Laurie Hernandez | Biography, Career, & Facts | Britannica (2024)

Laurie Hernandez (born June 9, 2000, Old Bridge Township, New Jersey, U.S.) is an American gymnast who participated in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Hernandez and her teammates Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, and Madison Kocian, dubbed the “Final Five,” won the women’s artistic gymnastics team gold medal. Hernandez also captured an individual silver medal in the balance beam event.

Hernandez was born to Puerto Rican parents in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She grew up in Old Bridge Township, New Jersey, and began practicing gymnastics in 2005. At the age of nine, after testing high in basic skills and physical abilities, she was invited to attend development camps sponsored by USA Gymnastics, the national governing body for the sport. Beginning in 2012 she competed in national competitions at the junior level. In 2015 she won the junior all-around title at both the U.S. Classic and the U.S. national championships.

Hernandez moved to the senior elite (the highest) level of competitive gymnastics in 2016. At the U.S. national championships that year she placed third in the all-around. In addition, she won the bronze medal in the uneven bars and the balance beam and tied for the bronze in the floor exercise. Later that year, at the U.S. Olympic trials, she placed second behind Biles in the all-around. Hernandez also won the balance beam and took third in the floor exercise. Her stellar performance earned her a coveted spot on the Olympic women’s squad that became known as the “Final Five.” Hernandez was the youngest member of the U.S. team by three years and the only athlete selected to the team who was competing in her first year as a senior-level gymnast. She was also the first U.S. Latina gymnast to qualify for the Olympics. In the team event final in Rio, Hernandez turned in strong scores in the vault, balance beam, and floor exercise to help the U.S. women win the gold medal by more than eight points over their nearest competitors, Russia. In the individual balance beam event, Hernandez was nearly flawless. She posted a score of 15.333, finishing a close second to the gold medalist, Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands (15.466), and ahead of Biles (14.733), who claimed the bronze.

Hernandez took a break from gymnastics after the Rio Olympics. She appeared on television shows, including the dance competition Dancing with the Stars, which she won with her professional partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, in 2016. Hernandez is the youngest winner of the show, being just 16 years old at the time. She chronicled her life in the book I Got This: To Gold and Beyond (2017) and released a children’s picture book titled She’s Got This (2018). Hernandez was honoured for her accomplishments by her home state when she was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2018. She was also noted for her outspokenness about the importance of athletes’ mental health. In 2020 Hernandez opened up about emotional abuse she had faced from her former coach, Maggie Haney, during the 11 years she had participated in gymnastics. Haney was subsequently suspended from coaching for eight years. Hernandez has been dating fellow gymnast Charlotte Drury since 2020.

In 2019 Hernandez began training for competitions again. She entered the U.S. national championships in 2021 but withdrew from the competition after suffering a knee injury. She did not compete that year at the U.S. Olympic trials, which, along with the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, had been delayed by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hernandez provided television commentary during the gymnastics competition at the Tokyo Games.