Pease narrowly edges out rose for US Classic win
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NBC News
5 days ago
- NBC News
Hezly Rivera adds U.S. all-around gymnastics title to her Olympic gold medal
In a year, Hezly Rivera has gone from the youngest U.S. Olympian across all sports in Paris to the all-around national champion. Rivera totaled 112 points in two nights of competition in New Orleans, prevailing by eight tenths over Leanne Wong, a two-time Olympic alternate. Joscelyn Roberson, another Paris Olympic alternate, was third. Rivera led Wong by two tenths going into the last rotation, then delivered the best floor exercise score (14.2) by anyone on either night. 'I was aware it was pretty close, right before I went on the floor, probably a minute or two,' she said on NBC Sports. 'It's a little bit nerve-racking, but I just tried to trust the process and trust God and just let my body do what it knows how to do.' While the rest of her Paris gold-medal teammates are taking this season off, Rivera took a major step in her young career. Rivera is: at 17, the youngest U.S. all-around champion since Ragan Smith in 2017 the first woman to win junior and senior all-around titles since Jordyn Wieber (2008 and 2011-12) the sixth American woman since 2000 to pair Olympic gold with a national all-around title (Simone Biles, Wieber, Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin, Carly Patterson) Rivera, the 2023 U.S. junior all-around champ, opened the 2024 Olympic selection season by placing 24th at the U.S. Classic (about a week after her grandmother died). She climbed to sixth in her senior U.S. Championships debut, then fifth at the Olympic Trials as some veteran gymnasts became sidelined by injuries. Rivera was picked to be the lone rookie on the Olympic team alongside Biles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles. She competed on uneven bars and balance beam in the qualifying round in Paris. 'My mindset is kind of like, I achieved my dreams, I achieved my goals, but I still have more (goals), so I kind of like to put that (the Olympics) in the back of my head for now,' Rivera, who now has a set of Olympic rings above her bed, said in July. 'Every time in the gym, I don't think that I went to the Olympics. I'm just kind of training like I've almost never been, in a way.' This week, Rivera had the highest scores on beam and floor, plus shared the bars title with Skye Blakely. Wong, the most experienced woman in the field at 21, won vault. She was bidding to become the second non-teen in the last 50 years to win a U.S. all-around title after Biles. Next up: a selection competition in early autumn, after which four women will be named to compete at October's World Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia. These worlds include individual events only. The all-around winner at the selection event automatically makes it. A committee picks the other three, taking into account results at nationals and other 2025 meets. Skye Blakely stars on balance beam, uneven bars Blakely shows out on bars, beam at nationals Skye Blakely scored a 14.350 and 14.400 on uneven bars and balance beam respectively on Day 2 of the 2025 Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships. Two months ago, Blakely didn't know yet whether she wanted to compete at nationals. She was runner-up to Biles at the 2024 U.S. Championships, then tore her right Achilles two days before the Olympic Trials. In her first elite meet in 14 months, Blakely competed strictly on beam and bars this week. She had the top scores on each event Sunday, two days after placing tied for eighth and ninth on them. 'It was first (elite) meet back in a while, but I have high expectations for myself, so day one wasn't exactly what I was looking for,' said Blakely, who did compete this past NCAA season for the University of Florida. 'Just really staying motivated, allowing my family to motivate me, too. And then this morning, just trying to find that fire in me, really staying motivated, dig deep. You know how to do this. I feel like it really reflected in today's competition.'
