--- title: Rio 2016 Olympics: Team USA Gymnastics Wins Best Sports Fam description: The men's and women's gymnastics U.S. squads have proven that their sport is one of the most tight-knit — and supportive — in the game. canonical: https://time.com/4455158/team-usa-gymnastics-is-the-loving-sports-family-we-should-all-want-to-join/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-16T21:20:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:35:34.152Z og:title: Team USA Gymnastics Wins for Sports Family We Want to Join og:description: The past and present squads have proven to be the most supportive of teammates. og:url: https://time.com/4455158/team-usa-gymnastics-is-the-loving-sports-family-we-should-all-want-to-join/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37b53e15ea631aea/6988a1cf97cdff78fa6ad63b/simone-biles-womens-gymnastics-olympics.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Gymnastics Final Five Team og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Team USA Gymnastics Wins for Sports Family We Want to Join twitter:description: The past and present squads have proven to be the most supportive of teammates. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37b53e15ea631aea/6988a1cf97cdff78fa6ad63b/simone-biles-womens-gymnastics-olympics.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Team USA Gymnastics Is the Loving Sports Family We Should All Want to Join > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 16, 2016 9:20 PM UTC  RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - AUGUST 09: (L to R) Gold medalists Alexandra Raisman, Madison Kocian, Lauren Hernandez, Gabrielle Douglas and Simone Biles of the United States pose for photographs with their medals after the medal ceremony for the Artistic Gymnastics Women's Team on Day 4 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Rio Olympic Arena on August 9, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - AUGUST 09: (L to R) Gold medalists Alexandra Raisman, Madison Kocian, Lauren Hernandez, Gabrielle Douglas and Simone Biles of the United States pose for photographs with their medals after the medal ceremony for the Artistic Gymnastics Women's Team on Day 4 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Rio Olympic Arena on August 9, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 16, 2016 9:20 PM UTC The athletes of Team USA Gymnastics — both men and women — have proven during this Rio 2016 Olympics [just how tight-knit their community is](http://time.com/4450999/rio-2016-olympics-simone-biles-aly-raisman/?iid=sr-link1), with former and present Olympians rooting on their teammates enthusiastically throughout the Games. And the support has clearly been a winning strategy, as the gymnastics events concluded with the U.S. taking home 12 medals in the sport [across events and athletes.](http://time.com/4449366/simone-biles-wins-womens-gymnastics-all-around-gold-in-rio/?iid=sr-link6) We know how close the women’s Final Five are this year, following in the footsteps of their gold-medal-winning predecessors from 1996 and 2012. But the men’s team is pretty tight too. Sometimes it’s the inter-generational support that has been the sweetest to see. Nastia Liukin, who was the individual all-around champion in 2008, has been a constant presence at this year’s Games and major supporter (and selfie-taker) with all the men and women of Team USA. Meanwhile, other former stars have lent their voices from afar. 2008 Olympian Shawn Johnson East has been following closely. > [](https://twitter.com/ShawnJohnson/status/765614812000817152) 2012’s Jordyn Wieber lent her congrats to both the women’s and men’s team winners. > [](https://twitter.com/jordyn%5Fwieber/status/764952203400544257) Kerri Strug’s big moment was back in 1996 when she landed a critical vault (and sprained her ankle) to earn team gold, but she’s still got the backs of her present-day counterparts. > [](https://twitter.com/kerristrug96/status/763846295811264512) And viral vault star McKayla Maroney has also been keeping up with the proceedings, callings out Biles and Raisman as her “best friends.” > [](https://twitter.com/McKaylaMaroney/status/763816565808791557) > [](https://twitter.com/McKaylaMaroney/status/763860729522954240) There have been plenty of moments when each member of the current Rio squad has sent out support, too, like during the balance beam finals: Or as the final individual events went down, when the men’s and women’s squads got together to cheer on their teammates who still had landings to stick and medals to win. > [](https://twitter.com/NBCOlympics/status/765620037864529921) And at the end of the day, here’s champion Simone Biles and silver medalist Danell Leyva hugging it out. Turns out Team USA Gymnastics is definitely the sports fam we’d want to join: more than just achieving #squadgoals from year to year (and picking up [plenty of famous friends in the process](http://time.com/4446396/2016-rio-olympics-gymnastics-friends/?iid=sr-link8)), it’s an athletic community that puts a premium on supporting one another across generations. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4455158/team-usa-gymnastics-is-the-loving-sports-family-we-should-all-want-to-join/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4455158/team-usa-gymnastics-is-the-loving-sports-family-we-should-all-want-to-join/"},"headline":"Team USA Gymnastics Is the Loving Sports Family We Should All Want to Join","datePublished":"2016-08-16T21:20:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:35:34.152Z","description":"Once a gymnast, always a gymnast","url":"https://time.com/4455158/team-usa-gymnastics-is-the-loving-sports-family-we-should-all-want-to-join/","keywords":["Newsfeed","olympics","viral","Summer Olympics","2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37b53e15ea631aea/6988a1cf97cdff78fa6ad63b/simone-biles-womens-gymnastics-olympics.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37b53e15ea631aea/6988a1cf97cdff78fa6ad63b/simone-biles-womens-gymnastics-olympics.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Gymnastics Final Five Team","caption":"gymnastics simone biles final five team rio olympics 2016","creditText":"Laurence Griffiths/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":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4455158/team-usa-gymnastics-is-the-loving-sports-family-we-should-all-want-to-join/","name":"Team USA Gymnastics Is the Loving Sports Family We Should All Want to Join"}}]}] ```