If Hezly Rivera was the rookie on the 2024 U.S. Olympic gymnastics team, she was the veteran one year later, winning the U.S. Gymnastics Championships in New Orleans Sunday night with eight hit routines across two days of competition, taking home gold in the all-around, uneven bars, balance beam and floor.

Olympic alternate Leanne Wong took silver in the all-around and gold on vault, followed by fellow alternate Joscelyn Roberson in third in the all-around and silver on floor.

“It means the world to me to take this national championship title home because I worked so hard for this,” Rivera told NBC after the competition. “It was not easy coming back after the Olympics. I took some time off, so much work in the gym, hard work, blood, sweat, tears, so I’m just so grateful that I’m here today.”

One year after the Olympics, Rivera’s fellow teammates were not in the picture on Sunday. Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee have both taken time away from elite competition. Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey both competed for UCLA and Oregon State, respectively, but have not returned to the elite level so far this year either. Who might stage a comeback — and when — remains unclear.

That means the field for October’s World Championships roster is wide open. The women’s team will not be named for a few weeks and will take into account selection events this fall, but this weekend’s performance will play a key role as well.

The men’s team, on the other hand, named its World Championships team on Saturday, based on Championship results this weekend. That squad will be led by 2024 Olympian Asher Hong, who won gold on vault, floor and rings and silver on parallel bars, and who won the all-around by nearly eight points, the largest margin in U.S. Championships history.

“I’m just grateful that all the training paid off,” Hong told NBC after the men’s competition. “It was a hard grind these past five weeks, I had a lot of hard trainings, but, you know, I came here with confidence. One of our mottos is ‘leave no doubt,’ and that’s what I wanted to do here today.”

He will be joined by fellow Olympian Brody Malone, who won gold on parallel bars, silver on rings and bronze on pommel horse, horizontal bar winner Taylor Burkhart and pommel horse winner Patrick Hoopes. Silver medalists Brandon Dang (pommel horse) and Kameron Nelson (floor, vault), and bronze medalist Donnell Whittenburg (rings, parallel bars) round out the team.

Left off the team was 2024 Olympian Frederick Richard, who finished second in the all-around, but whose best single-event finish was third on high bar. Unlike in the Olympics, the 2025 World Championships will not feature a team competition — just medals for individual events. Olympic pommel horse hero Stephen Nedoroscik was also left off the team. He struggled with a fall in that competition — his only event — finishing fifth.

The yet-to-be-named women’s team will take into account results throughout the season. Just a few weeks earlier, U.S. Classic belonged to the newcomers, topped by Claire Pease and Simone Rose, with Roberson in third. But falls from Pease throughout the weekend landed her in 10th place. Rose finished in fifth, and Winter Cup winner Ashlee Sullivan finished in fourth.

That meant that Sunday, the Championships belonged to the veterans. Without a team competition, building a team for Worlds requires an eye toward the individual events, led by Rivera and Wong.

Also staging a comeback is Skye Blakely, who was having a breakout season in 2024 until an Achilles injury during the Olympic Trials forced her to withdraw from the competition. She spent the past year competing for the University of Florida alongside Wong, and in her first elite competition back since the injury, tied for first with Rivera on bars and secured second on beam, her only two events of the weekend.

(Photo of Hezly Rivera competing at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships in New Orleans on Sunday: Kyle Okita / Cal Sport Media via AP Images)

NEW ORLEANS — The future of LSU gymnastics ascended the Big Easy’s podium.

Hezly Rivera, a gold medalist in last year’s Paris Olympic Games at just 16 years old, took home the all-around women’s title to cap the Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships on Sunday.

It’s her second time on top of the event in three years, also emerging victorious in 2023.

Rivera dazzled a Smoothie King Center crowd to score a winning 112, just clear of Florida’s Leanne Wong (111.2) and Arkansas’s Joscelyn Roberson (109.6).

The now 17-year-old Rivera led by a razor-thin two tenths entering the second and final day of senior women’s events. She dropped below Wong after her vault but gracefully corkscrewed ahead on uneven bars and never looked back.

Her decisive floor routine wasn’t spotless, but with a gleaming smile and high level of difficulty, Rivera locked up the all-around crown. Bearing the weight of heavy expectations as the sole Olympian to take part, she delivered.

