Paige Spiranac is well-known for being a professional golfer as well as being a social media personality. She was born in 1993 and grew up in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, to an athletic family of Croatian origin. Paige Spiranac has made a name for herself as one of the game’s biggest stars and now has over two million followers on her Instagram account. Many people are left wondering, what’s her ultimate goal? Paige just wants to be taken seriously as a professional golfer and sports ambassador.

As a child, Paige Spiranac was an exceptional gymnast. She was training daily with her sights set firmly on future Olympics, but she suffered a knee injury that eventually forced her out of the sport. So how good was she exactly in gymnastics? In spite of her young age, it was her talent and ability that allowed her to skip from level six to the Elites, earning an invitation from Karolyi Ranch – the training center for the USA’s Olympic gymnastics feeder system.

It was while she was recovering from her injury at the age of 12, that Paige decided it was time to retire from gymnastics, but she still wanted to try her hand at professional sports. After experimenting in different sports, she eventually fell in love with the game of golf. Even in the early years of her golf career, it became apparent that she had a knack for it, as she won five tournaments out of seven on Colorado’s junior golf circuit, including the 2010 CWGA Junior Stroke Play.

This was the beginning of her journey to become one of the top-20 junior players in the world, a top-five college recruit, two-time West Region Player of the Year as well as first-team All-American as a member of the Future Collegians World Tour. Paige Spiranac continued to play golf while studying at San Diego State University. While in University, she won the All-Mountain West Conference honors during the 2012-2014 seasons and led the Aztecs to their first Mountain West Conference Championship.

Paige Spiranac believes that there are very few golfers who will draw people to television screens to watch live golf once Tiger Woods retires from the sport. “Golf has been great since Tiger Woods won the Tour Championship, and he won The Masters, and his coming back into the spotlight,” said Spiranac. “More people are now coming to tournaments, and it’s picking up again, but what’s going to happen when he is done playing? Who are people going to want to watch on TV?”

Paige is still fresh on the golf scene, and because of her good looks, she has caught the attention of many – whether it’s because of her talent or her appearance, we’re not sure; maybe it’s a combination of the two. Many of her critics have suggested that her appearance is tokenistic. She originally started her Instagram account to post trick shot videos, but now she’s got a much bigger audience. More recently, Paige announced she’s joining GOLF magazine and GOLF.com as a contributor.

To express her position on golf, Spiranac describes herself as, “A rising golf talent, media personality, and online influencer who’s on a mission to show the world how much fun golf can be.” She really seems to be enjoying herself. One of the things she has done is make golf seem at least slightly more exciting to a whole new crowd of people who never thought about it at all. With her rise to fame across different media platforms, it seems that her reach and popularity is undeniable.

One of the fantastic things she has accomplished with her influence is to establish herself as an anti-bullying personality. She references being bullied often as a youth and how it has shaped her current career and lifestyle. Paige is passionate about making a change when it comes to stopping bullying, primarily online and cyberbullying. She has become an official ambassador for The Cybersmile Foundation. She often speaks openly about her personal experiences when it comes to being bullied throughout her childhood, college, and golf career.

On top of her Instagram account, Paige maintains an active blog where she explains her rise to success. It was after her successful junior career when Paige attended San Diego State University that she began to gain influence, she served as the captain of the women’s golf team in addition to being on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. This was also when her Instagram account started blowing up. After she graduated, she knew she had to give professional golf some serious effort.

On her blog and Instagram page, she dishes out physical fitness and health tips as well as golf strategy and swing tips. When people have criticized her for being so active on social media, she responded, “When it comes to the golf world, I know that there are people that might see me as a publicity gimmick,” she says. “I don’t think I am, and I know that If I was a guy and I had the same social following, people wouldn’t call it a gimmick. They’d say it was great.”

It was at the Dubai Desert Classic Golf Tournament in 2015 when promoters broke with convention by hiring her as the first woman to introduce the players and start the tournament. She was only 24 years old at the time, and no one seemed upset or concerned that she was the first woman to take the microphone in place of the usual European Tour man. It seemed like things were progressing in the golf industry and it was after this appearance, people started to take notice of her.

