50 Fun Facts About Aly Raisman

Whose nervous squirming in the stands became a viral NBC clip during Aly Raisman's 2012 Olympic bars routine?

Her parents, Lynn and Rick, shifted in their seats and pleaded for a stuck landing, and the clip passed 25,000 YouTube views within days.

Which family nickname did Aly Raisman's 2016 Olympic teammates give her as the squad's oldest member?

Grandma Aly was only 22, but she turned in early at night and once had to ask a teammate what a texting abbreviation meant.

Which nickname did Aly Raisman's 2012 Olympic team pick for itself on a bus ride to training?

Fierce Five won out when two teammates searched their phones for words starting with F, after a Michigan basketball star objected to the team's first label.

Which Disney Channel star finished two places ahead of Aly Raisman on Dancing with the Stars in 2013?

Zendaya was runner-up to country singer Kellie Pickler, with an NFL wide receiver third and Raisman fourth after dancing in the final.

Which celebratory folk song, a staple of weddings, did Aly Raisman choose as her 2012 Olympic floor music?

Hava Nagila is a Hebrew song of celebration written in 1918, and Raisman, who is Jewish, traded it for a different folk medley at her next Olympics.

In which country did Aly Raisman make her international debut, seven years before competing at an Olympics there?

Brazil hosted the 2009 Junior Pan American Championships in the coastal city of Aracaju, where Raisman won team gold and two individual event titles.

Which band's 2018 music video features Aly Raisman in a T-shirt urging people to speak their truth?

Maroon 5 cast Raisman in the Girls Like You video alongside more than twenty other famous women, from Olympic champions to actresses and a talk-show host.

Which 2019 action film gave Aly Raisman a cameo as one of its newly recruited agents?

Charlie's Angels lines Raisman up with its other new recruits, cameos that include an Olympic snowboarding champion and a beauty mogul.

Which magazine put Aly Raisman's whole 2012 Olympic team on its cover, a first for a gymnastics squad?

Sports Illustrated had never before put an entire Olympic gymnastics team on its cover, and had not shown any gymnast there since 1996.

On which apparatus did Aly Raisman become the first American woman to win Olympic gold, in 2012?

Floor gold had eluded every American woman until Raisman scored 15.600 in London, four-tenths clear of the runner-up.

Which teammate beat Aly Raisman to the all-around gold medal at the 2016 Olympics, leaving her with silver?

Simone Biles finished more than two points clear, and Raisman's silver came four years after a tie-break had cost her an all-around medal.

Which defending Olympic all-around champion missed the 2016 final after Aly Raisman outscored her in qualifying?

Gabby Douglas placed third in qualifying, but only two gymnasts per country may advance, so Raisman's higher score ended her title defense.

Which role did teammates give Aly Raisman, the oldest gymnast on both of her Olympic squads?

Team captain was an elected job, and her teammates voted her in at 18 for London and again at 22 for Rio.

Which nickname belongs to the 1996 U.S. gymnastics team whose taped routines inspired a young Aly Raisman?

Magnificent Seven tapes hooked Raisman, who began gymnastics at eighteen months old and watched the 1996 champions over and over on VHS.

Which country finished second behind Aly Raisman's U.S. team in both the 2012 and 2016 Olympic team finals?

Russia trailed by 5.066 points in London and by more than eight in Rio, having also taken silver behind the Americans at the 2011 world championships.

Which team name did Aly Raisman's 2016 Olympic squad reveal only after clinching gold in Rio?

Final Five was picked before the Games and kept secret, and it marked the end of five-woman Olympic teams, which shrank to four for 2020.

What did Aly Raisman publish in 2024 under the title From My Head to My Toes?

A picture book illustrated by Bea Jackson, it gives children as young as three a first lesson in consent and bodily autonomy.

In which European country was Aly Raisman's longtime coach born, a land where her own family has roots?

Romania is where her coach was born, in the city of Timișoara, and where Raisman's Jewish family traces its roots.

Which American Eagle sister brand signed Aly Raisman in 2017 and later sold her activewear collection?

Aerie, which stopped digitally retouching its models in 2014, began working with Raisman in 2017 and released her activewear line in 2021.

Which children's charity named Aly Raisman a Kid Power Champion in the year of her second Olympics?

UNICEF built Kid Power around activity bands, and the steps children logged unlocked packets of therapeutic food for malnourished kids overseas.

Which ESPY honor did Aly Raisman and more than 140 fellow abuse survivors receive on stage in 2018?

The Arthur Ashe Courage Award went to the whole group, who filled a Los Angeles stage together while Raisman and two others spoke for them.

Which body heard Aly Raisman testify in 2021 that FBI agents had mishandled gymnasts' abuse reports?

The U.S. Senate heard her alongside three fellow gymnasts, and the FBI director followed them to the witness table with a public apology.

Which two-time champion professional partnered Aly Raisman on Dancing with the Stars in spring 2013?

Mark Ballas steered her to fourth place, one season after she had joined her Olympic teammates in Shawn Johnson's freestyle on the same show.

In which Boston suburb did Aly Raisman grow up and graduate from the local high school in 2012?

Needham, Massachusetts, is where she was born, the eldest of four children of a mother who had been a high school gymnast herself.

Which coach trained Aly Raisman from the age of ten through both of her Olympic Games?

Mihai Brestyan coached at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics and entered the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2017.

