After a disappointing showing in Tokyo three years ago, the United States women's gymnastics team got off to a golden start in the 2024 Summer Olympics by triumphing in the artistic team all-around competition. And following in the footsteps of previous gold medal-winning teams, Simone Biles has revealed the nickname for the five American girls who stood atop the podium in Paris.
In 2012, there was the “Fierce Five,” a team consisting of McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Kyla Ross, and Jordyn Wieber. Four years later, the “Final Five” arrived in Rio de Janeiro and dominated. The team of Raisman, Douglas, Biles, Laurie Hernandez, and Madison Kocian won the team all-around title for a second consecutive Olympics and won nine total medals (four gold), the most of any American Olympic team.
In 2024, despite there being five who helped the team reclaim the artistic team all-around gold medal, Biles said the women decided on a different nickname that was seemingly suggested by Biles's personal coach Cécile Canqueteau-Landi.
“okay on the real though, the official team name is ✨golden girls✨ (because oldest olympic team),” Biles posted on X, formerly Twitter. “s/o to cecile🥹🤍.”
The nickname would appear to fit, even if Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, and Hezly Rivera are a tad younger than Betty White, Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty, the four women who comprised the cast of the popular “Golden Girls” TV series more than 30 years ago. Still, for gymnastics, the U.S. team is much older than typical — the Italian team all-around squad, which earned silver, had no one older than 21 years old, while only 16-year-old Rivera is younger than 21 for the Americans.
Simone Biles clarifies US women's gymnastics team name
While the Fierce Five, Final Five, and the Magnificent Seven from 1996 each made their impact, their names are pretty tame. The “Golden Girls” of Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, Hezly Rivera, Jade Carey, and Jordan Chiles were believed to have a different nickname initially.
Aly Raisman, a famed member of the Final and Fierce Five, asked her former teammate Biles while the team all-around competition was going about the 2024 team's name. Biles hesitated, but the team eventually revealed that it was F.A.A.F.O – F**k Around And Find Out.
Whichever name they decided to go with, Team USA bounced back from the 2020 Olympics and pushed past criticism of Biles and her teammates. In particular, MyKayla Skinner, a silver medalist from the Tokyo Olympics, questioned the current gymnasts' work ethic, talent, and their coaches.
“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn't what it used to be,” Skinner said in a now-deleted YouTube video. “I mean, obviously, a lot of girls just don't work as hard. The girls just don't have the work ethic.”
“It's hard, too, because of SafeSport,” Skinner continued, referencing the United States Center for SafeSport, which aims to reduce abuse of athletes in Olympic sports. “Coaches can't get on athletes and they have to be really careful what they say, which in some ways is really good, but at the same time, to get to where you need to be in gymnastics, you do have to be a little aggressive, a little intense.”
While Skinner has apologized since in statements that have been criticized as well, the Golden Girls got the last laugh.
“lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions,” Biles wrote in a caption on Instagram.
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