I Got This

by Laurie Hernandez

  Rio was so crowded, my parents ended up staying at a hotel an hour away from the Olympic Village. Even though there were news reports of crime and robberies at Ipanema Beach and concerns about the quality of the water, both my mother and father thought Brazil was a beautiful country. What my dad always tells people is, “It was a great trip. I didn’t get robbed. I didn’t catch Zika. And my daughter came home with two medals!” I kind of think that says it all.

  I didn’t see my mom or dad until after the Olympics were over, because the rules for our team were strict. That was okay with me, though. It enabled them to actually enjoy the festivities on their own—and besides, I was really busy practicing and bonding with the girls. We arrived in Rio about a week before the Games started, and we all stayed together in an apartment building in the Olympic Village that housed all the US teams. Many countries had their own building where their athletes stayed; China had its own building, Japan had its own building, and so on. There were a lot of levels to our building. We were located on the third floor, and I think Michael Phelps was on one of the top floors. Our apartment was really nice. It had a little family-style living room, and then there were two tables set up so we could get physical therapy and treatment after our workouts. It was great that our trainers and nurses traveled with us. Simone and I slept in one bedroom, Maddy and Aly slept in the other, and Gabby had her own room since that room had only one bed.

  Although there were buses available so the athletes could get around Rio to sightsee, our team really didn’t travel anywhere outside the Olympic Village. We understood that the team management wanted us to remain extremely focused. The kind of structure they set up helped guarantee that our attention remained solely on the Olympics and the job we had to do—there was no room for any distractions. It’s why we didn’t go the opening ceremonies. Marta wanted us to remain sharp and conserve our energy. There is a lot going on during the ceremonies, and while they are entertaining and exhilarating, they last so long that they can be draining. Getting rest and settling into our schedule and our new environment mattered more than participating in all the early celebrations. We wanted to be prepared to give our very best when it was our turn to perform for the world!

  During the whole time we were in Rio, whenever we went to practice, we all walked together. Even when we went to lunch, we all walked together. And the coaches and staff walked with us, too—I don’t think we ever traveled without Marta or our staff accompanying us. I actually liked when we walked the sidewalks as a group, checking out the streets lined with the flags from other countries. It was beautiful. And everyone was out: not just gymnasts and not just the USA team members, but lots of athletes from lots of different countries and sports. There were random bikers and speed-walkers, too. We all said hi to each other or nodded and smiled. There were no social barriers, even though we were from different nations and were there to compete.

  In addition to our apartment and where we practiced, we also spent a lot of time in the cafeteria. It was clear that as the host nation, Brazil tried to accommodate everyone’s needs and tastes. There was American food on one side, Asian food on the other, and Spanish food, too. They even had special meals in case you had a dairy allergy or some other food restriction. After we ate, we’d go around to talk with the athletes from the other countries to see where they were from and what they did. Everyone was very friendly. And I couldn’t believe all the different kinds of figures we saw. Athletes come in every shape and size! There were some who were extremely muscular because they’re weight lifters. Then there were the ones who were extremely lean because they run marathons. One day we met these volleyball players who were all over seven feet tall! We laughed because they were just towering over us.

  Another thing the girls and I loved to do was trade pins. It was something we’d done before at international competitions, but it was especially fun at the Olympics. The staff gave us a ton of USA pins and we’d go up to athletes from other countries and exchange one of ours for one of theirs. I probably have fifty or sixty pins from other countries, and they’re something I’ll hang on to forever. These pin exchanges were a great way to break the ice and start a conversation. My parents speak Spanish fluently and I’m studying it now, but I still didn’t have the skills to hold conversations with the Spanish-speaking athletes. When I look back, I think I probably missed a great opportunity to practice with them! But I couldn’t believe how many of the people we talked to understood English. And even when they didn’t, we had these lanyards with our credentials and our official pin on them. So we just held those out and pointed to the pin. When the other athlete saw that, it was as if they automatically knew to trade them with us.

  In the end, I didn’t mind having to stay within the confines of the Olympic Village. It was amazing to see and meet all these people from around the world who came together for the love of their sport.

  STRIKING GOLD

  CHAPTER 13

  SOMETHING THAT ALWAYS CONFUSES PEOPLE about the women’s gymnastics competition at the Olympics is the way the qualification round works. Learning the rules is tricky, but not nearly as tricky as, say, learning to do “the Biles”—that crazy move Simone does when she follows two backflips with a half twist. So just hang in there with me while I give you a crash course on the qualification round, because believe it or not, it’s one of the most important parts of the Olympics.

  Basically, qualifications (or “prelims,” as we sometimes call them) determine who moves on to each of the three different final events: team finals, all-around finals, and individual event finals. To move on to team finals, four team members from each nation compete in all four key events: vault, bars, beam, and floor. (By the way, the group of four gymnasts does not have to be the same for every event. Since there are five team members in total, you can mix and match the group so the gymnasts with the strongest skills in a specific event get to compete in that event.) The three top scores for each event count toward the overall team score. The eight top-scoring teams move on to the team finals.

