Carly Patterson was born February 4, 1988 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the first of two children to Ricky and Natalie Patterson. She now lives with her mother and thirteen year old sister (Jordan) and their two cats (Beijing and Java) in Allen, Texas. A straight-A high school student, Carly enjoys things almost all sixteen-year olds do: shopping, movies, the beach. But Carly is far from normal. Training over thirty-five hours a week at World Olympic Gymnastics Academy, this sixteen year old is also a world class gymnast. Carly began gymnastics in 1994. She enrolled at Elite Gymnastics in Baton Rouge where she spent the first five years of her gymnastics career, earning the title of 1999 Louisiana Level 10 State Champion before moving to Houston, Texas later that year. She spent her first year as an elite gymnast at Brown's Gymnastics, earning the silver medal on beam and 4th all-around in her first US National Championships. Another one of her father's job transfers landed Carly in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and opened up the opportunity to train at one of the greatest gyms in the country - World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA). Carly began training with Evgeny Marchenko and his team of elites.
Barely two months after arriving at WOGA, Carly competed in her first international meet, the 2000 Top Gym Tournament in Belgium. She finished second all-around to Russia's Anna Pavlova and won the bronze medal on beam. A few months later, Carly helped the US defeat strong Romanian and Chinese teams and captured the all-around gold at the 2001 American Team Cup. She also debuted her signature beam dismount, an Arabian double front, which was named the Patterson after last year's World Championships. Carly continued her success in the junior ranks throughout 2001 and 2002. She won countless national and international medals, competing all across the US and Canada, South America, and even as far as Australia and China. In her third US Nationals, Carly easily won the title of 2002 US Junior National Champion! Following in the footsteps of her favorite gymnast, Mary Lou Retton, Carly won her first senior international title at the 2003 American Cup. She seemed unbeatable until a stress fracture in her elbow kept her out of US Classic and Nationals. However, after a training camp in July, the US coaches and training staff had enough confidence in Carly to put her on the 2003 World Championship team.
Carly and the US team made history at Worlds, becoming the 2003 World Team Champions! Carly also qualified for all-around finals where she finished second to Russia's Svetlana Khorkina. She is the first American woman to medal in the all-around since Shannon Miller back in 1994. Carly hopes to continue this success towards the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
