Gymnastics Biography

Sara Marijuan narrates the story of how she made her dreams become true in such a minority sport as rhythmic gymnastics is, since she started it as a hobby when she was just seven years old until she retired after college. Through her passion for this sport, she wants to show how dreams have no limits. It is a story of perseverance and sacrifice, a lesson for life.

Two-year-old Rachel Haines didn’t know that she would be committing to 21 years of hard work, dedication, and perseverance as she jumped into the foam pit during her first “mommy and me” gymnastics class. She had no idea that one day she would become a two-time National Team Member, two-time National Champion, and a Division I college gymnast at the University of Minnesota. Nor could she have known that she had just signed herself up for serious injury, emotional distress, and continuous sexual assault by world-renowned trainer turned serial molester, Larry Nassar.

Gymnast Simone Biles won four Olympic gold medals in 2016, and she plans to compete at the Olympics again in 2021. Engaging text and critical-thinking questions will make this book a hit with young gymnastics fans. 

In early 2018, Larry Nassar, the former doctor for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University, was sentenced to serve out the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty to a variety of sex crimes. New York Times best-selling author Mary Pilon and Carla Correa chronicle the scandal from its inception, tracking the institutions that Nassar hid behind, the athletic culture that he benefited from, and the women who eventually brought him to justice.

Dreams of becoming the next Nadia Comaneci led Jennifer Sey to become a gymnast at the age of six. Her early success and love of the sport propelled her and her family to great sacrifice so that she could become a National Team member and one of America’s elite gymnasts by age 11. But as she set her sights higher, Jennifer began to change, setting her mental and physical health aside in the name of winning.

In 2015, Maggie Nichols’s gymnastics career was on fire. Having spent most of her young life training as an elite-level gymnast, Maggie carried the team all-around at the 2015 World Championships, helping to cinch the team gold medal. Next in her sights was the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She was eagerly looking forward to training for the 2016 Olympic Games along with teammates such as Aly Raisman, Simone Biles, and Laurie Hernandez. But on the verge of achieving her lifelong Olympic dream, her world came crashing down.

Alexandra Orlando is an Olympic athlete who dedicated seventeen years of her life to the sport of rhythmic gymnastics, winning almost two hundred medals. Despite injury, she competed at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, and retired from the sport at the age of twenty-one as one of the top ten gymnasts in the world.Her incredible story is one of struggle and strength. Through it all, her family and friends watched the sport consume her; and every person that came into her life was affected by the constant fight for perfection, and the mental and physical exhaustion

When she retired at age 19, Shannon Miller did so as one of the most recognizable gymnasts in the country. The winner of seven Olympic medals and the most decorated gymnast, male or female, in US history, Shannon tells a story of surviving and thriving. A shy, rambunctious girl raised in Oklahoma, Shannon fell in love with gymnastics at a young age and fought her way to the top.

Discover Aly Raisman's inspiring story of dedication, perseverance, and learning to think positive even in the toughest times on her path to gold medal success in two Olympic Games - and beyond. Aly Raisman first stepped onto a gymnastics mat as a toddler in a "mommy and me" gymnastics class. No one could have predicted then that 16 years later, she'd be standing on an Olympic podium, having achieved her dreams.

In Courage to Soar, the official autobiography from four-time Olympic gold-winning and record-setting American gymnast Simone Biles, Simone shares how her faith, family, passion, and perseverance against tremendous odds made her one of the top athletes and record-breaking gymnasts in the world - and how you too can overcome challenges in your life. In this audiobook, Simone shares the details of her inspiring personal story - one filled with the kinds of daily acts of courage that led her, and can lead you, to even the most unlikely of dreams.

For decades, osteopathic physician Larry Nassar built a sterling reputation as the go-to doctor for America's Olympians while treating countless others at his office on Michigan State University's campus. It was largely within the high-pressure world of competitive gymnastics that Nassar exploited young girls, sexually assaulting hundreds of them under the guise of medical treatment. In Start by Believing, John Barr and Dan Murphy confront Nassar's acts, which represent the largest sex abuse scandal to impact the sporting world.

In this searing and riveting New York Times best seller, Olympic gold medalist Dominique Moceanu reveals the dark underbelly of Olympic gymnastics, the true price of success…and the shocking secret about her past and her family that she only learned years later.

Melissa Stockwell has been a restless force of nature from the time she was a little girl speeding around her neighborhood on her bike, to her tumbles and spills as a high-level gymnast and Olympic hopeful, to joining the ROTC in college as an outlet for her patriotism and love of America.    

Twenty-year-old American gymnast Shawn Johnson is a four-time Olympic gold and silver medalist; a national- and world-champion athlete. Already a popular role model to all ages, in 2009 she captured the national spotlight again when she won on the widely popular Dancing with the Stars. Yet Shawn is no stranger to hard work and adversity.

At 16 years old, Laurie Hernandez has already made many of her dreams come true - and yet it’s only the beginning for this highly accomplished athlete. A Latina Jersey girl, Laurie saw her life take a dramatic turn last summer when she was chosen to be a part of the 2016 US Olympic gymnastics team. After winning gold in Rio as part of the Final Five, Laurie also earned an individual silver medal for her performance on the balance beam.  

In the 2012 London Olympics, US gymnast Gabrielle Douglas stole hearts and flew high as the All-Around Gold Medal winner, as well as acting as a critical member of the US gold-medal-winning women gymnastics team. In this personal autobiography, Gabrielle tells her story of faith, perseverance, and determination, demonstrating you can reach your dreams if you let yourself soar.

The Girls is a profound exploration of trust, ambition, betrayal, and self-discovery. Award-winning journalist Abigail Pesta unveils this deeply reported narrative at a time when the nation is wrestling with the implications of the MeToo movement. How do the women who grew up with Nassar reconcile the monster in the news with the man they once trusted? In The Girls, we learn that their answers to that wrenching question are as rich, insightful, and varied as the human experience itself.

"A volte, bisogna tentare l'impossibile perché diventi possibile". Giorgia Greco, Alessia Maurelli, Marco Lodadio, Špela Dragaš e Alexandra Agiurgiuculese, Michela Castoldi e Davide Donati, Giorgia Villa, Nicoletta Tinti, Julieta Cantaluppi, Antonio Bosso, Martina Centofanti, Vanessa Ferrari, Greta Riccardi. Ci sono storie apparentemente lontane – distanti – eppure così intimamente vicine. Legate da una passione che diventa, talvolta, il motore per muovere tutte le cose, stravolgendole. Una passione che, in questo caso, si chiama ginnastica e unisce, come un sottile fil rouge.

Reconocida como la mejor gimnasta en la historia de México, Alexa Moreno ha logrado lo que ninguna atleta en su ramo: una medalla en un Campeonato Mundial de Gimnasia (Doha, Catar, 2018), y ser la mejor rankeada en Juegos Olímpicos (cuarto lugar en la final de salto de caballo en Tokio 2020). Pero detrás de todos los logros y marcas mundiales, existe una chica a quien le apasionan la música, los viajes, la naturaleza; alguien que ama el anime y la cultura japonesa.

In 2021, Simone Biles shocked the world when she pulled out of the Tokyo Olympic Games after experiencing the "twisties" -- a scary feeling during which gymnasts lose control of their bodies while mid-air. Audiences had expected Simone to dominate these games. With seven Olympic medals, twenty-five World Championships medals, and four gymnastic skills named after her, she is considered to be the G.O.A.T. of women’s gymnastics.