Hezly Rivera reacts to video showing her journey from performing gymnastics as a child to competing at Paris Olympics

American gymnast Hezly Rivera has reacted to a video of her journey from training in her youth days to the Olympics. This comes just a few days after the 2024 Paris Olympics gold medalist's vacation in the Dominican Republic.

Rivera, 16, started her initial gymnastics training at a very early age and was also one of the youngest gymnasts to make it to the US Olympic team. One of Rivera's old training sessions recently surfaced on social media depicting her journey from childhood to the Olympics.

The New Jersey native took to her Instagram handle to react to this video featuring her old training session in which she could be seen practicing several types of gymnastics skills including vaults. She shared the video on her stories and added a couple of yellow heart emojis as a reaction to the post.

Screenshot of Hezly Rivera's Instagram story feat her reaction to one of her old videos (Image via: Rivera's Instagram handle)

Following a successful 2024 Paris Olympic campaign, Rivera made a major career move by announcing her commitment to the 2024 NCAA Gymnastics title-winning side, LSU Tigers. She is likely going to join the team the next year after completing her high school.

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Hezly Rivera on her aspirations for the upcoming years of her gymnastics career

Hezly Rivera at the Kentucky Gymnastics Center performing a beam balance event during the 2024 Winter Cup (Image via: Getty Images)

Hezly Rivera recently opened up about the goals she has planned to achieve in the coming years of her career. Rivera already has an Olympic gold medal to her name and has also won two silver medals at the Junior World Championships.

In an interview with Olympics.com in December 2024, Rivera revealed that she is looking forward to producing good performances in the upcoming three World Championships (from 2025-27). She also mentioned that she has several other small goals that she wants to fulfill every week or month. She said:

"My goals are the 2025 Worlds, and ’26, ’27, and then the Olympics in 2028. Those are my long-term goals. But, obviously, I have little goals to worry about each and every day. I just set tiny goals, not just every day, but like every month, and just take it one step at a time and see where it takes me.”

During the interview, Rivera also remarked that she hasn't planned which events she is going to participate in the 2025 season yet. However, she hinted at her presence at the Winter Cup and the US Classic.