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Carly Patterson
With a total of three Olympic medals, including the coveted All-Around gold, and two World Championship medals, one of them gold, Carly Patterson joins the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in the Class of 2024.
In 2004, Patterson was named U.S. Olympic Committee Sportswoman of the Year.
Like many young American girls, Carly Patterson got hooked on gymnastics at the age of six after attending a cousin's birthday party at a local gymnastics club. Where her story differs from all but a few, however, is that ten years later, she stood atop the Olympic podium in 2004 in Athens, Greece, punctuated by the fact she was the first American All-Around Gold Medalist in a non-boycotted Olympic Games.
Carly Rae Patterson was born on February 4, 1988, in Baton Rouge, LA, to Ricky and Natalie, a former gymnast. Carly's raw ability was evident at a young age while training at Elite Gymnastics in Baton Rouge. When she was eleven years old her father, who was a finance manager, got transferred to Houston, then eventually Dallas, Texas. It was in Dallas where Carly began training under coaches Evgeny Marchenko and Natasha Boyarskaya at the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy, now known as WOGA.
At the young age of thirteen, she was selected to represent the US at the 2001 Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia. Going into the final rotation on floor exercise, all she needed was an average score to secure the All-Around gold medal, but disaster struck resulting in falls on three of her four tumbling runs. Then, two years later after recovering from a broken elbow, Patterson petitioned to a spot on the US team at the 2003 World Gymnastics Championships in which she earned the all-around silver medal, becoming the first American woman to medal in a World Championships all-around since Shannon Miller in 1994. She also helped the United States earn the team gold medal at the Anaheim Worlds, a first for the American women.
As she prepared for the 2004 Olympics, Patterson was now labeled the "it girl," which comes with its own set of pressures. At the Olympic Trials, Patterson fell off the balance beam on both days of competition, dropping her to third place. However, her performances at a subsequent national training camp were strong enough for her to make the selection to the Olympic team.
In Athens, Patterson finished first overall in the preliminary round and qualified for the all-around and balance beam finals. However, the United States, including Patterson, struggled in the team final, and the U.S. women, the reigning world champions, settled for silver.
Two days later in the All-Around final, Patterson got off to an uncharacteristic start on vault, but rallied on the next three events to become the first US woman to win the Olympic All-Around Gold Medal since Mary Lou Retton in 1984, thus beginning a streak of five straight All-Around Gold Medalists from the US including Nastia Liukin, Gabby Douglas, Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee.
In 2004, Patterson was named U.S. Olympic Committee Sportswoman of the Year. Then, two years later in 2006, she retired from gymnastics and set off in her new career as a singer and songwriter with her first release coming in 2009. Patterson married Mark Caldwell in 2012, and they have three children together: Graham, Emmaline Rae, and Pearson. Patterson's resilience in turning adversity and disappointment into opportunity is a lesson for all young athletes, and today, with a total of three Olympic medals, including the coveted All-Around gold, and two World Championship medals, one of them gold, Carly Patterson joins the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in the Class of 2024.