Laurie Hernandez

Personal life

Hernandez is the daughter of Wanda and Anthony Hernandez and has a sister, Jelysa, and a brother, Marcus. She is of Puerto Rican descent and lives in Old Bridge Township, New Jersey, known for its cross country team. Hernandez is Christian and credits her positive nature to God molding her every day. She has collaborated with the Dolan Twins for a video on their YouTube channel.

2012

Hernandez's elite career started in 2012 at the U.S. Classic, where she placed 11th in the junior division at the age of 12. Through the Classic, she qualified to the National Championships in St. Louis, where she placed 21st after two days of competition.

2013

Hernandez's first meet of the 2013 season was the WOGA Classic, where she placed second in the all-around. In June, she competed at the American Classic in Huntsville, Texas. There, she placed first on floor exercise, second in the all-around behind Ariana Agrapides, and third on balance beam and vault.

In early July, Hernandez was added to the U.S. Junior National Team. She then went to Chicago for the U.S. Classic, where she placed sixth all-around and won the floor exercise title. At the National Championships in August, she won the silver medal in the junior all-around competition with a total score of 116.650, behind Bailie Key. She also placed second on uneven bars and floor exercise, and tied for third on beam with Alexis Vasquez.

In September, Hernandez was selected to represent the U.S. at the Junior Japan International in Yokohama. She scored 56.750 to win the bronze medal in the all-around. She also took third on vault, fourth on floor exercise, and sixth on balance beam. Later in 2013, she competed at the International Junior Mexican Cup in Acapulco and helped the U.S. team—Hernandez, Key, Veronica Hults, and Emily Gaskins—win the gold medal. She also took second place in the all-around behind Key.

2014

In early 2014, Hernandez fractured her wrist when she slipped off the beam in a training session. She returned to competition soon after the injury but then suffered a torn patellar tendon and dislocated kneecap, resulting in six months out of gymnastics. She resumed training in the fall and attended the final U.S. training camp of the year in November.

2015

Hernandez was named to the U.S. team for the 2015 City of Jesolo Trophy, where she was crowned junior all-around champion with a score of 57.650, ahead of teammates Norah Flatley and Jazmyn Foberg. In the junior-division event finals, she earned additional gold medals on the uneven bars, with a score of 14.500, and the floor exercise, with a score of 14.650.

At the 2015 U.S. Classic in July, Hernandez won the junior all-around title with a score of 58.450, as well as winning vault (14.900) and uneven bars (15.000). She placed third on balance beam (14.200) and floor exercise (14.350, tied with Deanne Soza).

At the National Championships, she had a score of 57.900 on the first day of competition and 59.550 on the second day, winning the junior all-around title over defending champion Foberg. She also won the title on the uneven bars with a combined two-day score of 30.100, silver on the floor exercise, and bronze on balance beam and vault.

Hernandez was then selected to compete at the 2015 International Junior Japan Meet in Yokohama, where she won the all-around, floor exercise, and vault and earned silver medals on balance beam and uneven bars.

Senior career

Hernandez made her senior debut in 2016. In March, she competed at the City of Jesolo Trophy in Jesolo, Italy, earning the bronze medal in the all-around with a score of 58.550, behind two U.S. teammates, fellow first-year senior Ragan Smith and Gabby Douglas, the 2012 Olympic all-around champion. She also earned a silver medal on vault and a gold medal on balance beam, ahead of Smith and 2012 Olympian Aly Raisman.

In April, Hernandez competed at the Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships in Everett, Washington along with Raisman, Smith, three-time world all-around champion Simone Biles, and 2015 World Championships team member Brenna Dowell. She contributed an all-around score of 59.800 toward the American team's first-place finish and placed third individually behind Biles and Raisman, but did not earn the all-around bronze medal because of a rule limiting medals to two gymnasts per country (Japan's Nagi Kajita took bronze instead). Hernandez also qualified for the balance beam final, but USA Gymnastics announced that she and Biles would not compete in event finals in order to rest them before the Olympics.

In June, Hernandez competed at the U.S. Classic on bars only, scoring 15.400. Later that month, she competed all four events at the National Championships. At the end of night one, she was tied for second place in the all-around with Raisman, behind Biles, with a score of 60.450. On night two, she scored 14.800 on vault, 15.150 on uneven bars, 15.300 on balance beam, and 14.800 on floor exercise. She finished the two-day competition in third all-around, behind Biles and Raisman. She placed third on uneven bars and balance beam, and tied for third on floor exercise with MyKayla Skinner.

At the Olympic Trials in early July, Hernandez placed second in the all-around, behind Biles. She was named to the Olympic team alongside Biles, Douglas, Raisman and Madison Kocian.

2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics

On August 7, Hernandez competed in the Women's Qualification at the 2016 Summer Olympics where the top 8 placing teams get to advance to the Team All Around Finals. Hernandez scored a 15.200 on the vault, a 15.366 on the balance beam, and a 14.800 on the floor exercise, qualifying to the balance beam event finals. Martha Karolyi decided not to put Hernandez onto the bars lineup in qualification due to Gabby Douglas and Madison Kocian both being brought onto the team to maximize their score on bars and Aly Raisman having more consistent training sessions on bars. She also posted the fourth highest score on floor, but did not advance to the final due to Biles and Raisman getting higher scores. August 9 was the Team All Around Finals meaning each country had 3 girls compete on each event and all scores counted. The US team, known as the Final Five, won the gold medal in the Team All Around. Hernandez contributed to the team by scoring 15.100 on vault, 15.233 on beam and 14.833 on floor. On August 15 during Event Finals, Hernandez won a silver medal on the Balance Beam with a score of 15.333. She placed ahead of teammate Simone Biles, who placed 3rd with a score of 14.733 and behind Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands, who won gold with a score of 15.466.

Professional

In 2014, Hernandez committed to the University of Florida to compete on the Florida Gators gymnastics program in the NCAA. However, she decided to forgo NCAA eligibility and become a professional athlete on August 3, 2016, in the lead up to the Olympic Games.

Dancing with the Stars

Hernandez was revealed as one of the celebrities competing on season 23 of Dancing with the Stars on August 30, 2016. She was partnered with professional dancer Valentin Chmerkovskiy. The couple won the Mirrorball Trophy on the episode that aired November 22, 2016. At 16, Hernandez is currently the show's youngest winner.

¹ Score given by guest judge Pitbull.
² Score given by guest judge Idina Menzel.

Other television appearances

Hernandez has appeared on many talk shows: The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Entertainment Tonight, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Access Hollywood Live, Omg! Insider, Hollywood Today Live, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!

On November 24, 2016, she appeared on the 90th anniversary of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. She was on the Spirit of America float.

Books

On October 31, 2016, Hernandez announced her book on her Instagram called I Got This: To Gold and Beyond. The release date was January 24, 2017. On February 1, Hernandez shared on Instagram and Twitter that she became a New York Times Best Selling Author for her book.