5 days ago
Olympian Hezly Rivera edges Leanne Wong for victory at the US gymnastics championships
NEW ORLEANS -- Hezly Rivera was the fresh face a year ago. The newcomer. The teenager on a team of 20-something Olympic gymnasts, doing her best to absorb what she could from Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles. The one thing that stood out, even more than the sometimes otherworldly gymnastics, is the way her fellow gold-medal-winning teammates went about their business. 'They looked so confident,' Rivera said. 'They're like, 'I'm going to go out and I'm going to hit.' It gave me that confidence as well.' Looks like it. The now 17-year-old who says she's paying no attention to the idea that she's the leader of the women's program in the early stages of the run-up to the 2028 Olympics certainly looks the part. Buoyed by a polished steadiness — and a beam routine that finally looked the way it does back home at her home gym in Texas — Rivera captured her first national title Sunday night at the U.S. Championships. Her two-day total of 112.000 was good enough to fend off a challenge from Leanne Wong and put her in excellent position to lead the four-woman American delegation at the world championships in Jakarta, Indonesia, in October. Rivera, by far the youngest member of the five-woman team that finished atop the podium in Paris a year ago, bounced back from a shaky performance at the U.S. Classic last month with the kind of measured, refined gymnastics that she attributed to simply 'letting go' of whatever pressure she might feel as the lone Olympic gold medalist in a remarkably young field. 'No matter how rough the competition is, I still can get back into the gym and work hard because all those months previously that I've been working hard, I know it's going to show up eventually,' she said. 'So it kind of just took a weight off my shoulders.' Rivera, at the very least, locked up a spot in the world championship selection camp next month. So did Wong, a four-time world championship medalist, budding entrepreneur and pre-med student who shows no signs of slowing down despite years of competing collegiately and at the elite level simultaneously. Asked how she juggles it all, the 21-year-old who insists she doesn't keep a planner said she lives by the motto 'there's time for everything.' Joscelyn Roberson, an Olympic alternate last summer, shook off an ankle injury suffered at the end of her floor routine to finish third as the three most internationally experienced athletes in the field looked ready to lead after spending most of the last Olympic quad learning from Biles and company. 'You go from, 'Oh you're so young, you're so young,' to, 'Oh, you are the older kid,'' the 19-year-old Roberson said. 'People say, 'How are you feeling?' Like, I honestly don't feel that different.' Two summers ago, Roberson was Biles' bouncy sidekick. Now she's among the leaders of the next wave. 'I felt like more responsible to let the little, smaller, less experienced kids know it's not the end of the day if you have a bad day or if you had one fall,' Roberson said. 'I want to help them grow instead of think 'I have to be perfect.'' Roberson then walked the walk. Or maybe limped the limp. She appeared ready to make it a three-woman race for first until she turned an ankle on the final tumbling pass of her floor routine. The rising sophomore at Arkansas gingerly continued on anyway. She gritted her way through her vault dismount, though the five-tenths (0.5) deduction for using an additional pad for her protection took her out of contention for the all-around. Still, the victory hardly came easy for Rivera. She was pushed through four rotations by Wong, who started Sunday with a stuck Cheng vault and didn't relent over the course of two hours. Rivera responded each time — she posted the top scores on three of the four events — but it wasn't until she walked off the podium following her floor routine with victory in hand that she could relax. 'Everything fell into place,' Rivera said. 'I tried not to get too overwhelmed because nerves obviously can be there, especially when you know you're in a spot to win a national title, but I just took all pressure off myself.' Skye Blakely, who was injured at the Olympic Trials in both 2021 and 2024, was sublime on both uneven bars and balance beam to put herself in consideration to make the world team.
Los Angeles Times
6 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
Hezly Rivera edges Leanne Wong for U.S. gymnastics championships title
NEW ORLEANS — Hezly Rivera met the moment. The 17-year-old Olympic gold medalist pulled away for a victory at the U.S. gymnastics championships on Sunday, looking more than ready to be the standard-bearer for the women's program in the early stages of the run-up to the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. Rivera, the youngest member of the five-woman team that finished atop the podium in Paris a year ago, posted a two-day total of 112.000 just eight-tenths (0.8) clear of runner-up Leanne Wong. Three weeks after a shaky meet at the U.S. Classic, where she finished a distant 12th, Rivera responded with the kind of polished performance that all but assured her of a spot on the four-woman world championship team that will head to Jakarta, Indonesia, in October. Rivera, at the very least, locked up a spot in the world championship selection camp next month. So did Wong, a four-time world championship medalist. Third-place finisher Joscelyn Roberson, an Olympic alternate last summer, also figures to be at the selection camp as the three veterans put significant distance between themselves and the rest of a remarkably young field. Unlike Asher Hong's easy win in the men's competition on Saturday, things did not come easily for Rivera. She was pushed through four rotations by Wong, a pre-med student at Florida and a budding entrepreneur who has been remarkably consistent over the last four-plus years. Wong put pressure on Rivera from the start with a stuck Cheng vault and didn't relent over the course of two hours. Rivera responded each time — she posted the top scores on three of the four events — but it wasn't until she walked off the podium following her floor routine with victory in hand that she could relax. Roberson looked ready to make it a three-woman race until she tweaked her ankle on floor exercise during the second rotation. The rising sophomore at Arkansas, visibly limping at times, continued on anyway. She gritted her way through her vault dismount, though the five-tenths (0.5) deduction for using an additional pad for her protection took her out of contention for the all-around. Skye Blakely, who was injured at the Olympic Trials in both 2021 and 2024, was sublime on both uneven bars and balance beam to put herself in consideration to make the world team.
