On April 12, Instagram witnessed a gymnast posing with two of her most prized possessions. An Olympic gold and silver – while the gold shows the traditional image of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, emerging from the Panathenaic stadium, there was a laurel leaf design on the silver, surrounding the Rio 2016 logo. She was recreating her pose from 2016, she gave after winning the medals and captioned, “ohh how time flies 2025 / 2016″. Oh, what a year 2016 was for US gymnastics as the final five made their appearance at the grandest stage of all. Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez, and Madison Kocian came home with 9 medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics: 4 golds in the team and individual events, 3 silvers, and 2 bronzes.
This gymnast, 16 in 2016, other than winning the team gold, in the balance beam final, delivered a routine that got her a score of 15.333, which secured her the silver medal. She finished behind Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands, who scored 15.466, and ahead of teammate Simone Biles, who took bronze with a score of 14.733. But a team gold, a silver, and finishing ahead of the GOAT of the sport isn’t her only achievement. Moving out of sports with her retirement in 2021, she helped a university create history and even sent a message afterwards. Here’s what went down.
“Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez helps N.J. university make history at commencement,” headlined nj.com on May 14, as the Olympian became a part of the first commencement in Kean’s history, recognizing undergraduate and graduate students at the same ceremony. While taking her honorary degree, the Olympic gold medalist had a message for the class of 2025 at NJ University. She said, “Give me a year and I’ll be where all of you are today.” It is also a rare feat for her because she spoke at one university’s commencement while still enrolled as a student at a different school.
The 24-year-old, born in New Brunswick and brought up in Old Bridge, is finishing her junior year at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she is pursuing a degree in drama. She is also a UNICEF USA Ambassador, joining a distinguished group of advocates, including Sofia Carson, Selena Gomez, and Lucy Liu. In this role, she has been a vocal advocate for children’s rights and mental health. While she recreated the Olympic pose by biting the Kean Medal and giving a wink, she also said, “Transitioning from an athlete to a student was daunting,”.
Hernandez retired from gymnastics at age 21, two years after she was named to the New Jersey Hall of Fame at age 19, making her its youngest inductee. Speaking for 19 minutes, she recalled her favorite Olympics memory, and no, it wasn’t winning a medal. Rather, it was a regular post-practice afternoon, when she, alongside Simone Biles and Aly Raisman, were “taking our hair scrunchies and sling-shotting them off the balcony,” just for fun.
“When I think about the Olympics. I don’t just think about winning. I think about the stress, the time, the injuries it took to get there, and I think about laughing hard with my friends,” Hernandez said. She told the class of 2025 at Kean that they would have memories from not liking certain classes, to the “weird memes” in group chats, and eating cold takeout food while rushing to finish an assignment. Her last words, perhaps, are amongst the most important ones to come from a gymnast.
Words that could be made into a poster and stuck around for the pure emotion and message it carries. She said, “In the midst of your success, you will remember the laughter, and that will be your favorite part.” Other than gold, she now shares another thing with Simone Biles.
The message by Dr. Simone Biles
On May 12, 2025, Washington University in St. Louis conferred an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree upon Simone Biles during its 164th commencement ceremony. This prestigious recognition was awarded not only for her unparalleled achievements in gymnastics but also for her advocacy in mental health, resilience, and her commitment to social causes. Despite the rain, the crowd of students, faculty, and families gathered in their caps and gowns to hear Biles speak.
“The world doesn’t need you to be perfect,” Biles told the graduates. “It needs you to be bold, it needs you to care, and to keep going even when things don’t go as planned. So go out there and write your own story, only one you can tell.” Sharing personal insights about sacrifice and the pressure of high-level competition, she told the undergraduates to stay grounded and take a deep breath when they need it.
And just like her 2016 Rio Olympics teammate, Biles gave a message that once again should be printed into posters and stuck around for the amount of emotion, power, and motivation it carries. She said that her gymnastics career has been filled with achievements she didn’t think of, but “I’m going to let you in on a little secret — being the GOAT was never the goal. All I ever wanted to be was the greatest Simone that I could be.” She continued, “You don’t have to be the greatest engineer, the greatest lawyer, the greatest entrepreneur, or the greatest social worker. You just need to be the greatest you that you can be, the greatest you of all time.”
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