Her coming into view in Dubai has been the core of Spiranac’s story. As a player of humble status in the United States, invitations and the request to play in the Ladies European Tour events in 2015 and 2016 triggered global headlines. While she isn’t a consistent player on the LPGA or other professional circuits, she has played in professional golf tournaments and does so somewhat regularly. She partners with brands like Callaway, Descente, Topgolf, Golf Digest, and TheCHIVE on media projects.

She was proclaimed as a kind of social media sensation. An executive at the Emirates Golf Club commented, “The game must open up to ‘savvy, social-media types’ to attract new talent to the sport.” Paige isn’t afraid of the limelight, and by now, she’s having fun in front of millions. From hosting fun golf clinics to partnering with companies like Barstool Sports, Topgolf, and 18Birdies on exciting, innovative events, Paige is always looking for ways to add a little more spice to what some consider a boring sport.

Paige is also an outspoken proponent of women’s empowerment. She’s encouraging women to be themselves, fight for what they believe, and to embrace their true calling in life. As she plays in a male-dominated sport, these values are fundamental to Paige. One of the ways that Spiranac empowers women is by hosting events and workshops, supporting other incredible young women, and posting inspirational messages. Paige hopes to help women not only to discover the game of golf but also to feel empowered to achieve their wildest dreams.

Paige often has to defend her position in the sport, explaining, “People like to think I got where I am because of how I look or the clothes that I wear. That’s unfair to all of my accomplishments and me. I don’t know any other professional golfer that does as much community service as me. For people to comment: ‘You only show some cleavage, that’s why you have what you have,’ is uncalled for. That’s the treatment that we as women have to face every day, and I see it a lot in golf.”

Paige’s experience playing in Dubai proved only to be a sign of more difficulties and obstacles as her public profile and personal life overlapped. She was targeted and threatened on the very social media platforms that had given her popularity and celebrity. “I was harassed, and even my family was harassed,” Spiranac said. “I was receiving death threats, and people were invading my privacy, I was being blackmailed. This was going on while I was trying to be play golf.”

Why all the furor over her Instagram feed? “Because I look different than the average golfer, maybe? I dress differently than most golfers, and I don’t follow convention when it comes to what golf is supposed to be. I think it is a fantastic sport, but I believe there is a specific point of view that needs to change. I think it needs to become more inclusive, more forward-thinking. For me to speak out about that, it does bring on more hate, but it also starts a conversation, and I can create change.”

Paige has been interviewed about her thoughts on being a woman in professional golf and added, “I’m just trying to get others to feel more comfortable because I know for a long time I wasn’t alone feeling that way. That’s why people are not getting into golf. It’s such a male-dominated game, it has been around for so long. There are traditions, and people want their traditions to change. When a woman comes in wearing leggings instead of trousers, it is like the world is ending.”

Among her successes, Paige was selected to appear in the 2018 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, a huge honor for any athlete or model! Despite her triumphs, she still faces a lot of criticism, “I always felt like I never belonged and it is tough because I am a good player, I know what to do, but I still don’t like going to new clubs because I am worried someone will comment and say my skirt is too short or I don’t have a collar. Why should that matter?”

The feeling among her fellow and former pro golfers seems to be that she was given opportunities inconsistent with her talent. Spiranac is well aware of dismissive attitudes towards her in the upper ranks of women’s golf. “Life is great for them on tour, and that’s awesome, but we need to think about everyday golfers.” Paige’s passion for growing the game and stamping out discrimination and bullying is impressive. Whether she can prompt any transformation, she believes fundamental changes remain to be seen.

Paige grew up in an athletic and competitive family. Her father, Dan, was a member of the 1976 Pittsburgh Panthers national championship college football team, and her mother, Annette, was a professional ballerina. Her older sister Lexie also received a college athletic scholarship, competing on Stanford’s track team. Since she was little, Paige’s parents encouraged her to participate in sports. Paige was a sheltered child, as her parents decided to homeschool her from fourth grade, she didn’t have many friends her age growing up.

