simone biles

PHOENIX — Hezly Rivera is leaning into her role as the leader of the next wave of U.S. women’s gymnasts.

The 18-year-old Olympic gold medalist won her second straight national title on Sunday, rallying from fourth during the final day of competition with four poised and professional routines. Her two-day total of 111.950 was more than a point clear of runner-up Claire Pease, making Rivera the first American woman not named Simone Biles to go back-to-back since former world and Olympic champion Jordyn Wieber did it in 2010 and 2011.

Rivera was the self-described “underdog” in Paris two years ago, when she joined an experienced group that helped the Americans win their third team gold in four Games. While some of her Olympic teammates — Biles and Suni Lee chief among them — have been on an extended break (though Lee announced last month she has started training for a return to competition), Rivera has pressed on.

She edged Leanne Wong in New Orleans last year, but Rivera’s chances for a repeat seemed to be in trouble after she fell face-first into the mat after missing a release on uneven bars on Thursday.

No matter, Rivera began Sunday on bars and put together a gritty set in which she fought through a mini-stall near the end and gave coach Valeri Liukin a “what are you gonna do?” shrug after a dismount that included a small step.

The judges awarded Rivera with a solid if not spectacular 13.850, and her momentum continued to build as she made her way across the competition floor at Matchup Mortgage Arena. Her black-and-white bedazzled leotard glittering under the lights, Rivera put on a performance that made her look every bit the experienced veteran she has become.

Pease and fellow first-day co-leader Skye Blakely couldn’t quite keep up. Pease led with two rotations to go, but her floor routine included one tumbling pass that ended with her stepping out of bounds and another in which she opted to keep her right foot hovering above the floor rather than set it down for a penalty.

Still, Pease’s second-place finish was a marked improvement from a year ago, when she came to nationals fresh off a victory at the U.S. Classic and stumbled to 10th. This time around, she finds herself in a solid position to make the team that will head to The Netherlands for the world championships in October.

Blakely’s bid to build off a promising opening night stalled quickly. She sat at the end of her first tumbling pass and bounced out of bounds on her final one, her score of 11.900 dropping her from contention for the top of the podium on her way to a seventh-place finish.

Charleigh Bullock, who turned 16 last month, was third. Reese Esponda, who trains at the Houston-area gym owned by Biles’ family, was fourth.

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Jade Carey, who is methodically building difficulty into her routines as she eyes a third trip to the Games, finished fifth in a meet that doubled as a homecoming for the Phoenix native.

Graves writes for the Associated Press.

The bubbly laugh. The megawatt smile.

The queen of joyful gymnastics is back.

Seven years after gaining fame as UCLA’s “perfect 10 gymnast” and 13 years since last competing at an elite level, Katelyn Ohashi has returned to gymnastics with new goals and the same outlook.

“I want to have fun with it,” Ohashi said on a video conference Thursday, less than two weeks after making her return to competitive gymnastics at the American Classic. “I want to see how far I can go with it, and how far I can push myself.”

Still only two competitive routines into her comeback, Ohashi said the idea of competing in a home Olympics at the 2028 Los Angeles Games is “a beautiful thing to think about.”

She is plotting her own path. The 29-year-old’s first elite meet since 2013 was on June 27, when she tied for third on beam and performed a floor routine with light tumbling passes. She will compete at the U.S. Classic on July 18 with hopes of qualifying for the U.S. championships, which determines the national team roster.

Katelyn Ohashi performs during the “Gold Over America Tour” at Crypto.com Arena on Sept. 25, 2021.

(Katharine Lotze / Getty Images)

Competing on only beam and floor, Ohashi needs to reach 26.80 points in her routines to qualify for the national championships. The meet in August would be her first U.S. championship as a senior gymnast. Gymnasts typically make senior debuts at 16 years old. More than a decade older than some of her competitors, Ohashi can’t help but giggle at how circuitous her path has been.

“It’s really funny, also,” Ohashi said through laughter, “because, like, I’m pretty much a senior citizen.”

The deadline for a female gymnast’s Olympic dreams used to be 16 years old, Ohashi was told. But watching Simone Biles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles win team gold at the Paris Olympics inspired Ohashi. The team, which also included 16-year-old Hezly Rivera, was the oldest U.S. women’s gymnastics team in the Olympics since 1952. Every gymnast who competed in the team final was in her 20s.

In 2024, the then-27-year-old Biles was the oldest U.S. female gymnast to qualify for the Olympics since 1952. When Ohashi recently called her longtime friend about her plan to return to elite gymnastics after a 13-year retirement, Biles “thought I was crazy,” Ohashi said.

“Which,” Ohashi continued, “most people, I think, might.”

Ohashi has nothing left to prove. In her first senior international competition at 15, she beat Biles for the 2013 American Cup all-around crown — the last time Biles lost an all-around title. After injuries derailed her promising elite career and the sport’s abusive culture robbed her of her joy, Ohashi reached superstar status while rediscovering her love of the sport with UCLA. She won a team NCAA title and the floor individual title in 2018. As a senior, her perfect 10 floor routine garnered 500 million views, landed her in Rolling Stone magazine and drew sold-out crowds to almost all of UCLA’s meets.

Since her final college routine in 2019, Ohashi was loving her retired athlete life. She did speaking appearances, traveled and published a book of her poetry. She enjoyed all the time and freedom she had.

She still missed the gym.

“I have not been able to replicate the feeling or the joy, sensations, adrenaline that gymnastics or competing brings,” Ohashi said.

Staying connected in the sport by participating in Biles’ “Gold Over America Tour” in 2021 and 2024, Ohashi would often joke of a comeback. Calculating her age and looking toward an Olympics in the city that helped her fall in love with gymnastics again, Ohashi knew that if the joke was ever going to become real, it had to be soon.

So Ohashi started working with a personal trainer, lifting weights for three hours a day for four days a week. In January, she moved back to her hometown of Seattle, in part to be closer to her family, and started training with Cale Robinson at Pacific Reign Gymnastics in Woodinville, Wash.

Most skills came back seamlessly, even ones she hadn’t executed in competition since she was 16. The first month felt great. Then fatigue started setting in. Ohashi loved that challenge.

Former UCLA star gymnast Katelyn Ohashi performs during the “Gold Over America Tour” at Crypto.com Arena on Sept. 25, 2021.

(Katharine Lotze / Getty Images)

Because Ohashi, who suffered a back fracture and injuries to both shoulders during her elite career, can’t do as many reps as she did as a teenager, she makes each one count more now. Between training her upgraded skills, she focuses on conditioning and religiously attends physical therapy sessions.

Still early in her comeback, Ohashi said she’s “physically getting there.” She is mentally stronger than ever.

“There are still those hard days, but it’s a lot easier when I know that I’m doing it for me, and me only,” Ohashi said. “And only I can push myself on those days.”

Ohashi wants to push past the baseline she set at the American Classic, where her two-event total was 24.65 points. The meet, which was staged in a gym with one set of bleachers and fans sitting on mats, was an intimate warm up for the arena stage Ohashi will take at the U.S. Classic in Hartford, Conn.

Ohashi walked into her first elite meet in 13 years next to Carey, who, at 26, is trying for her third Olympics. Entering the gym, Ohashi giggled that so many of the judges from a decade ago were still there. She recognized so many coaches. She was greeting everyone and waving. Carey looked at her in shock and asked what she was doing.

She was just having fun.