Which retiring national team coordinator chose Aly Raisman's 2016 Olympic team as her last squad?

Márta Károlyi and her husband Béla had trained nine Olympic champions between them before she bowed out after the Rio Games.

Which reigning world all-around champion missed the 2012 Olympic final after Aly Raisman outscored her in qualifying?

Jordyn Wieber placed fourth overall in qualifying yet was only the third American, so she had to sit out the final; she later became a college head coach.

What lifted Aly Raisman from fourth place to a bronze medal in the 2012 Olympic balance beam final?

A score inquiry added a tenth to her difficulty value, tying her with a rival, and Raisman took the medal because her execution mark was higher.

Which cereal maker sponsored the 40-city gymnastics tour on which Aly Raisman bruised both knees in 2012?

Kellogg's backed the post-Olympic tour, where Raisman fell from the uneven bars and landed off the mats soon after a teammate was hurt on the same bars.

Which future star of The Bachelor dated Aly Raisman after asking her out in a 2016 video?

Colton Underwood spent time on NFL practice squads before television, and the pair dated until 2017, ahead of his turn leading the dating show's 23rd season.

Which university's gymnastics scholarship did Aly Raisman give up when she turned professional in 2011?

Florida lost its recruit when she signed with a sports agency that November, ending her NCAA eligibility eight months before her first Olympics.

Which business-focused school in Massachusetts did Aly Raisman attend in 2013 before returning to gymnastics?

Babson College, in Wellesley, specializes in teaching entrepreneurship, and she enrolled there during her break from competition after London.

At which international sports festival in Jerusalem did Aly Raisman light the cauldron at the 2013 opening ceremony?

The Maccabiah Games, often called the Jewish Olympics, bring Jewish athletes from around the world to Israel every four years.

After her last 2012 Olympic final, Aly Raisman backed a moment of silence for Israelis killed at which city's Games?

Munich was where eleven Israeli athletes and coaches were murdered at the 1972 Games, and Raisman called winning on the 40th anniversary special.

Which 1990s star was the only American gymnast with more Olympic medals than Aly Raisman after the 2016 Games?

Shannon Miller won seven Olympic medals across the 1992 and 1996 Games, one more than Raisman's six.

Which bottled water brand, sourced in Maine, gave Aly Raisman her first major endorsement deal in 2012?

Poland Spring is sold mainly in the Northeast, which made the gymnast from New England a natural fit in the year of her first Olympics.

Which cable network aired Aly Raisman: Darkness to Light, a 2021 documentary special about healing from abuse?

Lifetime's three-hour special followed Raisman as she met other abuse survivors, and it shares its name with a nonprofit she works with.

How did Aly Raisman finish her senior year of high school while training for the 2012 Olympics?

With online classes she still graduated in 2012, the same year she won two Olympic gold medals in London.

What did Aly Raisman's coach require for a full year before letting her back on any apparatus?

Conditioning work alone filled that year of her comeback, and the patient rebuild ended with three more Olympic medals at the age of 22.

A tie-break cost Aly Raisman the 2012 Olympic all-around bronze by dropping which part of each gymnast's total?

Her lowest apparatus score was discarded, so each gymnast's best three events were added up and Raisman's total came out 0.567 lower.

Which gymnast took the 2012 Olympic all-around bronze from Aly Raisman on a tie-break after matching her total?

Aliya Mustafina also scored 59.566, and the pair shared an Olympic all-around podium four years later, when Raisman stood one step above her.

Which vault, named for a seven-time Olympic medalist, did Aly Raisman debut at the 2011 U.S. Classic?

The Amanar packs two and a half twists into one backward somersault, and its high difficulty value gave the 2012 U.S. team an early Olympic lead.

Which California city hosted both U.S. Olympic Trials, in 2012 and 2016, where Aly Raisman made the team?

San Jose staged both trials in the same downtown arena, and Raisman placed third in the all-around each time.

Aly Raisman's 2016 Olympic team won gold by the widest margin since which nation's victory in 1960?

The Soviet Union won that 1960 final by nearly nine points, a gap no team approached until the Americans finished more than eight clear in Rio.

In which city did Aly Raisman win her second World Championships team gold, in 2015?

Glasgow's championships were the first ever held in Scotland, and the Americans took the team title by more than five points over China.

Which Beijing 2008 silver medalist trained under the same coaches as Aly Raisman at their Massachusetts club?

Alicia Sacramone stayed with the same husband-and-wife coaches for her whole career and won world titles on two different apparatus.

Which September 2012 television ceremony featured an appearance by Aly Raisman and her gold-medal Olympic teammates?

The MTV Video Music Awards came a month after London, in a whirlwind that also took the team to the White House and around a 40-city tour.

In which country did Aly Raisman win the City of Jesolo Trophy all-around weeks after her 2010 senior debut?

Italy's seaside resort of Jesolo, in the Venice area, hosts the meet each spring, and Raisman returned four more times, the last in 2016.

Which Danish jewelry brand, known for charm bracelets, signed Aly Raisman to an endorsement deal in 2012?

Pandora signed her in the year of her first Olympics, when her first big sponsor, a bottled water company, also came aboard.

Whose closing bell did Aly Raisman and her 2012 Olympic teammates ring during their post-Games media tour?

The New York Stock Exchange bell came during a week of talk-show visits, and that November the team met the president at the White House.