Carly Patterson is a gymnast who has competed for the United States. She competed at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games.
In the team all-around final, Patterson and her American teammates struggled to maintain their form. She under-rotated her vault, stubbed the low bar with her foot on the uneven bars, and incurred several wobbles on balance beam and a lunge forward on her dismount. Despite numerous setbacks across all rotations, the U.S. women's gymnastics team managed to claim a silver medal behind the Romanians.
Two days later, Patterson entered the individual all-around final with a top-seeded score from the prelims. There, she narrowly defeated the three-time world champion and her Russian rival Svetlana Khorkina by over a tenth of a point to capture the women's all-around title after two decades, becoming the second American woman to win an Olympic gold medal and the first to do so at a non-boycotting Games. She also claimed a silver medal behind the Romanian favorite Cătălina Ponor on the balance beam. She also received the eighth highest score in the qualifying stage of the women's uneven bars but she was ineligible to enter the final because of the two-per-country limitation rule.
Shortly after the Olympics, Patterson was diagnosed with several bulging discs in her lower back that went unheeded. She intended to take her time off from the sport to rehabilitate her back, but she officially retired in 2006 without ever participating in another major gymnastics meet.
Olympic Results[]
Year | Event | Result |
---|---|---|
2004 | Women's individual all-around | |
Women's team | ||
Women's floor | 10th | |
Women's vault | Q3 | |
Women's uneven bars | Q8 | |
Women's balance beam |
2004[]
Discipline | Stage | Score |
---|---|---|
Individual all-around | Qualification | 38.337 |
Final | 38.387 | |
Team | Qualification | 151.848 (38.337) |
Final | 113.584 (37.886) | |
Floor | Qualification | 9.500 |
Final | Did not advance | |
Vault | Qualification | 9.512 |
Final | Did not advance | |
Uneven bars | Qualification | 9.600 |
Final | Did not advance | |
Balance beam | Qualification | 9.725 |
Final | 9.775 |