Carly Rae Patterson (born February 4, 1988) is an American singer, songwriter and former

artistic gymnast Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which designs the Code of Points and regulates ...

. She was the all-around champion at the

2004 Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

, the first all-around champion for the United States at a non-boycotted Olympics, and is a member of the

USA Gymnastics United States of America Gymnastics (USA Gymnastics or USAG) is the national governing body for gymnastics in the United States. Established in 1963 as the U.S. Gymnastics Federation (USGF), USA Gymnastics is responsible for selecting and train ...

Hall of Fame.

Gymnastics

Patterson began gymnastics after attending a cousin's birthday party at a Baton Rouge gymnastics club (Elite Gymnastics) in 1994. She was coached there by former Israeli Olympian

Yohanan Moyal Yohanan Moyal ("Johnny"; יוחנן מויאל; born October 2, 1965) is an Israeli former Olympic gymnast. Early life He was born in Israel, and is Jewish. His mother, a ballerina, was a Holocaust survivor. He attended the University of Oregon w ...

. She started competing internationally in 2000, when she was 12 years old.

2000–2003

In 2000, Patterson participated in the Top Gym Tournament in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

and won the silver medal in the all-around and the bronze on balance beam. The next year, at the 2001

Goodwill Games The Goodwill Games were an international sports competition created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s. In 1979, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused the United States and other ...

Brisbane, Australia Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

, she was ranked second in the all-around before the final rotation but missed three landings on the floor exercise and finished seventh. Patterson became the U.S. junior national all-around champion in 2002. She then began her senior career by winning the 2003

American Cup The American Cup (also known as the American Football Association Cup and the American Federation Cup) was the first major U.S. soccer competition open to teams beyond a single league. It was first held in 1885. In the 1910s, it gradually dec ...

, where she was the youngest competitor, having just turned 15. However, she was forced to sit out the 2003 U.S. National Championships, which would have been her first Nationals as a senior, because of a broken elbow. Although she could not compete in Nationals, Patterson successfully petitioned to the 2003 World Gymnastics Championships in

Anaheim, California Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most ...

. There, she earned the all-around silver medal, becoming the first American woman to medal in a World Championships all-around since Shannon Miller in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...

. She also helped the United States earn the team gold medal, a first for the American women.

2004

Patterson again won the all-around at the American Cup in 2004, a performance she dedicated to her coach Evgeny Marchenko's mother, who had died just days before the competition. Later that year, she became co-national champion with

Courtney Kupets Courtney Anne Kupets Carter (born July 27, 1986) is an American former artistic gymnast. She is a two-time Olympic medalist from the 2004 Olympics (silver in the team competition, bronze on uneven bars), the 2002 world champion on the uneven b ...

. She also won the floor exercise at the National Championships and placed second on balance beam. At the Olympic Trials, Patterson fell off the balance beam on both days of competition, dropping her to third place. However, her performances at a subsequent national training camp were strong enough for her to make the Olympic team.

Olympic Games

At the 2004 Olympic Games in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

, Patterson finished first overall in the preliminary round and qualified for the all-around and balance beam finals. The United States, including Patterson, struggled in the team final: She under-rotated her vault, stubbed the low bar with her foot on the uneven bars, and had several wobbles on balance beam and a lunge forward on her dismount. She later admitted to being distracted after a rushed start on vault, with her coach saying, "The beginning of the competition was stressful. It set the tone." The U.S. women, the reigning world champions, settled for silver. In the individual all-around, Patterson narrowly defeated three-time world all-around champion Svetlana Khorkina of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

. After scoring lower than usual on the vault (9.375), Patterson was stronger on her last three events, scoring 9.575 on the uneven bars, 9.725 on the balance beam, and 9.712 on the floor exercise. She became only the second American woman to win an Olympic all-around gold medal, and the first to do so in a non-boycotted Olympic Games. ( Mary Lou Retton won the title at the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the sec ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

. But because those Games were boycotted by the Soviet Union, Retton did not face the Soviet gymnasts who consistently dominated the sport during that period, accounting for five of the eight Olympic all-around champions before 1984 and nine of the ten previous world all-around champions.) On August 23, Patterson competed in the balance beam event final, where she received a score of 9.775 and won the silver medal behind

Cătălina Ponor Cătălina Ponor (; born 20 August 1987) is a Romanian former artistic gymnast who competed at three Olympiads: 2004, 2012, and 2016. She won three gold medals at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens on balance beam, floor and as part of the Rom ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