Paige loves her parents but confessed that there was a time that she was intimidated by them. From a young age, they instilled in Paige the notion of always aspiring to be your absolute best, and she took that advice to heart as she pushed herself to the limit instead of enjoying typical childhood experiences. The pressure of being a child gymnast exacerbated Paige’s self-esteem issues. Admittedly, it was this same pressure from her parents that gave her the drive and motivation to succeed and eventually become a professional golfer.

She is considered the “Kournikova of golf,” apart from this, she revealed another dark side of being too bold in the spotlight. She revealed that her ex-boyfriend shared some of her intimate photos with his friends. She received messages about her nude photos which spiraled Paige into a depression and made a statement through her podcast, Playing A Round:”People always warn you not to take this type of photos. The idea might sound fun and spontaneous, but is it worth the risk?”

Paige also has a YouTube channel, she posts weekly videos discussing anything from golf tips to popular culture, or even her personal goals in golf. It’s an inspiring and entertaining look into the world around professional golf. Her golf tips range from in-depth, professional lessons where she is aiming to help consistent golfers fine-tune individual parts of their game. Her video playlists go as far back as the introductory basics to golf, designed to be watched by beginners just getting into the game.

In her early golf career, Paige won five tournaments in seven tries on Colorado’s junior golf circuit, including the 2010 CWGA Junior Stroke Play. She earned a spot in the top-20 junior player rankings in the world, a top-5 college recruit, and a two-time West Region Player of the Year and first-team All-American as a member of the Future Collegians World Tour. Her efforts as a junior earned her a scholarship to the University of Arizona. If we remember correctly, she graduated from San Diego State University…so what happened?

After her freshman year she decided to leave the University of Arizona, so Paige transferred to San Diego State for her sophomore year, seeking a change of environment. Paige only competed in three events for the Arizona Wildcats during her time there, this was in the season of 2011-2012. The events included the Northwestern University Women’s Tournament and the Wildcat Invitational. Her best score of that season was a 73, which she reached twice during the women’s tournament.

It seems that her move was a change for the better as in her sophomore year, her game saw significant improvement. In the 2012–2013 season, she earned First-Team All-Mountain West honors, finished in fifth-place at the Cal Classic, at sixth at the Mountain West Championship, and nineteenth at the NCAA Central Regional Championships. At this time, we can already see Paige’s steady rise to prominence as a professional athlete, and her rapid social media fame soon garnered her a few endorsements with sponsors, like Callaway Golf.

Following her sophomore year, exciting things were expected for Paige and the Aztecs – but it was hard to top the fantastic success she had in her sophomore year. Her junior season in 2013–2014 resulted in Second-Team All-Mountain West Honors, together with a top ten finish at the Mountain West Championship. Her senior season with the Aztecs’ first Mountain West Conference Championship saw her ending her time at college, which she described as “one of the best times of my life.”

It was in her senior year, a website by the name of Total Frat Move, encouraged fans to check out Spiranac’s trick shot golf videos. Her following went up from 10,000 to over 100,000 in a matter of days. It was this explosion on social media that led to her being invited to play in the Omega Dubai Ladies Classic in 2015. She may have missed the cut, but the online attention resulted in many sponsorship deals. Golf Digest said that most of Spiranac’s fans are males in the age range of 15 to 30.

The Colorado Golf Association hosted its annual Colorado Women’s Golf Association Match Play Championship In July 2015. In a 35-hole title match against Brittany Fan of the University of Colorado Boulder, Paige finished nine holes under par. Her 2016 golfing season saw her finishing the season with $8,010 in winnings and another invitation to Dubai. Paige competed in the 2016 Colorado Women’s Open, placing ninth at one-under-par and earning $1,750. It’s interesting to think about winning that little in a professional sports tournament, but this was just the start of her career.

