Then and Now: The 'Final Five' US Gymnastics team that won gold at the 2016 Olympics in Rio
- "The Final Five" USA Gymnastics squad dominated its competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
- Newcomers Simone Biles, Laurie Hernandez, and Madison Kocian joined "Fierce Five" members Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman to win gold in the team all-around event in Rio de Janeiro.
- The five stars also combined to win seven medals in the individual events — including three golds from Biles — and surged to fame in the process.
- Take a look back at the dominant "The Final Five" squad from the 2016 Olympics and check out what each member of the team has been up to since.
When most of us think of excellence in USA gymnastics, our minds probably first wander to Simone Biles and the 2016 Olympics team dubbed "The Final Five."
And it's for good reason — Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez, Madison Kocian, and Aly Raisman led Team USA to gold in the team all-around at the Rio de Janeiro games.
Raisman and Douglas were the veterans of the group, as they had won gold with "The Fierce Five" in London four years prior.
They were joined by three newcomers: Laurie Hernandez, Madison Kocian, and — of course — Simone Biles.
Altogether, the five gymnasts won seven individual medals in addition to their first-place finish in the team all-around event.
Aly Raisman, the captain of the team and its eldest member at 22 years old, won two of the seven individual medals.
She won silver on the floor exercise and finished second behind Biles in the individual all-around.
In 2017, Raisman came out as one of the many survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar.
She became the face of the fight for justice against Nassar and for transparency from USA Gymnastics.
Raisman read an impact statement when Nassar was sentenced in 2018, and she filed lawsuits against USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic Committee for failing to protect her and hundreds of other athletes.
Read more: Olympic star Aly Raisman files suit against USOC, USA Gymnastics claiming they 'knew or should have known' about abusive doctor
She announced early in 2020 that she wouldn't participate in the Tokyo Olympics, but she vowed to continue fighting to make the sport safer for all young gymnasts.
Like Raisman, Gabby Douglas already had one Olympics under her belt when she arrived in Rio.
But compared to the 2012 Olympics — when she won gold in the individual all-around — Douglas struggled to break through the crowded field.
Thanks to a rule that limited the number of athletes from any one team who could compete in the individual all-around, Douglas narrowly missed the opportunity to defend her all-around title from four years prior.
She qualified for the individual uneven bars final but missed the podium at seventh place.
Still, Douglas helped the team to its second-consecutive gold in the team all-around event and finished seventh in the uneven bar final that year.
In 2017, she came out as a survivor of Larry Nassar's sexual abuse alongside Raisman.
She stopped training after Rio, and in the years since, she has published an autobiography, spoken at various events, launched a Barbie doll, and much more.
And Douglas has since made numerous appearances on television, including appearing on "Undercover Boss" and winning "The Masked Dancer" as Cotton Candy in 2020.
By far the youngest of the group, Laurie Hernandez made "The Final Five" squad in her first year as a senior gymnast.
Known for her expressiveness and nicknamed "The Human Emoji," Hernandez had just turned 16 when the 2016 Olympics began.
Similar to Douglas in the all-around, Hernandez narrowly missed the individual floor event due to the two athletes per team rule.
She readily qualified for the balance beam finals, finishing second in qualifiers. And she ultimately won silver in the event, edging out Biles in the finals.
Hernandez also helped the team to all-around gold with performances on the balance beam, floor, and vault.
Since shining in Rio de Janeiro, Hernandez has made a name for herself outside of the gymnastics sphere. She competed on — and won — "Dancing with the Stars" shortly after the games.
Later, Hernandez appeared on "Celebrity Family Feud" and co-hosted "American Ninja Warrior Junior."
She's also appeared on a handful of children's television shows, including "Sesame Street."
As if she wasn't busy enough, Hernandez wrote two books in the years immediately following the Olympics.
And she's gathered quite a social media following — particularly on TikTok.
@lauriehernandez_♬ Runaway by Aurora - 🌸Despite staying busy outside of the gym, Hernandez opted to pick up training once again after her two-year hiatus.
She added some flair to her comeback by making pop-culture references during her routines.
Hernandez had her eye on the Tokyo Olympics, but a knee injury sustained during training kept her from qualifying for Olympic trials.
Madison Kocian was only 19 when she competed in Rio de Janeiro.
But unlike Hernandez, she went into the Olympic games with plenty of experience at the senior elite level despite her young age.
Known as a specialist on the uneven bars, Kocian won gold in the event at the World Championships a year before making "The Final Five."
And it wound up being the only individual event she competed in at the Rio games.
Kocian made the most of the opportunity, winning silver behind Russia's Aliya Mustafina.
In doing so, she became the first American to medal on the uneven bars since Nastia Liukin won silver eight years earlier.
Kocian also carried the US on uneven bars for the team all-around event, helping "The Final Five" to gold.
Kocian enrolled at UCLA a few months after collecting her two Olympic medals in Rio.
And she debuted for the Bruins' gymnastics team in January of the following year.
She helped UCLA win a national championship in 2018.
That same year, she and Bruins teammate Kyla Ross told the public that they were survivors of Larry Nassar's sexual abuse.
Source: AP
And after the COVID-19 pandemic brought her senior season with the Bruins to an abrupt end, Kocian retired from competitive gymnastics.
Source: ESPN
She has since graduated from UCLA and plans to pursue a career in medicine.
Source: Los Angeles Daily News
Rounding out "The Final Five" was another newcomer who you may be familiar with: Simone Biles.
The 4-foot-8 superstar led the charge for the US, winning four individual medals in her first Olympics appearance.
She won bronze on the balance beam...
... and three golds: one on floor, one on vault, and a third in the individual all-around.
Biles was undoubtedly Team USA's breakout star from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Read more: 33 jaw-dropping photos of Simone Biles, the most dominant athlete alive
And now, she's arguably the United States' top athlete heading into the Tokyo Olympics.
Somehow, Biles managed to improve upon her already unmatched abilities in the five years after Rio.
A feat made even more impressive by the fact that she spent two of those years away from the gym altogether.
In that span, Biles came forward as one of Larry Nassar's victims — meaning four of the five gymnasts on the US team were among the hundreds he assaulted.
She returned to competition in 2018 and picked up right where she left off.
She has four different skills named in her honor — one on vault, one on beam, and two on floor.
And, at the 2021 US Classic, she completed a vault so dangerous that no woman had ever tried it in competition before her.
Read more: Simone Biles nailed a vault so dangerous that no woman had ever tried it in competition before her
She's already won more World Championship medals than any other gymnast — man or woman — in the history of her sport.
And Tokyo will serve as her swan song, with Biles favored to win many of the gymnastics events at the games.
Now check out 33 stunning photos of Biles doing what she does best:
33 jaw-dropping photos of Simone Biles, the most dominant athlete alive
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Aldo Pusey
Update: 2024-06-24