  If you are one of the twenty-four top-scoring athletes during qualifications, you get to move on to the all-around finals, where, by competing on every apparatus—vault, bars, beam, and floor—the all-around best athlete in the sport is determined. But there is a catch: only two athletes from each country can move on to compete in the all-around! (Keep that fact in mind because it will be important later on.) The goal behind this rule—just like at the international events—is to prevent a single nation from dominating an event and competing largely against themselves.

  If you are one of eight top-scoring athletes in one of the apparatus events during qualifications, then you get to move on and compete for an individual finals title for that apparatus. For instance, if you were one of the eight best-performing gymnasts on vault, you would get to compete against the other seven top-performing gymnasts on vault for the gold, silver, or bronze medal for vault. But no more than two individuals per country are selected in the top eight for individual finals competition. Of course, the gymnast who scores the highest in each individual event moves on to compete in the individual finals.

  The reason the qualifications are so important is that if your team isn’t one of the top eight to make it, then your only chance to medal at the Olympics at all will be to compete as an individual—and you have to score high enough at the qualifications to move on to the individual finals. You are always trying to earn a spot in the finals for the team as well as for yourself.

  Thankfully, before we even started practice for the Olympics, we sensed how stressful this competition was going to be and we came to the same conclusion: no one can do it alone. If you even try to go it alone, the weight and enormity of it will mess with you. We knew we were all in this thing together, so we had to support each other no matter what. For that reason, no one one-upped each other in practice. We were always cheering for each other, saying, “Come on, Maddy, you can do it!” or “Don’t give up, Simone!” Our mutual goal was
to help each other remain confident so we could all do our best.

  At this level of competition, there is definitely a part of you that’s competing against yourself and your previous performances. All the other girls had been to the world championships before and won medals, so they knew what events and milestones they were going for. In many ways we were each just trying to improve our prior bests. I knew at the very least I wanted to make it to the team final. And, of course, we all wanted to win team gold.

  In the end, the qualifications went really well for us.

  Aly, Simone, Gabby, and I started off competing in floor. I was the first to go, which is one of my pet peeves. I really hate going first or last because my nerves are always worse on either end of an event. But I had to get used to it because I was also first on vault.

  Aly and Gabby had been to the Olympics before, so one piece of advice they gave me was to enjoy the experience, because when you’re out there, your body goes on autopilot. You’ve done your routine so many times already, your muscle memory naturally takes over. So you really have to do your best to have fun in the moment, because before you know it, you blink and your routine is over.

  I got us off to a good start. Simone came in first with a score of 15.733; Aly came in second with a score of 15.275; I came in third with a 14.800; and Gabby came in fourth with a score of 14.366. Next, Gabby, Simone, Aly, and I did vault, which helped loosen us up because it was something most of us simply had to get out of the way—only Simone could qualify for vault finals. For that particular apparatus, you need two vaults in a family, meaning that each vault needs to start out differently than the other. She was the only one with that skill, so we all had to rely on her for this event.

  It’s helpful to know that the scoring process for vault is a little different than for the other events, as the two vault scores are averaged together. All I can say is that Simone’s scores were ridiculously good. She got a 16.000! Everybody was so proud of her. It was an amazing moment.

  After that event, Maddy, Aly, Simone, and Gabby did bars.

  Remember that pesky rule in the Olympic guidelines I told you about? The one where only two athletes from the same country can compete in the all-around finals? Well, someone had to sit out the bars event during qualifications, and whoever that person ended up being would lose their shot at winning the all-around, too. It was either Aly or me who would miss out this time, because Simone had already secured the number one spot; Maddy was our bars specialist, so she had to compete; and Gabby, who was the defending Olympic champion of the all-around, was also strong on bars.

  As it turned out, Aly’s solid performance during podium training factored heavily into Marta’s decision about who would compete. And having a small muscle strain in my stomach didn’t help me. We were very discreet about my injury because we hoped it would improve quickly. But the strain was a little too unpredictable. One day it would be fine, and the next it would hurt badly. The muscle was in my core, which is something you work in every event, so it wasn’t an injury to risk aggravating.

  At first, I was really disappointed when I was chosen to sit out, because bars and the all-around were events I thought I could have scored really well in. But I calmed myself down and remembered to celebrate the fact that I was, you know, at the Olympics at all. Some earlier life lessons started to come back to me: if being in the all-around wasn’t right for me at this time, I would be directed to something that was. Then I was able to feel extremely grateful that I was able to compete in the three other events. Who knows? If I had been able to do bars that day, my stomach might have gotten worse and I wouldn’t have been able to compete in beam.

  The good news is that Maddy killed it on bars. We were all hoping she’d come in first place, and of course, she delivered. She handled that event with so much ease and grace. She scored a 15.866. Gabby came in close behind her, taking third place with a score of 15.766. They both qualified for the bars final.

