Carly Rae Patterson (born February 4, 1988) is an American singer, songwriter and former artistic gymnast. She was the all-around champion at the

2004 Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

, 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. It sets the domestic rules and policies that govern the sport, promotes and develops gymnastics on the grassroots ...

Hall of Fame. Patterson frequently joins radio segments on 1310 AM and 96.7 FM The Ticket in Dallas Fort-Worth.

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. 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, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

and won the silver medal in the all-around and the bronze on

balance beam The balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus and an event performed using the apparatus. The apparatus and the event are sometimes simply called "beam". The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is BB. The bal ...

. 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 List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, 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, 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, United States, part of the Greater Los Angeles area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orang ...

. 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 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

. 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. 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 ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, 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 country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. 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 Mary Lou Retton (born January 24, 1968) is an American retired gymnast. At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, she won a gold medal in the individual all-around competition, as well as two silver medals and two bronze medals. Retton's per ...

won the title at the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly 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 ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. 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 gymnastics, artistic gymnast who competed at three Summer Olympic Games: 2004 Summer Olympics, 2004, 2012 Summer Olympics, 2012, and 2016 Summer Olympics, 2016. She won three ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

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 also has a number of high-profile corporate sponsorships; she appeared in a Mobile ESPN commercial aired during

Super Bowl XL Super Bowl XL was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion 2005 Seattle Seahawks season, Seattle Seahawks and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers season, Pittsburgh S ...

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''.

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 Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by the Walt Disney Company on Mar ...

'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 everything in existence; everything that is not imagination, imaginary. Different Culture, cultures and Academic discipline, academic disciplines conceptualize it in various ways. Philosophical questions abo ...

competition show executive produced by

Simon Cowell Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality and businessman. He has judged on the British television talent competition shows ''Pop Idol'' (2001–2003), ''The X Factor (British TV series), The X Factor UK ...

. 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 Broadcast syndication, syndicated country music radio show aired during the morning hours. The Bobby Bones Show, which originally aired from Austin, Texas, now broadcasts from studios at WSIX-F ...

''. The mixed version featured the new artist Captain Caucasian, a pseudonym for Bobby Bones. Patterson's song "Here I Am" was featured on the second season of the

ABC Family American cable television, cable and satellite television network Freeform (TV channel), Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through four different owners and six different name changes dur ...

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 a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

. They have 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 Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

in 2009. She was inducted to the

International Gymnastics Hall of Fame The International Gymnastics Hall of Fame, located in Oklahoma City, USA, is a hall of fame dedicated to honoring the achievements and contributions of the world's greatest competitors, coaches and authorities in artistic gymnastics. The early IG ...

as a member of the Class of 2024.

References

External links

*
Carly Patterson
at

* * * {{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 Sportspeople from Allen, Texas Singers from Texas Sportspeople from Baton Rouge, Louisiana Sportspeople from Collin County, Texas 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 21st-century American sportswomen