I Got This! To Gold & Beyond

1 out of 4

I am excited to announce that I am going to be reading and reviewing four autobiographies/biographies that I picked up. I have never really read biographies and I am excited to learn more about these people and hopefully inspire YOU to read them as well.

So to start off with. . .

From the moment Laurie stepped on the squishy gym floor at the age of five, to when she leaped onto the beam at the Olympics in Rio when she was sixteen, Laurie was a fierce competitor. Laurie Hernadez was a gold medalist and winner of Dancing With The Stars. Laurie’s book is her story of joy, trial, and hard work.

From the very beginning, Laurie was a burst of energy and started her career in ballet class. Once Laurie’s mother realized that her daughter was too energetic for ballet, she switched her to gymnastics and Laurie immediately started excelling. All of Laurie’s teachers could tell Laurie was talented and she moved up through the levels and qualified for TOPS (Talented Opportunity Program) developmental training camp in Texas. TOPS is an elite-level training center and Laurie began her career there, and soon made friends with the other gymnasts. She also started homeschooling at that age because traveling from her home in New Jersey to Texas took up a lot of her time.

At Laurie’s first TOPS competition she placed twenty-first and was disappointed. Her mother though wasn’t about to let Laurie give up. She told Laurie to think how far she’d come in that year and how many other girls would love to have even qualified for TOPS. Laurie soon reached the highest level and was moved to the USA Gymnastics National Team Training Camp. Laurie began competing in meets out of the country places like Japan, Mexico, and Italy.

Laurie was becoming a better gymnast with each round-off she did. At age seven, Laurie was already training thirty-five hours a week. The climb toward the Olympics was getting steeper, and Laurie unexpectedly fractured her wrist. Just after she recovered she injured her knee. It was only one fall but caused three different problems on one spot. Laurie needed surgery and was going to be in a cast for a while.

Laurie knew this was a life-changing injury but gymnastics was something that Laurie shinned at and she knew she had to recover and come out stronger than ever.

One of the things I learned from Hernandez’s book was how goal-oriented and determined Laurie was. She recovered from her injury and went on to the Olympic trials, and then the Olympics. Laurie made team USA and brought home the gold. After winning gold, Laurie and her team (Which included Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Madison Kocian, Aly Raisman) got to be on The Tonight Show and met the president.

That same year, Laurie competed in Dancing With The Stars and won. Laurie did all this at the age of sixteen and tells her story in I Got This, of how she grew from an energetic little girl to a fierce and talented athlete.