--- title: Olympics: Aly Raisman on the Gymnastics Team Competition description: Tuesday's Olympics prime-time coverage features the much-anticipated women's team gymnastics competition canonical: https://time.com/4445637/aly-raisman-gymnastics-team/ author: Kirsten Salyer article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-09T20:44:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:52:20.856Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Aly Raisman on the Magic of the Gymnastics Team Competition og:description: 'We always say that the most important thing is the team first' og:url: https://time.com/4445637/aly-raisman-gymnastics-team/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0124a448084f036a/6988a1bc2dce016c829ea3d1/olympics1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: (L to R) Coach Mihai Brestyan, Simone Biles, Gabrielle Douglas, Madison Kocian, Lauren Hernandez and Alexandra Raisman of the United States pose for photographs after Women's qualification for Artistic Gymnastics on Day 2 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Aly Raisman on the Magic of the Gymnastics Team Competition twitter:description: 'We always say that the most important thing is the team first' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0124a448084f036a/6988a1bc2dce016c829ea3d1/olympics1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Aly Raisman on the Magic of the Gymnastics Team Competition  by [Kirsten Salyer](https://time.com/author/kirsten-salyer/)  ## Kirsten Salyer Aug 9, 2016 8:44 PM UTC  RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - AUGUST 07: (L to R) Coach Mihai Brestyan, Simone Biles, Gabrielle Douglas, Madison Kocian, Lauren Hernandez and Alexandra Raisman of the United States pose for photographs after Women's qualification for Artistic Gymnastics on Day 2 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Rio Olympic Arena on August 7, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - AUGUST 07: (L to R) Coach Mihai Brestyan, Simone Biles, Gabrielle Douglas, Madison Kocian, Lauren Hernandez and Alexandra Raisman of the United States pose for photographs after Women's qualification for Artistic Gymnastics on Day 2 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Rio Olympic Arena on August 7, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)Tom Pennington—Getty Images  by [Kirsten Salyer](https://time.com/author/kirsten-salyer/)  ## Kirsten Salyer Aug 9, 2016 8:44 PM UTC Tuesday’s Olympics coverage features the much-anticipated [women’s team gymnastics competition](http://time.com/4442139/rio-2016-olympics-gymnastics-events-how-to-watch/) (occurring [live](http://stream.nbcolympics.com/womens-gymnastics-team-final) in Rio as this is published). This is the moment for Aly Raisman, Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian to compete together for team U.S.A. before breaking off for individual events later in the competition. The Rio Games are the last Olympics the women’s gymnastics teams will feature five competitors. Starting in the 2020 Toyko Games, there will only be four team members, the International Gymnastics Federation announced last year. Raisman [wrote about the importance of the team competition for TIME](http://time.com/3890019/aly-raisman-why-gymnastics-needs-more-team-recognition/) last year. --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4445637/aly-raisman-gymnastics-team/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4445637/aly-raisman-gymnastics-team/"},"headline":"Aly Raisman on the Magic of the Gymnastics Team Competition","datePublished":"2016-08-09T20:44:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:52:20.856Z","description":"'We always say that the most important thing is the team first'","url":"https://time.com/4445637/aly-raisman-gymnastics-team/","keywords":["Sports topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0124a448084f036a/6988a1bc2dce016c829ea3d1/olympics1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kirsten Salyer","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kirsten-salyer/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0124a448084f036a/6988a1bc2dce016c829ea3d1/olympics1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"(L to R) Coach Mihai Brestyan, Simone Biles, Gabrielle Douglas, Madison Kocian, Lauren Hernandez and Alexandra Raisman of the United States pose for photographs after Women's qualification for Artistic Gymnastics on Day 2 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at","caption":"(L to R) Coach Mihai Brestyan, Simone Biles, Gabrielle Douglas, Madison Kocian, Lauren Hernandez and Alexandra Raisman of the United States pose for photographs after Women's qualification for Artistic Gymnastics on Day 2 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at","creditText":"Tom Pennington—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4445637/aly-raisman-gymnastics-team/","name":"Aly Raisman on the Magic of the Gymnastics Team Competition"}}]}] ```