Hezly Rivera, 18, rallied from fourth place after day one to win her second consecutive U.S. women’s all-around gymnastics title at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships in Phoenix. Rivera’s two-day total of 111.950 points was more than a point clear of runner-up Claire Pease, with Charleigh Bullock finishing third and Reese Esponda fourth. Rivera also claimed the balance beam national title at the event.
A fall on the uneven bars on the first day of competition left Rivera fourth in the standings. What followed across her Sunday rotations was not a desperate scramble but a deliberate, composed reclamation — a performance defined less by what Rivera did and more by what she refused to let bother her.
Rivera had returned to national competition carrying the weight of a hamstring injury sustained at the Pan Am Games in June, an injury serious enough that she withdrew from the Pan American Championships. That she stood atop the all-around podium at the end of the event was, in itself, a statement about her preparation. That she did so from fourth place overnight made it something more.
Fourth to first across four rotations
Rivera moved into the lead by the third of four rotations on Sunday, passing training partner Claire Pease in the process. The two gymnasts share a gym in Plano, Texas under coaches Valeri Liukin and Anna Liukin, a fact that lent the competition an unusual internal dynamic — rival and teammate in the same building, day after day, and then across the same competition floor.
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Rivera’s Day 2 score of 56.950 lifted her two-day total to 111.950, a margin of more than one point over Pease, who finished on 110.800. Skye Blakely, who had been tied for the lead entering Sunday, ultimately finished seventh.
Eyes down, pressure off
Rivera did not look at the scoreboard during her final routines. After a dismount in her bars routine, she offered coach Valeri Liukin a shrug — the kind of gesture that signals acceptance rather than indifference. It was consistent with how she described her mindset after the competition.
“I wasn’t looking at the scores, I wasn’t looking at the scoreboard, I was just focusing on myself and my gymnastics and what I have to do, so it was actually stress-free, I took all the pressure I could off myself because it’s no fun when you’re stressed or nervous.”
That temperament is not incidental to Rivera’s gymnastics. She was a member of the 2024 U.S. Olympic team and is an Olympic gold medalist. The pressure of defending a national title, having competed at an Olympics, appears to sit differently on her than it might on others.
“I am comfortable with it,” Rivera said of her position as national champion. “And I just love kind of being a leader in a way.”
Individual titles spread across the field
While Rivera dominated the all-around, the individual apparatus titles were distributed more broadly. Claire Pease claimed the uneven bars national title. Reese Esponda, who finished fourth in the all-around, won the floor exercise title. Jade Carey, fifth in the all-around, won the vault title. Rivera’s individual apparatus gold came on the balance beam.
What comes next
Rivera’s immediate future takes her away from elite competition. She will compete in collegiate gymnastics at LSU in the upcoming season, a significant transition for a gymnast who is simultaneously a two-time national champion and an Olympic gold medalist. Whether her collegiate chapter runs parallel to future elite ambitions or defines a new chapter entirely remains to be seen. What the U.S. Championships confirmed is that Rivera, when healthy and composed, remains the standard against which U.S. women’s gymnastics measures itself.
