Wendy Hilliard (born December 11) in Detroit, Michigan, is a United States Gymnastics Hall of Fame Member, [1] and was the first African-American rhythmic gymnast to compete as a member of the U.S. national team. [2] Wendy was the first African-American to represent the United States in rhythmic gymnastics in international competition, including three World Championships (1979, 1981, and 1983). [3] Wendy coached 1996 Olympian Aliane Baquerot Wilson. [4] She served as the first African-American President of the Women’s Sports Foundation from 1995 to 1996, and was also an Olympic sportscaster and Broadway performer. She was also the Director of Sports for the New York City 2012 Olympic Bid. [5]
In 1996, Wendy founded the Wendy Hilliard Gymnastics Foundation, which has provided free and low-cost gymnastics for over 15,000 urban youth in New York City. [6] In the fall of 2016, she expanded her gymnastics programs to Detroit, [7] which serves over 200 youth every week through its after school classes. [8]
Wilma Glodean Rudolph was an American sprinter who overcame childhood polio and went on to become a world-record-holding Olympic champion and international sports icon in track and field following her successes in the 1956 and 1960 Olympic Games. Rudolph competed in the 200-meter dash and won a bronze medal in the 4 × 100-meter relay at the 1956 Summer Olympics at Melbourne, Australia. She also won three gold medals, in the 100- and 200-meter individual events and the 4 x 100-meter relay at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy. Rudolph was acclaimed the fastest woman in the world in the 1960s and became the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field during a single Olympic Games.
Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different types of apparatus. 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.
Angela Marie Ruggiero is an American former ice hockey defenseman, gold medalist, and four-time Olympian. She was a member of the International Olympic Committee from 2010 to 2018 and served as a member of the Executive Board of the IOC after being elected the Chairperson of the IOC Athletes' Commission, the body that represents all Olympic athletes worldwide, a post which she held from 2016 to 2018.
Valerie B. Ackerman is an American sports executive, former lawyer, and former basketball player. She is the current commissioner of the Big East Conference. She is best known for being the first president of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), serving from 1996 to 2005. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011 and the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021.
Lori Fung Methorst, is a Canadian gymnastics coach and retired rhythmic gymnast. She won the gold medal in all-around rhythmic gymnastics at the 1984 Summer Olympics, the year the sport was introduced to the Olympics.
Kurt Bilteaux Thomas was an American Olympic gymnast and part-time actor. He was a member of the United States men's national artistic gymnastics team and in 1978 he became the first American male gymnast to win a gold medal at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. In 1979, he won six medals at the world championship, setting the record for most medals won at a single world championship by an American gymnast, a feat matched only by Simone Biles in 2018. He competed in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Thomas was favored to win a medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics but was unable to compete due to the USA boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games.
Lisa Wang is the founder and CEO of Bad Bitch Empire - a venture platform that focuses on woman founders & investors. She was the CEO and co-founder of SheWorx entrepreneurship platform for women and startup funding, and an American rhythmic gymnast of Chinese descent. She is four-time US National Champion, winning once as a junior and three times as a senior, and the 2007 Pan American Games Champion. Wang was a key member of the U.S. senior national team, representing the United States at three World Championships. Wang retired in 2008 after gaining admission to Yale University.
Allison Jaime "A. J." Mleczko Griswold is an American ice hockey player and analyst. She won a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics and a silver medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Jair K. Lynch is an American gymnast and real estate developer in Washington, D.C., in the United States. He won a silver medal in the parallel bars at the 1996 Summer Olympics. After leaving competitive gymnastics, he became a real estate developer and founded Jair Lynch Development Partners in 1998.
Andrea Joyce Kuslits, better known as Andrea Joyce, is an American sportscaster who works for NBC Sports after working 10 years with CBS Sports.
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.
Diane Simpson is an American athlete, an Olympian and an eight-time Rhythmic gymnastics national team member, and was inducted into the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame, Class of 2004. She is a media marketing communications consultant and project manager who writes, produces and manages talent, events and operations logistics / hospitality for clients, sponsors and stakeholders.
Simone Arianne Biles Owens is an American artistic gymnast. Her 11 Olympic medals and 30 World Championship medals make her the most decorated gymnast in history, and she is widely considered to be one of the greatest gymnasts and Olympians of all time. With 11 Olympic medals, she is tied with Věra Čáslavská as the second-most decorated female Olympic gymnast, and has the most Olympic medals earned by a U.S. gymnast.
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" that won the team gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Individually, Hernandez earned the silver medal on the balance beam. She took a break from gymnastics and returned to training in late 2018 to earn a spot on the 2020 Summer Olympics team, but she did not qualify for the Olympic Trials.
The United States women's national artistic gymnastics team represents the United States in FIG international competitions.
Valerie Le Zimring-Schneiderman is a former Olympic rhythmic gymnast. She represented the United States at the 1984 Summer Olympics, and finished 11th in the individual all-around.
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 after 2012 and 1996. 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. As of 2024, the Final Five is the most decorated American Olympic gymnastics team with nine medals total.
Lidiia Anatolyevna Iakovleva is a Russian-born Australian rhythmic gymnast who represented Australia at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the individual all-around. She represented Australia at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics and won a bronze medal in the mixed multi-discipline team event. She won a silver medal in the team event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. She will compete at the 2024 Summer Olympics as part of Australia's rhythmic gymnastics group.