When we think of pro sports or amateur sports, we’re thinking either no prize money or several thousands of dollars. But Paige has currently signed deals with 18Birdies, Mizzen + Main, and Philip Stein Watches. She has also been featured in magazines such as the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition as well as Golf Digest. Nowadays, she’s writing a monthly column in Golf magazine. Her golf career is still evolving, but we likely won’t see her on a golf tour again…

Paige Spiranac was recently speaking on her own podcast Playing A Round when she opened up about her experience of dating and how she was so desperate to be liked, she used to be okay with it all. Spiranac discussed how men would ask her out and would then suggest going to a driving range to hit some balls. What seemed like an incidental date suggestion at first then led to her basically giving the ‘date’ an hour-long free lesson to make him become a better player.

Fortunately, she is now engaged, so her dating woes are in the past, but that hasn’t stopped her reflecting on what were truly unpleasant dates. “There was another guy who did the same thing, he also wanted golf lessons, and he would text me like every day, he was charming and flirty with me.” Paige isn’t the first female golfer to be known for her attractive appearance. Jan Stephenson became one of golf’s most talked-about women after she was on the cover of Sport magazine in 1977…

Paige continued, “But the only time we would actually go on ‘dates’ – and I put that in air quotes – because they were golf lessons. I would be there just to give him lessons, and this happened for six months, he led me on and didn’t bother to tell me he had a girlfriend! After six months and all of those lessons, nothing came of that. He would say, ‘I just want to take it slow, but can you help me with my takeaway?'”

Paige doesn’t apologize for what she does or how she presents herself, and she doesn’t have to. But for many, the question remains: is she innovating golf? When we scroll through her Instagram account, her posts contain trick shots, golf-swing videos, perfectly posed fitness photos as well as seductive selfies. Essentially, her looks become the focus, rather than her golf game and talent. None of that seems new or innovative in a world where image and perception are everything.

The pro golfer, Juli Inkster, who has 31 professional wins and last year victoriously captained the U.S. Solheim Cup team, said of Paige’s cover to the Golf Channel, “This is where our society is right now. I don’t agree with it, but it’s their magazine, and they have the liberty to do what they want.” Other LPGA players did complain about it, and Paige Spiranac fans called them “jealous” because none of them landed the cover. It’s not that LPGA players are jealous. They’re frustrated – and rightfully so.

Since its founding in 1950, Golf Digest has had 23 issues with women on the cover. Nine of those were shared with other male pros, and three had non-professionals on them, including model Kate Upton and social media starlet Paulina Gretzky. Only eleven female professional golfers have had their own cover. The female golf world needs those willing to promote themselves on all levels. However, if golf media only focus on female golfers for their looks, it could affect what fans think is most important.

At events in which Paige participates, the golfer seems to be one of the most requested by the public, but not always for her quality on the course. Taking steps towards achieving equal coverage can only help change the dialogue about women’s golf, no matter how small the step is. Fame is fleeting, and Paige’s lasting influence on golf remains to be seen. We hope she qualifies for the LPGA tour and defies the notion that she’s ‘just another pretty face.’

Paige is making a good income, with most of her fortune coming from her dramatic rise to fame and social media endorsements. Her social media accounts are filled with glamorous photos, but life for Paige has never been as breezy as we might think. The radiant images she posts on social media don’t show her lifelong struggle with anxiety and bullying. From a young age, she started neglecting her own interests. “I always seek people’s approval, and I’m always never good enough,” Paige said.

Paige has taken a break from pro golf, as she claims the sport is rife with hypocrisy, opening up about her love-hate relationship with the competition. More recently, she has focused more on her Instagram page, admitting that she doesn’t like the elitist circles within pro golf. Paige had a short career as a professional, almost reaching the highest level. But now, she slams golf for being too exclusive, and not a place where people who don’t fit the traditional mold can feel comfortable.

Representing the United States, Mary Lou Retton became the first female gymnast outside of Eastern Europe to win the Olympic all-around gold medal. This took place in 1984, which was also the most important year of her entire career.

During this time, Retton also won five medals and became a nationally popular sports figure. Sports Illustrated even named her the Sportswoman of the Year, which was an outstanding achievement at the time (and still is)! Thanks to her great success, Retton remained a member of the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.

Alicia Sacramone is a U.S. gymnast who earned quite a controversial reputation after the 2008 Olympic Games. Sacramone was one of the favorites going into the competition but things didn’t really go her way.

