Hezly Rivera competes in the women’s balance beam during the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo\/Ross D. Franklin)<\/small><\/p>\n
2026-08-10T00:07:31Z<\/p>\n
PHOENIX (AP) \u2014 Hezly Rivera listened more than she talked two summers ago in Paris when she was the \u201cwait, who?\u201d member of the star-laden U.S. women\u2019s Olympic gymnastics team.<\/p>\n
Those days are over. Long over.<\/p>\n
The wide-eyed newcomer is gone, replaced by a poised and professional 18-year-old who is embracing her role as the leader of the sport\u2019s next wave as the 2028 Olympics approach.<\/p>\n
The proof was on display during the final round of the U.S. gymnastics championships on Sunday, when Rivera \u2014 still not quite 100% while recovering from a hamstring injury sustained at the Pan Am Games in June \u2014 won her second straight national title with a poised and polished performance that solidified her status as the current face of a women\u2019s program two years out from the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Rivera\u2019s two-day total of 111.950 was more than a point clear of runner-up Claire Pease, making Rivera the first American woman not named Simone Biles<\/a><\/span> to go back-to-back since former world and Olympic champion Jordyn Wieber did it in 2011 and 2012.<\/p>\n Heady company to be sure, but company in which Rivera increasingly feels like she belongs. It might not have seemed like it in the summer of 2024 when she ceded the spotlight to her more accomplished teammates, but the relentlessly upbeat Texan has no problem admitting these days she wants to lead from the front.<\/p>\n \u201cI am comfortable with it,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I just love kind of being a leader in a way.\u201d<\/p>\n Anna Liukin, who coaches Rivera alongside her husband Valeri, called Rivera \u201cmotherly.\u201d Rivera laughed when the description was passed along because well, it\u2019s strange to hear as a teenager. Yet in many ways, it\u2019s applicable.<\/p>\n