Gymnastics events have been staged at the Olympic Games since 1896, [1] but women's events first appeared in 1928. American female gymnasts have participated in every Olympic Games since 1936, except for 1980. [2] A total of 83 female gymnasts have represented the United States. American women have won 48 medals at the Olympics – 9 in team all-around, 8 in individual all-around, 4 in vault, 8 in uneven bars, 10 in balance beam, and 9 in floor exercise. The medals include 28 golds. [3] The U.S. has medaled in the team all-around in every Summer Olympics since 1992, winning golds in 1996, 2012, and 2016. [2]
Seven American female gymnasts have won at least four medals at the Olympic Games: Shannon Miller (seven), Simone Biles (seven), Aly Raisman (six), Nastia Liukin (five), Mary Lou Retton (five), Dominique Dawes (four), and Shawn Johnson (four). [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
In 1984, Mary Lou Retton became the first American female gymnast to win the individual all-around gold medal at the Olympics. [9] She won five total medals that year in the only Olympic Games she participated in. [6]
Shannon Miller, who competed at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics, won seven total Olympic medals, which was the most of any American female gymnast before the 2021 Olympics in which Simone Biles tied for the number of Olympic medals won. Miller won five medals in 1992 and added two more in 1996. [3] [4] Dominique Dawes competed at the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Olympics, winning four medals. [7] Miller and Dawes were both members of the "Magnificent Seven", the 1996 team that became the first American squad to win the team all-around gold medal at the Olympics. The competition was highlighted by Kerri Strug sticking a vault while injured to ensure the U.S. victory. [10]
Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson won five and four medals, respectively, in 2008, the only Olympics that either one participated in. Liukin won the individual all-around gold medal, and Johnson won the balance beam gold medal. [5] [8]
In 2012, the U.S. won the team all-around for the second time. This team, which was nicknamed the "Fierce Five", featured five gymnasts who were all making their first appearance at the Olympics. [11] That year, Gabby Douglas won the gold medal in individual all-around, and Aly Raisman won the gold medal in floor exercise. [12] [13]
In 2016, the U.S. won the team all-around gold medal for the second consecutive Olympics, and the third title overall. The team was nicknamed "The Final Five" (as 2016 was the last year when five team members were allowed to participate) and featured the return of 2012 Olympic gold medalists Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman. It also featured newcomers Laurie Hernandez, Madison Kocian, and three-time reigning world all-around champion Simone Biles. Biles won the individual all-around, vault, and floor exercise gold medals, and also took bronze in the balance beam final. Raisman won silver medals in the all-around and floor exercise. Hernandez took the silver on the balance beam while Kocian, the reigning uneven bars world co-champion would win silver in that event. The 2016 Olympics were the most successful games to date for the United States in women's gymnastics, with four golds, four silvers, and one bronze medal overall.
Mary Lou Retton is an American retired gymnast. At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, she won a gold medal in the individual all-around competition, as well as two silver medals and two bronze medals.
Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which assigns the Code of Points used to score performances and regulates all aspects of elite international competition. Within individual countries, gymnastics is regulated by national federations such as British Gymnastics and USA Gymnastics. Artistic gymnastics is a popular spectator sport at many competitions, including the Summer Olympic Games.
Dominique Margaux Dawes is a retired American artistic gymnast. Known in the gymnastics community as 'Awesome Dawesome', she was a 10-year member of the U.S. national gymnastics team, the 1994 U.S. all-around senior National Champion, a three-time Olympian, a World Championship silver and bronze medalist, and a member of the gold-medal-winning "Magnificent Seven" team at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. She is also the Olympic bronze medalist on floor exercise from the Atlanta games.
Shannon Lee Miller is an American former artistic gymnast. She was the 1993 and 1994 world all-around champion, the 1992 Summer Olympics all-around silver medallist, the 1996 Olympic balance beam champion, the 1995 Pan American Games all-around champion, and a member of the gold medal-winning Magnificent Seven team at the 1996 Olympics.
The Magnificent Seven was the 1996 United States Olympic women's gymnastics team that won the first ever gold medal for the United States in the women's team competition at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The seven members of the team were Shannon Miller, Dominique Moceanu, Dominique Dawes, Kerri Strug, Amy Chow, Jaycie Phelps, and team captain Amanda Borden. Miller, Dawes and Chow also won an individual gold, silver and bronze medal respectively in Atlanta. The team is perhaps best known for Strug sticking the landing of a vault to clinch the gold medal while injured.
Chellsie Marie Memmel is an American artistic gymnast. She is the 2005 world all-around champion and the 2003 world champion on the uneven bars. She was a member of the United States women's gymnastics team at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.