During the team competition in 2008, Sacramone fell in two events and stopped the team from winning the gold medal. She carried the blame for these failings for quite a long time. Today, she’s married to the NFL quarterback Brady Quinn.

Lavinia Milosovici lived her five minutes of fame during the 1992 individual event finals when she got a perfect 10 score, which doesn’t happen very often during the Olympic games.

This Romanian gymnast won medals in every World Championship between 1991 and 1996 and thus became the third female gymnast to win one World Championship title in all four competition events.

Shawn Johnson was one of the best US gymnasts and the face of Team USA in 2008, right next to Nastia Liukin. She led the team to a silver medal in the all-around and on the floor as well.

Not only was Johnson an important part of the US Olympics team but she also served as an inspiration to many young athletes and women across the United States and the entire world.

Aliya Mustafina is one of the most popular Russian gymnasts who made a spectacular comeback in the 2012 Olympics. She scored a total of four medals this year, which ranked her as one of the best female gymnasts in the world.

Besides one silver medal she secured for the Russian team, Mustafina tied with a US representative Aly Raisman. She ended up winning the bronze medal because of a tie-break rule. She was also the winner of the 2010 World Championship and, unfortunately, she suffered a tough injury during the 2011 European Championship.

Mo Huilan was one of the most successful female gymnasts during the 1990s. She represented China in the 1996 Olympics where she finished in fifth place. Although she didn’t score a medal, her performance was quite impressive.

This Chinese gymnast was known for her challenging routines. She went out of her way to combine difficult moves and this often led to falls that stopped her from winning medals and titles.

Nastia Liukin is a member of the American gymnastics team who won a total of five medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Her medals included gold in all-around, three silvers, and a bronze for the floor.

Nastia still remains known for her unique balletic style and the amazing performances on bars. After a couple of tragic falls during the U.S. Olympic Trials, Nastia had to bring her gymnastics career to an end.

It’s safe to say that Shannon Miller became one of the best gymnasts in U.S. history after her early ‘90s performances. During this time, Miller won seven Olympic medals and nine World Championship ones.

The 1992 Olympic Games event featured some of her best performances where she won the most medals of all American athletes at the time. Unfortunately, she lost the all-around gold to Tatiana Gutsu by only 0.012, which remains a very controversial result even until this day.

Lilia Podkopayeva is a Ukrainian gymnast known for being one of the only performers who had no major weaknesses at any event or category. This level of skillfulness and preparedness scored her multiple all-around titles throughout her career.

Interestingly, Lilia became the first female gymnast to take over Ludmila Tourischeva’s record by winning European, World, and Olympic all-around titles at the same time. She achieved all of this between 1995 and 1996, which ranked her at the top of the list as one of the best gymnasts of all time.

The Romanian gymnast Daniela Silivas was one of the best athletes who participated in the 1988 Olympic Games. Daniela surprised the world with incredible performances and she ended up winning medals in every single event.

She won a bronze on vault and gold on bars, beam, and floor. However, she lost the all-around gold to Yelena Shushunova by only 0.025 points. Still, Silivas remains one of the most successful Romanian gymnasts of all time!

Yelena Shushunova is another successful female gymnast from the Soviet Union. She is the winner of four Olympic medals, including the all-around gold she won during the 1988 Olympics.

Many sources still praise Yelena Shushunova for her amazing technique and powerful vaulting, as well as her persistency at choosing very difficult and challenging moves. After all, she has won medals in every category in major competitions.

Gabby Douglas is another American gymnast who made history after winning both the individual and the team all-around gold medal at the same event. This took place at the 2012 Olympics in London. At the same time, she became the first African-American athlete to win the all-around category.

Although Douglas ended her career quite recently, it’s always great to look back on the achievements of such successful American athletes. She also became the face of Kellogg’s cereal and an inspiration for millions of female athletes around the world.

Ludmilla Tourischeva is a gymnast from the Soviet Union who won the all-around gold at the 1972 Olympics. She was one of the best female gymnasts from this region and a true example of a classy and elegant style.