Post-Olympics

Soon after the Olympics, Patterson was diagnosed with several bulging discs in her lower back that had gone unnoticed. She announced her intention to take time off from the sport to rehabilitate her back, but she officially retired in 2006 without ever participating in another major competition. She recalled the decision in a 2009 interview, saying, "I started having some back issues, and honestly, my doctor was like, 'Carly, you really need to stop if you want to be able to walk when you get older.' ... So I retired and moved on to singing."Carly Patterson Interview — 2009 Visa Championships
usagymnastics.org, YouTube.com, August 18, 2009. She continues to stay occupied with event appearances, gymnastics-related and otherwise. She is focused on expanding her career as motivational speaker sharing her story with all age groups and corporate audiences. She also has a number of high-profile corporate sponsorships; she appeared in a Mobile ESPN commercial aired during Super Bowl XL in 2006. She also finished her authorized biography, which was released in April 2006. In December 2011, she was featured on the TV show Hollywood at Home. Patterson teamed up with the Taylor's Gift Foundation as spokesperson for their 2012 organ donation challenge.

Eponymous skill

Patterson has one eponymous skill listed in the Code of Points.

Competitive history

Music

Patterson first expressed interest in becoming a professional singer in a March 2005 interview. On August 21, 2005, she gave an interview on Fox Sports Net's Sports Sunday in which she gave more details on her future career. She sang a small segment of "Damaged" and said that she went to New York City to record the demo. On December 18, 2005, she announced that she signed a demo contract for four songs with Papa Joe's Records, owned by Joe Simpson, father of Jessica and Ashlee Simpson. She worked with singer and writer Chris Megert. They wrote and produced songs titled "Time to Wake Up" and "Lost in Me".

''Celebrity Duets''

On August 29, 2006, she started her appearance on the show '' Celebrity Duets''. The program was a

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, re ...

competition show executive produced by Simon Cowell. Celebrities not known for singing were teamed up with professional singers; one of the eight celebrities was voted off each week. The show aired every Thursday on Fox with a results show each Friday, from September 7, 2006, to October 13, 2006. On September 15, 2006, during the results show, Patterson was eliminated from the competition (singing with Jesse McCartney). Patterson said that she would continue to sing. She also encouraged the audience to continue voting for the remaining celebrities because each vote raised money for charity.

Recording

On February 4, 2008, Patterson signed a recording contract with MusicMind Records, a Chicago-based label. Her single "Temporary Life (Ordinary Girl)" was released on iTunes on March 25, 2008. Her debut album ''Back to the Beginning'' was scheduled for release August 5, 2008. However, the CD was not released until more than a year later, on August 25, 2009, and in the interim, Patterson released another single, "Time to Wake Up", on iTunes on February 19, 2009. On September 10, 2008, a remixed version of Patterson's "Temporary Life (Ordinary Girl)" was played on the ''

Bobby Bones Show ''The Bobby Bones Show'' is an American nationally syndicated country music radio show aired during the morning drive. The Bobby Bones Show originated in Austin, Texas, but now originates from studios at WSIX-FM in Nashville. The show is synd ...

''. The mixed version featured the new artist Captain Caucasian, a pseudonym for

Bobby Bones Bobby Bones (born Bobby Estell) is an American radio and television personality, best known for hosting the nationally syndicated ''The Bobby Bones Show'', originating at KISS-FM in Austin, TX, and for his role as a full-time mentor on ''America ...

. Patterson's song "Here I Am" was featured on the second season of the

ABC Family The American cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and six different name changes) during its h ...

series '' Make It or Break It'', which focused on the lives of teen gymnasts striving to make it to the Olympic Games.

Personal life

On January 21, 2012, Patterson became engaged to strategy consultant Mark Caldwell. They married on November 3, 2012, in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

. After struggling with infertility, the couple had three children.

Honors and awards

Patterson was chosen for the

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actual halls or muse ...

in 2009.Carly Patterson Chosen for Gymnastics Hall of Fame
SI.com, February 3, 2009

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson, Carly 1988 births American female artistic gymnasts American women pop singers Gymnasts at the 2004 Summer Olympics Living people Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships Musicians from Baton Rouge, Louisiana Olympic gold medalists for the United States in gymnastics Olympic silver medalists for the United States in gymnastics People from Allen, Texas Singers from Texas Sportspeople from Baton Rouge, Louisiana Sportspeople from the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex World Olympic Gymnastics Academy Singers from Louisiana Originators of elements in artistic gymnastics Gymnasts from Texas 21st-century American singers 21st-century American women singers U.S. women's national team gymnasts Competitors at the 2001 Goodwill Games