“It means the world to me,” Rivera said. “I’ve worked so hard for this. It was not easy coming back after the Olympics. I took some time off. So much hard work in the gym, blood, sweat, tears. I’m just so grateful that I’m here today.”

After gold medaling the balance beam in last year’s Olympic Trials, Rivera dominated on Sunday to earn top marks. The New Jersey native didn’t medal in vault but tied for first in uneven bars and prevailed in floor after two rotation days.

Her teammate in Paris, Jordan Chiles, presented her with gold for her floor routine win.

While she verbally committed to LSU last September, Rivera won’t compete in Baton Rouge until 2027. However, her shimmering resume can give Tiger faithful hope for more national titles after the program’s first in 2024.

The victory also bodes well for a return to the Olympic stage, set for 2028 in Los Angeles.

This weekend was just a sneak peek.

“I feel like we all had support from each other, the crowd and the gymnast,” Rivera said. “It was a very good spot to have championships. I was really excited to compete here, and I can’t wait to compete in Louisiana in the years to come.”

Annalisa Milton, another future LSU gymnast, also took part in the senior women’s slate.

Rivera’s demonstrative day concluded the gymnastics world’s triumphant return to New Orleans, which hosted the U.S. Championships for the first time in 30 years. The next generation of gymnasts put outstanding skills on display and brought together a host of past, present and future Olympic athletes, coaches and judges.

Caroline Moreau (Keller, Texas) took the junior women’s title on Sunday afternoon, while Maksim Kam (Muskego, Wis.) and Asher Hong (Tomball, Texas) topped the men’s junior and senior divisions on Saturday.

After hosting last year’s SEC Championships, New Orleans is gradually inserting itself as a home for sports of the olympiad. This event also continues the city’s successful run of athletic spectacles, following Super Bowl LIX and UFC 318.

“We want the people of New Orleans to come out and see this event, get in here and pack these seats,” LSU gym coach Jay Clark told WDSU on Wednesday. “You’re going to see some of the most incredible athletes in the world do the things that are just superhuman, and make it look easy.”

Former artistic gymnast for the LSU Tigers, Olivia Dunne, recently had a day out with her friend Lily Chee. Dunne, who boasts over 5.4 million followers on Instagram alone, often puts up her life updates on social media.

This time, Dunne went to a beach in New Jersey with Chee. She posted multiple pictures from her day out at Monmouth Beach on her Instagram story, and can be seen wearing a cheetah print bikini.

In the first picture, Dunne and Chee posed with their backs facing the camera as a wave hit them. In the second picture, which was originally uploaded on Chee’s IG story, and Dunne reposted it, they can be seen smiling at each other. The pictures can be seen below:

 

Chee is a New York-based actress, model, and social media influencer. As seen on Dunne’s third IG story, they went on a road trip. Sitting in the back of a car, Chee posed for the picture with a bag of Popup Bagels in her hands.

There were other boxes from the same place kept on their seat as well. Dunne captioned her story:

“road trip essentials:”

Chee later reposted the image on her profile with a comment:

“too good @popupbagels [fire emoji]”

In the most recent picture on Chee’s Instagram, the two friends can be seen posing for a picture inside what appeared to be a club.

Olivia Dunne is one of the most popular gymnasts who made millions of dollars during her college stint through NIL deals. After college, she transitioned toward modeling and has already graced several magazine covers.

Dunne is also a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model. Despite all her success, the 22-year-old also faced some harsh trolling and name-calling on the internet.

Olivia Dunne opened up about her struggles

During an appearance on Stephanie McMahon’s “What’s Your Story” podcast, Dunne revealed how she struggled with body image issues due to social media. She said:

“I did have a very big male audience at the beginning of my college career. And that was hard. It was hard to feel like people were watching me, judging me. I’ve definitely have had some problems with some body issues.” (34:48)

Dunne explained that gymnastics is one of the sports where the athlete ends up developing a lot of muscles. Notably, she received a lot of disheartening comments from her male audience.

“When I first started posting, men were like, ‘I do not like those muscles.’ They were calling me a linebacker, they were calling me a football player.”

Dunne struggled to understand why someone would comment on her if they claim to not like what she does. Eventually, she got a grip on how social media works and started ignoring those people. Dunne has been in a long-term relationship with Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes.

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