Laurie Hernandez - The Innocent
GYMNASTICS - TEAM USA
ARCHETYPE: THE INNOCENT
Day 22/135
Athletic Accomplishments
In 2016, Laurie Hernandez was just 16 years old and the youngest person in the entire 555 Team USA delegation at the Rio Summer Olympics. She had qualified as one of “The Final Five,” the top fleet of gymnasts for the dominant United States team. You know their faces. They were everywhere.
Thanks in part to Hernandez’s stellar performance in vault, beam, and floor, Team USA won EVERY EVENT in the team competition and took the gold medal, besting Russia and China by over 8 points.
Hernandez also competed well in the individual competitions, achieving something that only one other person can claim: she beat Simone Biles, claiming the silver medal on the balance beam.
After her success at the Olympics, Hernandez took 2 years off from gymnastics. In that time, she won Dancing with the Stars, hosted American Ninja Warrior Junior, and voiced the character of Valeria on Nickelodeon’s Middle School Moguls.
She also wrote and published two books: I Got This: To Gold and Beyond, a New York Times Bestseller and She's Got This, a children's book. All of this, and she's still only 21 years old.
Character Archetype: The Innocent
Laurie Hernandez won Olympic gold and silver medals at the age of 16. She was just a kid. A kid who believed that she could compete at the highest level of her sport.
But this was also a kid who had believed Maggie Haney, her former coach, when Haney belittled Hernandez for her weight. A 16 year-old girl, in the gym for 6 hours a day, hearing her coach call her lazy and weak. Forcing her to train and compete on a dislocated knee and broken wrist.
During her 2 year break from gymnastics, Hernandez testified against Haney, who has been suspended through 2025. Hernandez explained that the mistreatment led her to depression and disordered eating.
Children grow up, and innocence is lost, not just with time but through experience. But from those experiences, they also develop their own values, challenge the system, and make it better for those who come after them. Hernandez is back in the gym, competing, and hoping to win her spot at this summer’s Olympic games. The good news is that she’s already a winner.