In Pictures: Simone Biles’ teammate Hezly Rivera shares glimpses from vacation to her parents’ homeland Dominican Republic

Hezly Rivera recently shared glimpses from her vacation to her parent's native Dominican Republic during the holiday season. Both Rivera’s father Henry and mother Heidy are from the Caribbean nation.

Henry immigrated to the United States during high school where he attended Union Hill High School in New Jersey before earning a degree in Computer Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology. Similarly, Heidy too immigrated to the USA. Both Hezly’s father and mother are big supporters of her gymnastics career.

A few months after being the youngest member of the USA gymnastics team and winning gold at the Paris Olympics, Rivera is visiting the Dominican Republic. She offered glimpses of her trip on Instagram.

Take a look at the pictures here -

Over a week ago, Hezly Rivera’s interview with Olympics.com was released in which she spoke about visiting the country with her family for Christmas. During the interview, she shared her excitement for the trip, stating:

“For Christmas, my family and I are going to the Dominican Republic, Punta Cana. I’ve actually never been. This is my first time going, and both my parents are from the Dominican Republic. I’m going to see some family that I’ve never seen before and see where my parents grew up and just see the beauty of it because it’s so beautiful and I’m so excited to just go there and have some fun.”

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Hezly Rivera opens up on her fangirl moment at the Paris Olympics 2024

Jordan Chiles , Hezly Rivera , Simone Biles, Suni Lee and Jade Carey celebrate at Paris Olympics 2024. (Photo by Christina Pahnke - Getty Images)

Hezly Rivera shared her fangirl moment at the 2024 Paris Olympics in an interview. While she acknowledged that being on the same team as Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee, and Jade Carey was ‘amazing’, she named two other athletes with whom she had a fangirl moment.

In an interview with NBC Sports in October 2024, the 16-year-old said:

"So, obviously being with the team of Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee, and Jade Carey, I've looked up to them ever since, you know, like the last Olympics. So, I'm just like, whoa, obviously that's amazing, just training with them and competing with them.” (starting at 2:04)

Rivera added:

“But outside of that, I would have to say Coco Gauff and Steph Curry because that was just insane. I love Coco, she's so sweet, her energy is amazing, and Steph Curry, I mean, he's Steph Curry, like come on, that's just amazing in itself. Just like even seeing him, so that was really cool. I got to take a picture with him, and it was just amazing because I've always looked up to these athletes.”

It is worth noting that each of Rivera’s teammates at the Paris Olympics was also a member of the USA team during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021.