Carly Patterson was born February 4, 1988 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the first of two children to Ricky and Natalie Patterson. She now lives with her mother and fifteen year old sister (Jordan) and their two cats (Beijing and Java) in Allen, Texas. Carly began gymnastics in 1994. "I went to a birthday party at the gym and the head coach asked my mom if I had ever taken. He said I should," remembers Carly. She enrolled at Elite Gymnastics in Baton Rouge, where she spent the first five years of her gymnastics career, earning the title of 1999 Louisiana Level 10 State Champion before moving to Houston, Texas later that year.

In Houston, Carly spent her first year as an elite gymnast at Brown's Gymnastics, earning the silver medal on beam and 4th all-around at her first US National Championships. At 12, she was the youngest member of the US Junior National team. That fall, Carly's father was transferred to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, which gave Carly the opportunity to train at World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA) under coaches Evgeny Marchenko and Natalya Boyarskaya. Evgeny was a European and world champion in acrogymnastics and was awarded the highest Soviet Honor, Honorable Master of Sport, in 1990. Natalya was also a gymnast and a member of the Kazakhstan National team for six years. Together they led one of the top elite teams in the country.

A couple months after moving to WOGA, Carly competed in her first international meet, the 2000 Top Gym Tournament in Belgium. She finished second all-around to Russia's Anna Pavlova and won the bronze medal on beam. A few months later, Carly helped the US defeat strong Romanian and Chinese teams and captured the all-around gold medal at the 2001 American Team Cup. She also debuted her signature beam dismount, an Arabian double front, which was named the Patterson after 2003's World Championships.

Carly continued her success in the junior ranks throughout 2001 and 2002. She won countless national and international medals, competing all across the US and Canada, South America, and even as far as Australia and China. In her third US Championships, Carly easily won the title of 2002 US Junior National Champion! Following in the footsteps of her favorite gymnast, Mary Lou Retton, Carly won her first senior international title at the American Cup in 2003. She had officially arrived as one of the frontrunners for the 2004 Olympic Games.

Bela Karolyi said, "In '76, it was Nadia. In '84, it was Mary Lou. And now we have this wonderful, new, young, exciting star that is rising, and that star is Carly Patterson."

After battling a stress fracture in her elbow for much of the 2003 meet season, Carly was chosen to represent the US on the 2003 World Championship team. She and her teammates Terin Humphrey, Courtney Kupets, Chellsie Memmel, Tasha Schwikert, and Hollie Vise made history at Worlds, becoming the first US women to ever earn a World Championship team title! Carly also qualified for all-around finals, where she finished second to Svetlana Khorkina. She is the first American woman to medal in the all-around of a World Championships since Shannon Miller almost a decade earlier.

Coach Evgeny Marchenko told the press, "There are a lot of World Champions in practice, but it’s another story when you raise your arms, in front of the crowd. That’s what makes Carly so unique. She can do it, under this kind of pressure. That’s what’s really good for us. I think that next year she can do it. We’re hungry now for gold."

Unfortunately, Carly's elbow once again began causing her pain. By the time she competed in all-around finals at Worlds, the arm was so swollen that Carly could barely straighten it. In the fall of 2003, with the Olympic Games less than a year away, Carly underwent surgery to correct the problem. It would be a tough comeback, but Carly was determined. She worked to slowly regain her strength and improve on her flexibility and technique. Every morning, she was up at 6:45 for three hours of gymnastics in the morning, a break for private schooling in the afternoon, then back to the gym three more hours in the evening. To Carly, the sacrifices were worth it. "Like my coach says, 'The hard work you do never disappears.'"

In February of 2004, Carly came back to defend her American Cup title from the previous year. She easily won not only the all-around title but the four event titles as well. In June, Carly also added the title of US National Champion to her name. It was her first senior US Nationals, and Carly won floor and tied Courtney Kupets in the all-around. A grueling Olympic selection process followed, with two days of Olympic Trials competition and a week at the Olympic Selection Camp. To be on the Olympic team had been Carly's goal for many years; the dream became reality in July, when she was named as one of the six girls to represent the US at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece!

After a disappointing team result in 2000, the American women were determined to prove their status as a gymnastics superpower. As a team, Carly and teammates Mohini Bhardwaj, Annia Hatch, Terin Humphrey, Courtney Kupets, and Courtney McCool became Olympic Silver Medallists -- displaying some of the best gymnastics in the competition to finish second only to the consistency of the Romanians. Carly also earned a silver medal on her specialty, the beam. But it was on August 19, 2004 that Carly earned the most prestigious title in gymnastics: Olympic Champion.

All of Carly's hard work, dedication, and love for the sport paid off as she turned in four near-flawless performances to become the first American woman to win an Olympic gold in the all-around in a fully attended Olympic Games. Carly blinked back tears as she stood atop the podium with the national anthem playing.

"It just means a whole lot. I worked my whole life to be an Olympic champion," Carly said. "I don't even know what to say right now. You dream about this your whole life. Then you win the gold medal. It's just amazing."

Following her Olympic success, Carly went on a whirlwind 40-city gymnastics tour and made several appearances at award shows, interviews, and autograph sessions. She's appeared everywhere from the Wheaties box cover to a fashion show in New York City. Mostly recently, Carly has been working with the American Dental Association and recording her own music. Her possibilities for the future are limitless in and out of the gym.

“Her life has changed tremendously since winning the Olympics,” coach Evgency Marchenko says. “She’s been blessed with a lot of different opportunities. She’s been traveling the country, traveling the world, and that journey continues. I’m very pleased to see that she’s held up so well. She’s a down-to-earth person. She always has been. But, at the same time, I see her becoming a role model for a lot of young people. Bringing smiles to a lot of people's faces. She’s an awesome young woman and I’m proud of her.”