2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Gymnastics - Day 4 - Source: Getty

“I was just soaking it all”: 16-year-old Hezly Rivera makes her feelings known on her approach to managing emotions at Paris Olympics

Modified Jan 16, 2025 22:47 GMT

Paris Olympics gold medalist Hezly Rivera opened up on her approach during the 2024 Paris Olympics. The 16-year-old was the youngest athlete among the entire USA contingent that represented the country at the quadrennial games.

In a December 2024 interview with Olympics.com, divided into two parts, the second of which was released on January 16, 2025, she spoke about how she handled pressure and managed her emotions during the Games.

Speaking about her time at the Paris Olympics, she explained how she calmed herself by fully enjoying the experience. With this, she not only managed emotions on the grandest stage despite competing at such a young age, but also avoided feeling overwhelmed. She said:

“I was just soaking it all in, but also not trying to get too overwhelmed with things. I say this a lot, especially to my friends, it did not feel like the Olympics.”

At the quadrennial games, Hezly Rivera claimed the gold medal in the women’s team all-around event, although she only featured in the preliminaries. She was a part of the five-member gymnastics team that qualified for the Paris Olympics with an impressive outing at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials held in Minneapolis' Target Center.

During the trials, Rivera displayed her brilliance by finishing inside the top five with an overall score of 111.15 to qualify for the Games. Rivera finished behind Simone Biles (117.225), Suni Lee (111.675), Jordan Chiles (111.425), and Jade Carey (111.35).

Hezly Rivera on going to the Paris Olympics with parents Henry Rivera and Heidy Ruiz

Hezly Rivera at Paris Olympics (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

After her successful 2024 Paris Olympics journey, Hezly Rivera was asked about what it meant for her to have her parents accompany her to the Games, a dream she had had since childhood.

The interviewer shared a note from Rivera's Instagram, which she had penned when she was young to attend the Olympics with her parents. She responded to this via NBC Sports, saying (7.05 onwards):

“It meant the whole world to me because my family, they’re my biggest supporters and they’ve always been ever since I was little. They’ve dedicated their life just like I have to this sport, and they helped me make these sacrifices as well. So I’m just so incredibly grateful for them and writing that I was around seven years old and obviously I was like yeah, ‘This is what I want to do when I’m older.’”

“But, it didn’t really hit me until like last year that like, ‘’Oh I can actually try to make this team.’ So, it was so surreal and that little paper actually came true which is absolutely insane, so I’m just so happy,” Rivera added.

Notably, Rivera’s parents relocated from New Jersey to Texas to support her gymnastics journey, enrolling her in the same training center where Valeri Liukin, father of Nastia Liukin, served as the coach.