Graham Samuel Ackerman (born July 14, 1983) is an American

gymnast Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, s ...

. In April 2005, he won the national championship in the floor exercise event at the 2005

NCAA Men's Gymnastics championship The NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships are a gymnastics competition held each year to determine the best men's college gymnastics team. All schools compete in one National Collegiate division because only 13 schools sponsor NCAA men's gymnastics ...

at the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

West Point, New York West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. Located on the Hudson River in New York (state), New York, West Point was identified by General George Washington as the most important strategic position in Ameri ...

, making him a three-time national champ. In 2004, he won the national titles in two events—floor and vault. Ackerman is openly gay.

Career

During his early career, Ackerman had many large accomplishments. In 1995, he was the Washington state men's gymnastics champion. In 1997 and 1998, he competed in junior nationals. In 1999, Graham was once again Washington state men's gymnastics champion as well as the regional all around champion. 2001 was a big year for Ackerman. He competed in United States nationals where he placed 1st in the floor and vault exercises and 9th all around. He was also the regional all around champion as well the junior national floor and vault champion. During summer of 2003, Ackerman competed at the USA championships in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he won the silver medal on vault. In August 2003, Ackerman was chosen to represent the United States at the World Championships in Taegu, Korea. Ackerman began attending

University of California-Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

in 2002. His freshman season began with a slow start due to an ankle injury. However, he recovered with time to earn All-American honors in p-bar with a score of 8.575 which earned him 6th place at NCAAs. In his second-ever intercollegiate meet, a Stanford Invite, Ackerman earned a score of 9.775 of the floor which was a team season-high. Later on this season, Ackerman competed strong at Gold's Challenge in Santa Barbara. Here, he scored a career high 8.700 on the pommel horse and a solid 8.750 on the horizontal bar. He also earned Academic All-American honors. In 2008, Ackerman earned a Master's degree from the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 mill ...

References

1983 births Living people American male artistic gymnasts California Golden Bears men's gymnasts Gay sportsmen LGBT gymnasts LGBT people from Washington (state) American gay men American LGBT sportspeople Sportspeople from Seattle 20th-century American LGBT people 21st-century American LGBT people {{US-artistic-gymnastics-bio-stub