Alexandra Rose Raisman Bio

Alexandra Rose Raisman (born May 25 24th, 1994) is an ex-retired American artistic gymnast and two-time Olympian. She was captain of both the 2012 "Fierce Five" and the 2016 "Final Five" U.S. women's Olympic gymnastics teams, who took home their respective team competitions.At the 2012 Olympics in London she was awarded gold medals in floor and team competitions, in addition to the bronze medal for the balance beam, which made her the most recognized American gymnast in the Games. In the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, she took home a gold in the team competition with teammate Gabby Douglas the only Americans who won back-to-back gold team medals. Raisman also won silver medals in the individual all around and floor exercises. She is the third most decorated American gymnast in Olympic history behind Shannon Miller and Simone Biles with six Olympic medals.Raisman was also part of the gold-winning American teams in the 2011 and 2015 World Championships, and the bronze medalist in the world championships on floor exercise in the year 2011. She also is the two-time national champion in floor exercise (2012,2015) and the 2012 national champion of balance beam, and a five-time medalist at the national championships in all-around (silver in 2016, and silver in 2011, 2012 2013, 2012 and 2012, 2011, and. In 2013, she was admitted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Raisman was born on 25 May 1994 in Needham, Massachusetts to Lynn Faber (nee Faber), who was a former high-school gymnast and Rick Raisman. She has three younger siblings: Brett, Chloe, and Madison. Raisman is Jewish and states that "I take a lot off being able to not just be a representative of the U.S.A but as well the Jewish Community across the world." Raisman began gymnastics at eighteen months. She attributes her love of gymnastics to the "Magnificent Seven", an American women's group that won the gold medal at 1996 Summer Olympics. The athlete was trained at Exxcel Gymnastics and Climbing up to Level 8. She then went to Brestyan's American Gymnastics Club, where she was coached by Silvia Brestyan and Mihai Brestyan. Raisman was a graduate of Needham High School in 2012 after having completed her senior year via online courses while training for the Olympics.