Sadly, Tourischeva was overshadowed by Olga Korbut during the 1972 Olympics but her achievements still didn’t go unnoticed. She ended up winning the all-around bronze in 1976 after displaying great style and technique.

Nellie Kim represented the Soviet Union in many gymnastics competitions between the 1970s and the 1990s. Her most memorable performances were in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, where she won three gold medals and one silver.

She also won two gold medals in the next 1980 Olympics event. What makes her stand out is the fact that Nellie became the first woman in Olympic history to earn a perfect 10 score on the vault!

Svetlana Boginskaya’s career went through its highest peak during the late 1980s. She became a world all-around champion during 1989 after winning four Olympic medals in 1988.

These included an all-around bronze, a vault gold, as well as a silver for the team and floor. After her stunning performances, Svetlana was named the Goddess of Gymnastics and thus became a popular name among athletes around the world.

When you think of popular female gymnasts who competed throughout history, Svetlana Khorkina should be at the very top of the list. Even though she never won an all-around gold, Svetlana remained one of the most successful gymnasts of all time.

She won seven Olympic medals and an impressive number of World Championship medals (a total of 20)! There was a reason why they named her the Queen of the Bars. Svetlana was the only female gymnast to win consecutive gold medals in this category in 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, and 2001.

As a member of the Soviet gymnastics team, Larissa Laynina became a two-time Olympic all-around champion in 1956 and 1960. With a total of 18 medals won throughout her career, Latynina earned the second-ranking among Olympians of all sports.

She is still remembered for her classic style and the way she makes difficult techniques look easy. Her routines were consistent and often very demanding. Altogether, Latynina remains an important part of the history of Russian gymnastics.

Ecaterina Szabo hit the spotlight during the 1984 Olympics when she was expected to win the all-around gold. However, her loss to Mary Lou Retton by only .05 quickly became the most controversial event at the competition.

However, she did manage to secure gold in the individual event finals for not one but three events – vault, beam, and floor. Szabo became the most successful athlete at the 1984 Olympics.

Representing the United States, Dominique Dawes got an opportunity of a lifetime when her teammate Kerri Strug got injured in the 1996 Olympics. After this injury, Dawes got an opportunity to compete in the finals and she managed to take a bronze medal for her team.

Dominique Dawes also wrote history by becoming the first female African-American gymnast to win a medal in an individual event. She was also the first black person to win an Olympic gold medal in gymnastics!

During her career, McKayla Maroney was a member of the American women’s gymnastics team also known as the “Fierce Five.” Along with her teammates, Maroney won a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics, as well as a silver in the individual vault event.

A year earlier, she won a gold medal with the same team at the World Championship and, in 2013, she claimed first place on vault. Thus, she became the first female gymnast from the United States to defend a World Championship title.

Jamie Annette Dantzscher is an American former artistic gymnast who took the US Women’s Gymnastics team to new heights after helping them win bronze at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. At that time, her name was everywhere in the Gymnast world.

Dantzscher fell on the floor exercise during the team preliminaries in Sydney but still managed to complete well in the team finals. Dantzscher continued her passion for gymnastics while she got her degree at UCLA. Today, she coaches the sport professionally.

Simona Peycheva is described as one of the best female gymnasts to ever come out of Bulgaria. She began her victorious career at age six, focusing on rhythmic gymnastics.

Her specialties consist of the ball, the hoop, and the club. Today, she is still involved with the sport and is a well-known judge who scores competitions worldwide. She is also married and has a son named Aleksey.

Aly Raisman started gymnastics at just two years old. She became so devoted to the sport that she left high school to pursue her dream of going to the Olympics. The risk paid off because she went on to win three golds, two silvers, and a bronze for the US.

Raisman has an important side-job as an ambassador for UNICEF Kid Power. Aly’s name has also made headlines for her bravery in speaking out against abuse she faced at the hands of gymnastic team doctors.

Almudena Cid Tostado is a Spanish-born gymnast who began her career at age seven. Her main routine was in rhythmic gymnastics and she specializes in the ball. She went on to represent Spain in four different Olympics, including Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, and Beijing.

She retired in 2008, after 21 years of dedication to the sport. Today she is a Nike model and recently got married to Christian Galvez.

