May 25: The Gymnast

Twenty-year-old gymnast Alexandra “Aly” Raisman, who was captain of the gold medal-winning U.S. women’s gymnastics team at the 2012 Olympics in London, was born in Needham, Massachusetts on this date in 1994. She has been training since she was a toddler, and won a gold medal on the floor (the first American woman to do so) and a bronze medal on the balance beam in 2012. She has also won many, many other medals in competitions worldwide, and appeared on television’s “Dancing with the Stars.” Raisman performed her winning floor exercise in London to the accompaniment of “Hava Nagila” and dedicated the performance to the eleven Israeli Olympians murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich games. To see her in action, look below. “I have always dreamed of being the Olympic champion on floor, so I was really happy to be able to do the floor routine of my life here today.” -Aly Raisman