Who is...
There’s a picture of Hezly Rivera at seven years old: a tiny girl in a stars-and-stripes leotard posing with US gymnast Simone Biles shortly before Biles won four golds in Rio. Now Rivera is her teammate. The child of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Rivera took up the sport after going to a gymnastics-themed birthday party. She’s the youngest member of the US delegation in Paris and tonight has a chance to win Olympic gold in the team event. She’ll be flipping and jumping alongside older teammates who have called Paris “a redemption tour” after falling short in Tokyo. It could be quite the evening for a 16 year-old who’s still in high school and planned to spend the summer learning to drive.
