JOURNAL SPORTS

BATON ROUGE – LSU’s national championship gymnastics program is gold standard and in the future, the Tigers are going to add an Olympic gold medalist to their roster.

New Jersey native Hezly Rivera has announced her decision to join the LSU program, which won the NCAA championship last spring.

Rivera, 16, still has some time before she gets to college. She is 16 and a junior in high school, and will join the Tigers for the 2026-27 season.

Rivera was the youngest member of the USA team that claimed gold at the Paris Olympic Games.

She announced her decision to join coach Jay Clark’s LSU program in an Instagram post.

“I am so blessed & excited to announce that I have verbally committed to Louisiana State University on a full athletic scholarship. Thank you Jesus for this wonderful blessing! Thank you to my family, coaches, and teammates for helping me throughout this process. I also want to thank all the girls, coaches, and staff at LSU for everything. Geaux Tigers!”

Rivera did not compete in the team final, but she received a gold medal as a member of the team. Individually, she did compete in the bars and beam at the Paris Games.