Carly Rae Patterson (born February 4, 1988 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) is an American singer and former gymnast. She is the 2004 Olympic All-Around Champion and a member of the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame. She currently lives in Allen, Texas.

Patterson was at her cousin's birthday party at Baton Rouge's Elite Gymnastics club in 1994 when coach Johnny Moyal, a three-time Israeli Olympian, noticed her talent and suggested that she begin to take lessons. Originally, her mother was hesitant about it, but Carly started tumbling and jumping around her house. There was not much room, and as her mom did not want her to get hurt, she enrolled her in gymnastics. In 2000, Patterson participated in the Top Gym Tournament in Belgium and won the silver medal in the all-around and the bronze medal for balance beam, her favorite event.

At the 2001 Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia, she was ranked second in the all-around before the final rotation. She missed three landings on the floor exercise, however, and finished seventh overall. "I don't know what happened," she said. "I can't give up, I will keep going. I was happy with my first three rotations, especially beam."

Mary Lou Retton (born January 24, 1968) is an American gymnast and Olympic gold medalist. She was the first female gymnast from outside Eastern Europe to win the Olympic all-around title.

Retton was born in Fairmont, West Virginia, of Italian heritage (her family's original surname was "Rotunda"). Her father, Ronnie, operated a coal-industry transportation equipment business. She attended Fairmont Senior High School, but did not graduate. She competed in the Olympic games during her sophomore year.

Retton lived in Houston, Texas until 2009, when her family returned to West Virginia. She is married to former Houston real estate developer Shannon Kelley, who now works for the Fairmont State University athletic department. Together they have four daughters: Shayla Rae Kelley (born 1995), McKenna Lane Kelley (born 1997), Skyla Brae Kelley (born 2000), and Emma Jean Kelley (born 2002).

Inspired by watching Nadia Comăneci on television, Retton took up gymnastics in her hometown of Fairmont. She was coached by Gary Rafaloski. She then decided to move to Houston, Texas, to train under Romanians Béla and Márta Károlyi, who had coached Nadia Comăneci before their defection to the United States. Under the Károlyis, Retton soon began to make a name for herself in the United States, winning the American Cup in 1983 and placing second to Dianne Durham (another Károlyi student) at the US Nationals that same year. Retton missed the World Championships in 1983 due to a wrist injury. Nevertheless, Retton won the American Classic in 1983 and 1984, as well as Japan's Chunichi Cup in 1983.

Mary Lou (born March 15, 1992) is an American actress. She is known for playing Mary Ferry on the Nickelodeon television series Unfabulous.

At age 8, she chose to pursue a career in television and film.

Mary Lou’s show business career started at age six when she entertained as a member of Singing Solo (a children's singing group located in La Mesa, CA) at a local street fair with a rendition of The Good Ship Lollipop. After this performance, she chose acting as her career. Over the next few years, Lou went on to sing at over two dozen venues throughout Southern California, Texas and Tennessee, winning multiple local, state, regional, national and world championship titles.

Mary Lou also filmed a guest-starring role on Phil of the Future, as a math-nerd named Alex, in Good Phil Hunting. Mary also appeared on Future Girls: Adventures in Marine Biology and Bad Mother's Handbook and guest starred on What should you do?. More recently Mary was on Glee. She continues to audition daily for feature films, television and voiceover.

Anastasia Valeryevna "Nastia" Liukin (Russian: Анастасия "Настя" Валерьевна Люкина; born October 30, 1989) is an American artistic gymnast. She is the 2008 Olympic individual all-around Champion, the 2005 and 2007 World Champion on the balance beam, and the 2005 World Champion on the uneven bars. With nine World Championships medals, seven of them individual, Liukin is tied with Shannon Miller for the second-highest tally of World Championship medals; Alicia Sacramone has ten. Liukin has also tied Miller's record as the American gymnast having won the most medals in a single non-boycotted Olympic Games.

The daughter of two former Soviet champion gymnasts, Olympic gold medalist Valeri Liukin – the first man to do a triple backflip – and World Champion rhythmic gymnast Anna Kotchneva, Nastia Liukin was born in Moscow and moved to the United States as a young child. She began gymnastics after spending time in the gym while her parents coached. Liukin is coached by her father at the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy, her family's gymnastics club in Plano, Texas.

Shawn Machel Johnson (born January 19, 1992) is an American artistic gymnast. She was the 2008 Olympic balance beam gold medalist and all-around, and floor exercise silver medalist, the 2007 all-around World Champion, and the 2007 and 2008 U.S. all-around champion. In 2009, Johnson became the winner of the season eight edition of Dancing with the Stars.

Johnson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, the only child of Doug and Teri Johnson. Her parents enrolled her in a gymnastics class at age three after they noticed her climbing cabinets and jumping off tables. At age six, Johnson was one of Liang Chow's first students when he opened a gymnastics school in West Des Moines.

Johnson attended a public school, Valley High School. She was on the honor roll, attended football games, and participated in extra-curriculars. Through 2008, Johnson maintained a more balanced lifestyle than typical of elite female gymnasts. She limited her gymnastics training to 25 hours per week, as opposed to the more typical 40 hours.