of far” from New Jersey, but she pressed for the move.
“Valeri’s such a great coach,” Hezly said last month, “who’s so good technically as well. So I said, ‘I think that’s the gym I should go to.’ ”
Calling the bars and beam her best events, she credits her coaches, teammates and parents, in particular, for the fact that she got this far, this fast.
Henry is a favorite of TV cameras at competitions. He became openly emotional when his daughter’s name was announced for the women’s squad.
“He’s been with me since the beginning, always been supporting me since I was little,” Hezly said. “He is my hero, my rock. He always pushes me to be my best, but he’s also comforting when things get rough. He’s always there to talk about anything, and I will, because I trust him.
“He’s just the best dad in the whole world.”
For a teenager who’s already reached great heights, Hezly is well-grounded in her family and faith.
After telling media at the trials that she prays before every competition, a reporter asked for her “go-to scripture.” She hardly flinched.
“Probably Jeremiah 29:11,” she said, then recited:
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Hezly’s immediate future is bright considering the company she now keeps. The women’s team is out to reclaim team gold after finishing second in Tokyo.
Biles’ withdrawal from five events after a bout of the “twisties” didn’t help. Her performance since returning to competition indicates she’s ready to lead the betting favorite, a team with only one member who lacks Olympic experience.
“We’re really proud of her for making this team,” Biles said of Hezly, “and we’re really excited to show her the ropes. At least she doesn’t have to do it alone.”
©2024 The Dallas Morning News. Visit dallasnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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