Lauren Zoe Hernandez (born June 9, 2000) is an American artistic gymnast. During her debut year as a senior gymnast, she competed as a member of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team dubbed the “Final Five” at the 2016 Summer Olympics; Ultimately, the U.S. won gold in the team event. In the individual events, Hernandez earned the silver medal on the balance beam.[4] She returned to training in late 2018 and expressed interest in making a comeback to earn a spot on the U.S. women’s gymnastic team for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but she did not qualify for the Olympic Gymnastics Trials.
Outside of gymnastics, Hernandez has appeared on season 23 of Dancing with the Stars in 2016, where she won the competition along with partner Val Chmerkovskiy. Hernandez hosted the first season of American Ninja Warrior Junior as the on-course reporter and starred as Valeria in the Nickelodeon animated miniseries Middle School Moguls. She is the author of two books, I Got This: To Gold and Beyond, a New York Times Bestseller and She’s Got This, a children’s book.