Anastasia "Nastia" Valeryevna Liukin is a Russian-born American former artistic gymnast. She is the 2008 Olympic all-around champion, a five-time Olympic medalist, the 2005 and 2007 World champion on the balance beam, and the 2005 World champion on the uneven bars. She is also a four-time all-around U.S. national champion, winning twice as a junior and twice as a senior. With nine World Championships medals, seven of them individual, Liukin is tied with Shannon Miller for the third-highest tally of World Championship medals among U.S. gymnasts. Liukin also tied Miller's record as the American gymnast having won the most medals in a single non-boycotted Olympic Games. In October 2011, Liukin announced that she was returning to gymnastics with the hopes of making a second Olympic team. Liukin did not make the 2012 Olympic team and retired from the sport on July 2, 2012.
Márta Károlyi is a Hungarian-American gymnastics coach and the former national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics. She and her husband, Béla, are ethnic Hungarians from Transylvania, Romania, who trained athletes in Romania before defecting to the United States in 1981. Béla and Márta Károlyi have trained nine Olympic champions, fifteen world champions, sixteen European medalists and many U.S. national champions, including Mary Lou Retton, Betty Okino, Kerri Strug, Teodora Ungureanu, Phoebe Mills, Nadia Comăneci, Kim Zmeskal, and Dominique Moceanu.
Valeri Viktorovich Liukin is a Soviet-born Kazakh-American retired artistic gymnast turned gymnastics coach. As a competitor for the former Soviet Union, Liukin was the 1988 Olympic champion in the team competition and individually on the horizontal bar, and Olympic silver medalist in the all-around and the parallel bars.
Alexandra Rose Raisman is an American retired artistic gymnast and two-time Olympian. She was captain of both the 2012 "Fierce Five" and 2016 "Final Five" U.S. women's Olympic gymnastics teams, which won their respective team competitions.
Gabrielle Christina Victoria Douglas is an American artistic gymnast. She is the 2012 Olympic all-around champion and the 2015 World all-around silver medalist. She was a member of the gold-winning teams at both the 2012 and the 2016 Summer Olympics, dubbed the "Fierce Five" and the "Final Five" by the media, respectively. She was also a member of the gold-winning American teams at the 2011 and the 2015 World Championships.
The USA Gymnastics National Championships is the annual artistic gymnastics national competition held in the United States for elite-level competition. It is currently organized by USA Gymnastics, the governing body for gymnastics in the United States. The national championships have been held since 1963.
The U.S. Classic is an annual summer gymnastics meet for elite artistic gymnasts of the United States. The meet occurs before Nationals and is a qualifier for it. In Olympic years, the aforementioned meets along with the U.S. Olympic Trials are used for selection to the team.
Simone Arianne Biles Owens is an American artistic gymnast. With 37 World and Olympic medals, she is the most decorated gymnast in history, and she is widely considered one of the greatest gymnasts of all time. Her seven Olympic gymnastics medals are ninth-most of all time and tied with Shannon Miller for the most by a U.S. gymnast.
Madison Taylor Kocian is a retired American artistic gymnast. On the uneven bars, she is one of four 2015 world champions and the 2016 Olympic silver medalist. She was part of the gold medal-winning team dubbed the "Final Five" at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and was a member of the first-place American teams at the 2014 and 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. She graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2020, where she was a member of its NCAA women's gymnastics team.
Lauren Zoe Hernandez is an American retired artistic gymnast. During her debut year as a senior gymnast, she competed as a member of the U.S. women's gymnastics team dubbed the "Final Five" at the 2016 Summer Olympics; Ultimately, the U.S. won gold in the team event. In the individual events, Hernandez earned the silver medal on the balance beam. She returned to training in late 2018 and expressed interest in making a comeback to earn a spot on the U.S. women's gymnastic team for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but she did not qualify for the Olympic Gymnastics Trials.
The United States women's national artistic gymnastics team represents the United States in FIG international competitions.
The Final Five was the United States women's team in artistic gymnastics that won the team event at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. It was the United States' third gold medal in the event and second outside the United States. The five members of the team were Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez, Madison Kocian, and Aly Raisman, with MyKayla Skinner, Ragan Smith, and Ashton Locklear serving as the three alternates. After the team event, Biles won a gold medal in the individual all-around event, the vault, and on floor exercise and won a bronze on the balance beam, while Raisman won silver medals in the individual all-around, and on the floor exercise, where she was the defending champion, Hernandez won silver on the balance beam, and Kocian won a silver in the uneven bars. The previous team to medal in every event, including the team and individual all-around, was the Unified Team at the 1992 Games; the only previous U.S. team to do so was at the 1984 Games.
Sunisa "Suni" Lee is an American artistic gymnast. Lee is the 2020 Olympic all-around champion and uneven bars bronze medalist, the 2019 world championship silver medalist on the floor and bronze medalist on uneven bars. She was a member of the teams that won gold at the 2019 World Championships and silver at the 2020 Summer Olympics.