Laurie Hernandez Becomes a Star With Floor Exercise in Team Finals

Laurie Hernandez, Laurie Hernandez floor routine, Final Five team, Laurie Hernandez Rio

Laurie Hernandez gave a star-making performance in her floor routine. (Getty)

New Jersey’s Laurie Hernandez is the youngest member of Team USA women’s gymnastics at the Rio Olympics. The 16-year-old is performing in the floor exercise, vault and balance beam for the team during the Team Finals. The full performance is here.

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During the qualifying round on day two of the Olympics, Hernandez scored 14.800 in the floor exercise and received a 15.366 score on the balance beam. She is not competing for the women’s individual all-around.

In the team finals, Hernandez got a 15.100 on the vault, 15.233 on the balance beam and 14.833 on the floor. Her floor routine started a bit shaky, but she held it together to give a great performance. Her life is definitely going to be different from now on.

The “Final Five” finished with a 184.897 score, eight points ahead of Russia. China won the bronze.

Hernandez does have a gold medal as a member of Team USA from the 2016 Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championship. She was also a star junior gymnast and first gained attention in 2012, when she came in 21st in the national championships.

A year later, when she was 13, she came in second. She did suffer an injury that sidelined her in 2014, but she came back with a vengeance, winning gold in all-around and uneven bars at the national championships that year.