The USA’s women’s gymnastics team entered the 2024 Olympics hoping to earn gold in the team competition after earning a silver medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
It achieved that goal and officially etched itself into the United States’ Olympic history.
It also earned a new nickname: The Golden Girls.
The nickname — a nod to the Betty White sitcom that featured four older women living together in Miami in their “golden” years — is fitting, as Team USA brought its oldest roster to Paris since 1952 to capture the gold.
The moniker continues a recent tradition of giving the women’s gymnastics team a lasting nickname to help it be remembered by its fans.
Here’s what to know about the USA’s Olympic gymnastics team nicknames throughout its history.
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USA Olympic gymnastics team nicknames history
1996: The Magnificent Seven
- Shannon Miller
- Dominique Moceanu
- Dominique Dawes
- Kerri Strug
- Amy Chow
- Jaycie Phelps
- Amanda Borden
The Magnificent Seven earned their nickname — and their place in American Olympic lore — by becoming the first USA women’s gymnastics team to take home gold in the team competition at the 1996 Olympics.
Shannon Miller, who stood as the United States’ most decorated female Olympic gymnast before Simone Biles broke her record in 2024, was the star of the team that featured a wealth of depth and talent on its roster. The 1994 and 1995 World Champions Dominique Dawes and Dominique Moceanu played a big part in the team’s success, but Kerri Strug created the lasting memory from the competition.
Strug needed to land a vault and score 9.493 or better for the USA to win the competition. Her first attempt saw her fail to stick the landing and come up with a lower leg injury. Nonetheless, she attempted her second vault and landed it, despite only being able to put weight on one of her legs.
Strug’s heroic effort and the popularity surrounding the women’s national team led them to be dubbed “The Magnificent Seven.” The moniker was a nod to the 1960 Yul Brynner film of the same name, and it was a fitting one for the deep, talented Olympic champions.
2012: The Fierce Five
- Gabby Douglas
- McKayla Maroney
- Aly Raisman
- Kyla Ross
- Jordyn Wieber
The 2012 women’s gymnastics team was originally known as “The Fab Five,” but the nickname was changed to differentiate it from the one given to the Jalen Rose and Chris Webber-led Michigan basketball team of 1991.
The five gymnasts brainstormed ideas for the squad’s nickname, with Aly Raisman noting in her autobiography that “The Fantastic Five, The Friendly Five, The Fearsome Five [and] The Frrrreaky Five” all drew consideration, per NBC.
McKayla Maroney eventually suggested “The Fierce Five” be the nickname. It stuck and served as a perfect descriptor for Team USA’s routines.
The Fierce Five dominated the team competition similar to the 2024 Olympic team. Maroney, Gabby Douglas and Jordyn Wieber began on the vault, and the trio posted a score that put Team USA ahead. They never looked back and earned a massive 5.066-point win over Russia.
Meanwhile, Douglas became the first African-American woman to win the gold all-around medal and Raisman became the first American woman to earn a gold medal in the floor exercises. Maroney won silver in vault but earned more notoriety for her expression on the podium, which became a popular Internet meme.
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2016: The Final Five
- Simone Biles
- Gabby Douglas
- Laurie Hernandez
- Madison Kocian
- Aly Raisman
Team USA built on its success from the 2012 Olympics at the 2016 Olympics. Douglas and Raisman returned to the fold, bringing experience with them to Rio, while Biles participated in her first Olympics along with Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian.
The choice of nickname was not announced until after the USA had won the team competition. It secured an 8.209-point victory over Russia, which was the largest margin of victory since the Soviet Union beat Czechoslovakia by nearly nine points in 1960.
The nickname wasn’t just based on the fact that they were the last five gymnasts standing in the team competition. It was also a nod to the Olympics downsizing gymnastics teams from five to four ahead of the 2021 Olympics, per USA Gymnastics. In theory, that made the USA the final five-woman squad to win gold.
The Final Five didn’t just win gold in the team competition. They won a whopping nine medals (four gold) throughout the competition. They were as follows:
| Event | Winner(s) | Medal |
| Team competition | Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez, Madison Kocian, Aly Raisman | Gold |
| All-around | Simone Biles | Gold |
| Vault | Simone Biles | Gold |
| Floor exercises | Simone Biles | Gold |
| All-around | Aly Raisman | Silver |
| Uneven bars | Madison Kocian | Silver |
| Balance beam | Laurie Hernandez | Silver |
| Floor exercises | Aly Raisman | Silver |
| Balance beam | Simone Biles | Bronze |
The Final Five remains the most decorated women’s gymnastics team at a single Olympics in USA history.
2021: The Fighting Four
- Simone Biles
- Jordan Chiles
- Suni Lee
- Grace McCallum
The United States entered the 2021 Olympics favored to win gold in the team competition once again. Things didn’t go to plan, as the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) bested it by just over one point to earn gold.
Still, the USA earned silver in the team competition despite seeing Biles bow out after the vault due to a case of the twisties. The remaining gymnasts fought well to keep the team afloat in her stead, which is how they earned their nickname, as revealed by Lee on social media.
THE FIGHTING 4. pic.twitter.com/f8YWClsYiP
— Sunisa lee (@sunisalee_) July 28, 2021
Team USA went on to win gold in the all-around (Lee) and on the floor (Jade Carey) despite being without Biles for all events but the balance beam final. And Biles battled through her case of the twisties to earn a bronze medal on the beam, a sweet ending to an otherwise trying Olympics for the world’s best gymnast.
MORE: Revisiting Simone Biles’ 2021 Olympic performance, case of the twisties
2024: The Golden Girls
Biles had some fun after Team USA returned to its gold standard in the 2024 team competition at the Olympics. She and Jordan Chiles joked that the team’s nickname would be the “F— Around and Find Out Five” after their 5.802-point win over Italy.
Simone Biles said the USA Women’s Gymnastics team name is “F Around and Find Out” 😂 pic.twitter.com/ySoGMtRHqL
— The Sporting News (@sportingnews) July 30, 2024
In reality, they had a tamer nickname planned all along.
As Biles announced on social media, they would be known as “The Golden Girls,” a nod to the older-than-average age of the U.S. women’s gymnastics roster.
okay on the real though, the official team name is ✨golden girls✨ (because oldest olympic team)
s/o to cecile🥹🤍
— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) July 31, 2024
The 2024 U.S. women’s gymnastics team isn’t actually the oldest in the country’s Olympic history; it ranks fourth with an average age of 22.2. Biles and Co. can thank 16-year-old Hezly Rivera for dragging that number down.
Even so, the 2024 team is the oldest since 1952 while Biles is the seventh-oldest female gymnast to ever compete for the United States. As such, the “Golden Girls” moniker is fitting.
It will only become more fitting if the United States can continue to win gold medals throughout the rest of the women’s competition.
