Olympic gold medalist Hezly Rivera recently paid a visit to the Louisiana State University. She shared her experience at the institute which garnered a reaction from Olivia Dunne.
In some of the pictures she shared, Hezly Rivera had donned the LSU gear, and in the other photos, she posed with a couple of gymnasts for the photograph.
"LSU official visit!! thank you to all the coaches, staff, gymnasts, and people for showing me around and making feel welcomed," Rivera captioned her post on Instagram.
Olivia Dunne, who has been representing the Louisiana State University's gymnastics team since 2021, reacted to Rivera donning the LSU colors, stating:
"LSU looks good on you!"
Interestingly, Olivia Dunne has been Hezly Rivera's training partner during Rivera's early days at the ENA Gymnastics Center in New Jersey. The LSU visit was Hezly Rivera's penultimate official visit before she looked for further options in higher studies.
As of now, the Olympic champion is pursuing online education, and is yet to complete her high school. Hezly Rivera is also a member of the team of gymnasts that participated in Gold Over America Tour.
Hezly Rivera's performances at the Paris Olympics
Hezly Rivera qualified for the Paris Olympics with an impressive performance at the U.S. Olympic Trials. She stood first in balance beam, fifth in all-around, fourth in the uneven bars, and eighth overall in the floor exercise segment.
At the age of 16, Hezly Rivera was the youngest gymnast from the USA to have taken part at the Paris Olympics. She participated in the preliminaries of the team-all around event, where she competed in the uneven bars and the balance beam segment.
Rivera scored 13.900 and 12.633 in the uneven bars and the balance beam segments respectively. However, since Team USA scored 172.296 overall, her scores didn't make a huge impact. Rivera was rested for the finals, where USA scored 171.296 overall to win the Olympic gold medal for the first time in this event since the Rio Olympics held in 2016.
However, the teenager is not the youngest American female gymnast to win an Olympic gold medal. It was Dominique Moceanu, who won the team all-around gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 while being just 14 years old.