Wendy Hilliard

Last updated

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]

Related Research Articles

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dominique Dawes</span> American artistic gymnast

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shannon Miller</span> American gymnast (born 1977)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angela Ruggiero</span> American womens ice hockey player

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Azzi</span> American basketball player and coach

Jennifer Lynn Azzi, is an American chief business development officer for the Las Vegas Aces. Previously, she was an associate vice president of development at University of San Francisco and academy global director at the National Basketball Association (NBA). Azzi is a former NCAA Division I basketball coach and Azzi was also a collegiate and professional basketball player and an Olympic and FIBA world champion. Azzi was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.

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. 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 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrea Joyce</span> American sportscaster

Andrea Joyce Kuslits, better known as Andrea Joyce, is an American sportscaster who works for NBC Sports after working 10 years with CBS Sports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aly Raisman</span> American Olympic gymnast and gold medalist (born 1994)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diane Simpson-Bundy</span> American rhythmic gymnast

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simone Biles</span> American artistic gymnast (born 1997)

Simone Arianne Biles Owens is an American artistic gymnast. With eight Olympic medals and 30 World Championship medals, she is the most decorated gymnast in history and is widely considered one of the greatest gymnasts of all time. With eight Olympic medals, she is the fifth-most decorated female Olympic gymnast, and has the most Olympic medals earned by a U.S. gymnast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurie Hernandez</span> American artistic 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" at the 2016 Summer Olympics that won the team gold medal. Individually, 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 2020 Summer Olympics, but she did not qualify for the Olympic Trials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States women's national artistic gymnastics team</span> American gymnastics team

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Final Five (gymnastics)</span> 2016 US Olympic gymnastics team

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Nassar</span> American serial child rapist (born 1963)

Lawrence Gerard Nassar is an American serial child rapist and former family medicine physician. For 18 years, he was the team doctor of the United States women's national gymnastics team, where he used his position to exploit and sexually assault hundreds of young athletes as part of the largest sexual abuse scandal in sports history.

References

  1. "USA Gymnastics".
  2. Hilliard, Wendy. "Why we need Simone, Gabby and Laurie". CNN. Retrieved 2017-01-03.
  3. Higa, Liriel. "Before Simone Biles, These Women Broke Barriers". On the Ground. Retrieved 2017-01-03.
  4. "USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame".
  5. "NYC still benefitted from 2012 Olympics bid". Newsday. Retrieved 2017-01-03.
  6. "Wendy Hilliard Gymnastics Foundation".
  7. "The healing power of sport: Native Detroiter to bring gymnastics to Detroit". The Michigan Chronicle. 2015-09-18. Retrieved 2017-01-03.
  8. "Expat Wendy Hilliard grows gymnastics foundation in Detroit".