  Finally, Simone, Gabby, Aly, and I competed on beam. Simone finished first with a score of 15.633. I came in second with a 15.366. Aly and Gabby tied for seventh with a 14.833 score. So both Simone and I headed into the beam finals from there!

  It was completely awesome: Team USA not only placed first among all eight qualifying teams, making it into the team and all-around finals, but every member of our team qualified for at least one individual final, too! It was the first time in a long time something like that had happened. Aly explained to us how rare this was: When only four out of five team members can compete in each of the events in the qualifying rounds, the odds are that at least one person is not going to get a shot at an individual event. We totally beat the odds!

  We were all so giddy and excited. We could be happy for all of us as a group, not just ourselves individually. Even when you’re expected to succeed because the USA team has consistently been such a strong team, it’s still surprising and thrilling and unbelievable all at once. Everybody could feel the energy around us.

  The amazing thing about the Olympics is that you feel so many different emotions in the span of a few days, and they are all intense. So it was nice to have at least one totally playful moment. For me that moment happened during my floor routine in the team finals, just before we won. I spontaneously winked at one of the judges and everyone there, and at home, seemed to love that. But honestly I don’t know what came over me. Right before I went on, I was so nervous I looked at the team and said, “Guys, I’m so scared. It’s the last event, what if I mess up?” Any time you are competing as a team you have those worries—I know I had certainly felt the same way at international meets. Thankfully, the girls assured me that wasn’t going to happen. They said, “No, no, no, you’re fine. Don’t worry about it. We’re a few points ahead, so just go out there and enjoy yourself.”

  I made my way toward the warm-up area. I was feeling pretty good by then, so I stood to the side and took a deep breath. I wanted to soak in everything around me, because it was definitely a major moment. I scanned the cheering crowd and all I saw was a sea of green. Brazil’s colors are yellow, blue, and green, and the entire arena was decked out in green. The mats were green, the logos were green, everything around me was green, and for a split second, I found it kind of intimidating because in the United States, all our equipment is blue. Even a seemingly small difference like that can be jarring.

  Then all of a sudden I heard this beep. It was coming from the little TV screen in the warm-up area that lists your name, your country, and the event you’re about to compete in. My screen read Lauren Hernandez, USA, Floor Exercise. After I heard the beep, the screen switched to GO, which meant I had to go salute the judges and begin.

  When I stood up on the floor, I could see one of the out-of-bounds judges in my line of vision. That is the judge who checks to make sure your foot never crosses over the white line. Well, I looked straight at her and suddenly felt this surge of confidence to wink. After I did that, I went on to do an amazing routine. When it was done, I was so proud of myself! Later, a woman came up to me while I was watching Simone and Aly compete in their all-around finals and she said, “Wow, I just want you to know that when you winked at the judge, it really worked.” I didn’t know how to respond, so I just said, “Thank you. That’s very nice of you to say.” That’s when she told me she was the out-of-bounds judge! All I could say was “Oh my goodness.”

  That was a great moment, but probably the most epic moment of all was standing on the podium with my teammates to receive our gold medals later that day. During the four events in the team finals, we executed twelve hit routines and took first place, winning the gold medal eight points ahead of Russia, who came in second to earn a silver medal, followed by China, who earned the bronze medal. We were the third women’s gymnastics team in USA history—in addition to the 1996 and 2012 teams—to win gold in the team finals!

  At one point after the medal was around my neck and I was taking in everything it meant, I searched the crowd for my parents.
Everyone around them was congratulating them, and my dad was beaming with pride. I waited for them to look at me: in a crowd of all those people, I wanted to be sure to share the moment with them, because they’d given so much to make sure I got there.

  After it was over, when someone asked my dad what he was feeling, he said, “Everything,” and then after a beat he said, “And nothing.” That pretty much describes the feeling: You are so full of emotion, everything stops for a moment so you can take it all in. And then you are numb from the reality of it. I’d caught sight of my parents at an earlier point in the day, too, and I’d had this fleeting thought that makes me smile even when I think about it now. I was walking from floor to beam and I was trying to spot them, but I didn’t want to be obvious about it. I still had to keep my head in the competition. When I saw them, I thought, Wow, I’m here. You’re here. Wait, we’re all here together. It was like I was checking my mental GPS to be sure we were not only where we were, but that we were there experiencing this totally awesome thing together. My parents never got to go to any of my international competitions—they’d always had to Livestream them—so it really was euphoric to have them there in Rio with me.

  After team finals, we killed it in the all-around finals, too. Simone came in first, earning a gold medal, and Aly came in second, earning a silver medal, while Russia’s Aliya Mustafina came in third, earning a bronze medal. It was amazing. The first and second all-around best gymnasts in the world are now both Americans. That hasn’t happened since Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin locked in both titles at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. And here’s the wild thing: if Aly hadn’t competed on bars, that might not have happened at all. In many ways, it proves my philosophy. On that day, Aly was on the path that was intended for her. That realization made me feel a lot better about having to sit out bars.