Aly Raisman
USA
Artistic Gymnastics
Overall Ranks
#34 among American Olympians
#22 among Gymnasts
#9 among Female Gymnasts
#2 among American Gymnasts
Olympic Results
2012
Team - Gold
Floor Exercise - Gold
Balance Beam - Bronze
2016
Individual All-Around - Silver
Team - Gold
Floor Exercise - Silver
Total
Events - 10
Gold - 3
Silver - 2
Bronze - 1
Alexandra Rose Raisman was born on May 25, 1994 in Needham, Massachusetts. Her mother had been a gymnast in high school, and got her started in gymnastics almost as soon as she could walk. After her junior year of high school, she was part of the gold medal-winning team at the World Championships, and she completed her senior year online in order to train for the 2012 Olympics.
The first event in London was the Individual All-Around, which allowed a maximum of 2 athletes per country into the final. Jordyn Wieber was the defending world champion and was expected to win, but she finished 3rd among the Americans, and 4th overall in qualifying, so Gabby Douglas and Raisman went to the final. Douglas ended up winning the gold, while Raisman tied for third, but lost the bronze medal in a tiebreaker to Aliya Mustafina of Russia.
Having 3 of the top 4 scores in qualifying gave the USA the best overall score entering the team competition, and they ended up running away with the gold, more than 5 points ahead of Russia. Raisman put up the best overall score in floor exercise and a solid performance in balance beam, as the USA had the best overall score in 3 of the 4 parts.
Raisman qualified for 2 event finals, the balance beam and the floor exercise. In the balance beam, she qualified fifth, and she was the final athlete to compete, and when the scores were announced, she was in 4th, but her coach appealed her difficulty score, and upon review, her score was raised by 0.1, which put her into a tie for 3rd, which she won on a tiebreaker to get the bronze she missed in the all-around.
In the floor exercise, she was the top qualifier by 0.26 points, and even though she went third, she left no doubt that she would win the gold medal. Her routine had the highest difficulty score of any competitor, but she also earned the best execution score, and she ended up winning the gold medal by a margin of 15.6 to 15.2 over the nearest competitor.
She was injured soon after the Olympics, and spent 2 years working her way back to make sure she was ready to compete again at the highest level, and upon her return, it was clear that she was ready, and she immediately made the national team again. The team repeated as world champions in 2015, heading into the 2016 on a high note.
In the 2016 individual all-around, Gabby Douglas missed out on the final even though she was #3 in qualifying, because the two ahead of her were Americans Raisman and Simone Biles. In the final, Biles had the best score in three of the four sections, and Raisman was #2 in the same 3 events, putting those two far ahead of anyone else for the gold and the silver.
In the team event, the Americans were huge favorites due to having the top 3 qualifiers. Raisman was jokingly nicknamed "Grandma" by her teammates, due to her being the oldest on the team at 22. Raisman performed in 3 events in the final, and the USA had the best score in all 4 portions of the event, giving them a runaway gold medal, more than 8 points ahead of Russia.
She only qualified for one event final, the floor exercise, where she was the defending champion. Her final score ended up almost as high as in the previous Olympics, but Biles' difficulty score was so high that she took the gold by almost 0.5, with Raisman taking the silver.
She didn't compete again after the 2016 Olympics, but didn't officially retire until early 2020. Her 6 total Olympic medals are the third most by an American gymnast, and she very nearly had a 7th one. She was a master at the floor exercise, and twice finished among the top 4 in the individual all-around, making her one of the greatest Olympians of all time.
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