Giulia Steingruber is a Swiss-born artistic gymnast who began competitively training at an early age. She went on to compete in the London Olympics as the only gymnast representing Switzerland that year.

In 2015, she took home four medals at the European Games which was held in Baku. It is said that her success in Baku helped propel her professional career. She recently finished third on the vault at the World Gymnastics Championships in Montreal.

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Vasiliki Millousi is a Greek athlete whose primary apparatus is the balance beam. She competed on the Greek squad in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the 2012 London Olympics, and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. However, she has yet to take home an Olympic medal.

With that being said, she has won four at the European Games and 10 medals at the world cup series. Despite being in her mid-30s, Millousi still competitively competes across the world.

Laurie Hernandez is an American gymnast who successfully participated in the Summer Olympics in 2016, being a member of the team coined, the Final Five. She has amassed a total of 11 medals from her gymnastics career, including 4 gold medals.

After her rise to fame from the Olympics, Hernandez competed in and won season 23 of Dancing with the Stars and wrote a New York Times bestselling autobiography.

Madison Kocian is an American gymnast and a Final Five Olympic team competitor with 10 medals for the uneven bars under her belt. She took the silver medal home during the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

She started studying at the University of California in 2016 and joined the NCAA gymnastics. It is unclear whether Madison will compete in the next Olympics in Tokyo.

Carly Patterson is a legend in the Gymnastic world after becoming a member of the USA Gymnastics Hall of fame. She received this achievement for being the first American to ever win the Olympic gold medal for the all-around when she competed in the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

After her very successful gymnastics career, she retired in 2006 due to severe back issues. In 2008, her singing career boomed after she signed a contract with MusicMind Reports. She even competed on the TV show Celebrity Duets with Jesse McCartney as her partner.

Kristina Baskett was late to enter the world of gymnastics and only really discovered her talent while studying at the University of Utah. While on the Utah Red Rocks Gymnastics Team, Baskett won the College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-American award, and the Dahl Award.

Her professional career today is fascinating as she typically works as a stunt double for actress Megan Fox. She has also done stunt performances in episodes on NCIS: Los Angeles, Agents of S.H.I.EL.D, and Game of Thrones.

Agnes Keleti is the greatest Hungarian gymnast of all time. Sadly, she went through a rough time during the Second World War when her family had to hide in a “Swedish House.”

After these tragic events, Keleti returned to her career with a spectacular comeback in 1948. She won 10 medals including 5 golden ones at the 1952 and the 1956 Olympics. The latter was definitely the most successful competition in her entire career.

Tatiana Gutsu is one of the most popular gold-medal gymnasts from the Soviet Union. She represented the Soviet Union when she secured an all-around gold for the team after beating Shannon Miller by .012.

Throughout her career, Gutsu won a long list of awards, including gold and silver on uneven bars in Barcelona. Her performances were exceptionally unique and interesting to watch, you might even want to look them up to witness her talent.

As one of the most successful gymnasts in Romania, Simona Amanar won seven Olympic medals throughout her career. With three Olympic golds, one silver, and three bronze medals, Simona secured her place in the history of Romanian sport.

Besides her individual achievements, Simona won four gold medals with the Romanian gymnastics team. There is even a vault named after her – The Amanar vault – the move that secured her the gold medal at the 2000 Olympics.

Polina Astakhova was a representative of the Soviet Union gymnastics team who competed for the USSR between 1956 and 1964. During this time, she took part in three Olympic events and won an impressive total of 10 medals.

Her Olympic awards included five gold medals, two silvers, and three bronze ones. Some of Polina’s best performances were on uneven bars, although she was skilled at every single category.

Nadia Comaneci is a big part of the history of this sport because of her outstanding achievements. She scored the first-ever perfect 10 in an Olympic event and she was only 17 years old at the time.

At this age, she won the 1976 all-around gold, as well as gold for uneven bars and balance beam, silver for the team competition, and a bronze for the floor exercise. This was only the beginning of her outstanding career that earned her a forever spot in the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. She also received the Olympic Order, which is the highest award given by the International Olympic Committee.