Tyler Rivera, 17

“Tyler Rivera was meant to be a gymnast,” wrote his sister, Stacy Rivera.

“Before birth, during his first ultrasound, the doctor had trouble taking measurements because Ty was doing flips in the womb. Apparently he was in a hurry to get here, too, because he was born two months premature, weighing in at only 3 pounds, one-half ounce at birth. He spent the first six weeks of his life living in the NICU at Memorial Hospital, but miraculously, he fought and grew up to be a very healthy little boy.”

Stacy Rivera, 35, said their mom enrolled Tyler in gymnastics when he was just 3 years old — “to curb his passion for doing flips and somersaults off of the living room furniture. Ty fell in love with gymnastics and began competing in the sport at age 6.”

By age 13, he’d won state-level championships and earned the chance to compete in the prestigious national BlackJack Championship in Las Vegas.

Tyler, who will turn 18 in August, said in a phone interview he’s always enjoyed gymnastics — except for a little doubt “right around when I was becoming a teenager.” But he stayed determined.

“Ty made it clear that he wanted to go away to college and join a college-level gymnastics team,” his sister wrote. Last “fall, he made the decision leave Widefield High School and enroll in Colorado Springs Early Colleges charter school so that he could begin taking college courses to better his chances at getting into a good college.”

Tyler said CSEC is much different from Widefield.

“It’s definitely much smaller,” he said. “There’s smaller class sizes, and it has kind of a college feel to it. It’s also a charter school. So it seems to just be a little more serious than Widefield.”

Another reason Tyler switched schools, he said, is so he could have an extra year of high school to hone his gymnastics skills. But on the new course, he hit rough waters.

“Unfortunately, on Labor Day weekend, 2009,” wrote his sister, “he suffered a bad fall in gymnastics practice and broke his neck. He was rushed to the hospital and taken into emergency surgery to stabilize him. He had a lot of weakness on the left side of his body, and we weren’t sure if he would get his strength back or ever be back to full capacity, much less compete in gymnastics ever again.

“Thankfully, the surgery was a success (they fused two vertebrae). The doctors said if the injury had been just a hair lower or higher, he might have been paralyzed from the neck down.”

After the injury, Tyler missed two weeks of school and had to wear a neck brace for three months. He said it wasn’t easy to keep up with his schoolwork, but his teachers were understanding and helped him stay on top of it.

“But Ty never lost his spirit,” Stacy Rivera wrote. “He made the best of it. He continued to go to the gym and support his teammates. And as he got stronger, he started working out with his teammates — and coaching others as a way to stay connected to the sport.”

Despite doctors’ warnings that he may never do gymnastics again, Tyler took second place in a competition in February.

“I’m feeling actually really great right now. Just about back to where I used to be,” he said.
Through his recovery, he said he never lost his determination.

“The main thing is when I watch other people compete, it kind of drives me, and I just want to do it so bad,” Tyler said. “It’s just a lot of fun to me — it’s just my passion.”

Tyler, who trains at Kinetic Gymnastics in Widefield, isn’t totally sure what he wants to do after high school graduation next year, but he’s got some ideas.

“I’m thinking about maybe just going into coaching gymnastics,” he said.

Stacy Rivera continues to be amazed by her younger brother.

“Ty has been a fighter since birth and continues to beat the odds. His upbeat spirit and determination is an inspiration to us all.”