Trends, and the first gold medal on international soil, in the women’s team competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Later in the Olympic Games, Douglas won a gold medal in the individual all-around event, becoming the first African-American to ever do so; Maroney won silver on vault; Raisman, the team captain, won bronze on balance beam and gold on floor exercise.
That’s what media dubbed Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber, McKayla Maroney and Kyla Ross, whose triumph highlights NBCSN’s Olympic Games Week coverage on Thursday night. A full schedule is here.
But Fab Five had already been taken by the University of Michigan men’s basketball team of the early 1990s, which for a time featured five freshmen in the starting lineup. Jalen Rose, a member of that basketball team, took issue with it being reused.
“To use the nickname just points and screams of lazy journalism by the national media, that’s really what it is,” Rose said during the London Olympics, according to a podcast. “It’s no fault at all of the young gymnasts. But I really wish they would have come up with an even more creative tag for them and their gold medal pursuit.”
Meet the five gymnasts who will represent the United States at the 2012 London Olympics.
A children’s biography, The Fab Five: Jordyn Wieber, Gabby Douglas and the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team tells each team member’s life story as they rose from young gymnasts with big dreams to become international superstars of their sport.
Discover the stories of Jordyn Wieber, Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Kyla Ross as they aim for gold in London!
Gymnasts Testify At Hearing On FBI’s Handling Of Larry Nassar’s Case Larry Nassar, Simone Biles, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Aly Raisman, Artistic gymnastics, McKayla Maroney In vivid and emotional testimony McKayla Moroney said Nassar “turned out to be more of a pedophile than he was a doctor.” She recalled sitting on her bedroom floor in […]