Getty The gold medal-winning U.S. women's Olympic artistic gymnastics team from the 2016 Rio Games: Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez, Madison Kocian and Aly Raisman
During the last Olympic Games in 2016, the U.S. women’s Olympic artistic gymnastics team showed the world that it was a force to be reckoned with. The team, which was dubbed “the Final Five,” won the gold medal in the team competition. The win made for a back-to-back gold medal finish for the U.S. women at the Olympics, as the 2012 team was also the best at the London Olympics.
The team consisted of two returning Olympians in Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman in addition to Simone Biles, Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian — the trio competing at their first Games. Five years later, those five gymnasts remain connected by their success but have all gone their separate ways.
Here’s what the members of the Final Five have done since 2016 and are up to today:
Simone Biles
Biles is the lone member of the Final Five who made it to the Tokyo Olympics and has since solidified her status as the “GOAT” of gymnastics — the greatest of all time. According to USA Gymnastics, she currently has four skills named after her: the Biles on vault, the Biles on balance beam and the Biles and Biles II on floor exercise.
Barring any setbacks at the ongoing Games in Tokyo, Biles will have another vault named after her when she performs the Yurchenko double pike.
Biles recently ended her partnership with Nike in April, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, instead choosing to partner with Athleta, an athletic apparel company that “that she says more closely reflects her values.”
In an interview with “Today,” the five-time Olympic medalist mentioned that one reason she chose to remain in the sport, not retire and pursue the Tokyo Olympics was to hold USA Gymnastics accountable. She is one of the many gymnasts who were sexually abused by former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, and she said she realized that the sport itself wasn’t the only thing she was “supposed to come back for.”
“I just feel like, everything that happened, I had to come back to the sport to be a voice, to have change happen,” Biles said. “Because I feel like, if there weren’t a remaining survivor in the sport, they would’ve just brushed it to the side. But since I’m still here — and I have quite a social media presence and platform — they have to do something. So I feel like, coming back, gymnastics wasn’t the only purpose I was supposed to do. ”
Gabby Douglas
When Douglas won the Olympic gold medal for the women’s all-around competition at the 2012 Games, she became the first Black woman to win the contest. Douglas was also a member of the gold medal-winning team at the 2016 Olympics.
Rio marked the last time Douglas competed in the sport, but she has not formally retired.
In February, Douglas was one of the contestants on Fox’s competitive reality show “The Masked Dancer.” The two-time Olympian competed on the series as “Cotton Candy” and was the show’s first-ever winner.
Laurie Hernandez
The youngest member of the Final Five, Hernandez achieved individual success at Rio when she won the silver medal on balance beam, finishing in front of Biles.
Following the Rio Games, Hernandez took some time away from the sport. She returned to competition in February with the intent of making the Olympic team for a second time. Her comeback was cut short in June when she suffered various knee injuries at U.S. Championships, as she was then unable to qualify for Olympic Trials.
this is super random but like… i got a bone bruise, fluid, a cyst and torn meniscus from that dismount landing in championships & just realized i never gave y’all a knee update
Despite not being on the Olympic team, Hernandez is still in Tokyo for the Games. According to a press release from NBC Sports Pressbox, Hernandez is a gymnastics studio analyst for “Tokyo Live” on NBC’s streaming service, Peacock.
She revealed in a recent TikTok post that, next year, she will be attending college, studying acting/drama. No mention of a school was included. But Hernandez also noted that she sings and plays guitar.
Madison Kocian
The uneven bars specialist took home silver on that respective apparatus in addition to her team gold. Following the Rio Games, Kocian enrolled at UCLA and competed for its gymnastics team, joining 2012 Olympian Kyla Ross.
In 2020, Kocian graduated from UCLA. According to her LinkedIn profile, she studied psychology and pre-medicine and has an interest in orthopedic medicine. An article from the Los Angeles Daily News said Kocian plans to become a physician assistant, as she “enjoys the problem-solving aspect of working with injured athletes.”
At UCLA, Kocian battled injuries throughout her time there but helped the Bruins win the 2018 national championship. The title, according to UCLA Athletics, made the two-time Olympic medalist the second-ever female gymnast to have won an Olympic, World and NCAA championship — the first being Ross.
Now retired from the sport following her collegiate career, Kocian has a gymnastics leotard line with the company Sylvia P.
Aly Raisman
Raisman first became a household name when she competed at the 2012 Olympics. She, like her teammate Douglas, became a two-time Olympian when she was named to the 2016 Olympic team.
At Rio, she increased her Olympic medal count to six. In addition to the gold medal for the team competition, Raisman earned the silver medal for the all-around and floor exercise, finishing behind Biles in both contests. The 2016 Games marked the final time she competed in gymnastics. In January 2020, Raisman announced her retirement in an Instagram post.
Recently, the two-time Olympian was in the headlines again when her dog, Mylo, went missing but has since been found.
Raisman is partnered with Aerie, an apparel retailer that is owned by American Eagle Outfitters. Her latest line, “OFFLINE by Aerie x Aly Raisman Collection,” debuted in the spring. In a featurette video, she said that the designs draw inspiration from nature and animals.
As mentioned on the Aerie website, “15% of sales of each item (up to $60k) will be donated to Darkness to Light, a non-profit committed to empowering adults to prevent child sexual abuse.”
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Final Five: Where Is the US 2016 Gymnastics Team Now?