Alicia Sacramone facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Alicia Sacramone
Sacramone performing at the 2008 U.S. National Championships in Boston.
Personal information
Full name	Alicia Marie Sacramone
Country represented	United States
Born	(1987-12-03) December 3, 1987 (age 37) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Spouse	Brady Quinn ​ (m. 2014)​
Height	5 ft 1 in (155 cm)
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Years on national team	2002–2008, 2010–2012 (USA)
Club	Brestyan's American Gymnastics
College team	Brown Bears
Head coach(es)	Mihai Brestyan
Assistant coach(es)	Silvia Brestyan
Music	300 Violin Orchestra/Heart of Courage Mix (2011)
Retired	January 29, 2013
Medal record Women's gymnastics Representing the  United States Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 0 1 0 World Championships 4 4 2 World Cup Final 1 0 0 Pacific Rim Championships 2 0 0 Pan American Championships 5 0 0 Total 12 5 2 Olympic Games Silver 2008 Beijing Team World Championships Gold 2005 Melbourne Floor exercise Gold 2007 Stuttgart Team Gold 2010 Rotterdam Vault Gold 2011 Tokyo Team Silver 2006 Aarhus Team Silver 2006 Aarhus Vault Silver 2007 Stuttgart Floor exercise Silver 2010 Rotterdam Team Bronze 2005 Melbourne Vault Bronze 2007 Stuttgart Vault World Cup Final Gold 2004 Birmingham Vault Pacific Rim Championships Gold 2004 Honolulu Team Gold 2004 Honolulu Vault Pan American Championships Gold 2004 Maracaibo Vault Gold 2004 Maracaibo Floor exercise Gold 2005 Rio de Janeiro Team Gold 2005 Rio de Janeiro Vault Gold 2005 Rio de Janeiro Floor exercise

Alicia Sacramone Quinn (born December 3, 1987) is a retired American artistic gymnast. She won a silver medal with the United States team at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Alicia is also the 2005 World Champion on floor exercise and the 2010 World Champion on the vault.

With a total of eleven World Championship and Olympic medals, Sacramone is one of the most decorated U.S. female gymnasts. Only Simone Biles (41), Shannon Miller (16), and Nastia Liukin (14) have won more medals for the U.S.

Early Life and Training

Alicia Sacramone was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 3, 1987. Her father, Fred, is an orthodontist, and her mother, Gail, owns a hair salon. Alicia has an older brother named Jonathan. She finished high school at Winchester High School in 2006.

Alicia started dancing when she was five years old. Three years later, in 1996, she began gymnastics. She trained with coaches Mihai and Silvia Brestyan. They coached her throughout her entire gymnastics career.

Sacramone began competing at the highest level of gymnastics, called "elite," in 2002. She joined the national team for the first time in 2003.

Alicia Sacramone's Elite Gymnastics Career

2003-2004 Competitions

At the 2003 National Championships, Sacramone finished 14th in the all-around. She won a bronze medal on floor exercise and placed fourth on vault. This earned her a spot on the national team. Later that year, she competed in her first international senior competition, the Massilia Gym Cup in Marseille, France. There, she placed fourth on floor and ninth on vault.

In 2004, Sacramone helped the U.S. team win a gold medal at the Pacific Alliance Championships in Honolulu. She also won the individual vault title. Her strong performances made people wonder if she would join the American team for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. However, at the 2004 U.S. Nationals, she made several mistakes. This ended her hopes of going to the Olympics that year. Even though she tied for a silver medal on vault, she finished 19th overall and did not qualify for the Olympic Trials. She also hurt her back and needed time to recover.

Sacramone continued to compete in late 2004 as part of the national team. She went to several international events. At the Pan American Individual Event Championships, she won titles on both vault and floor exercise. At the World Cup Finals in Birmingham, England, she surprised everyone by winning first place on vault. She beat the reigning Olympic vault champion, Monica Roşu from Romania.

2005-2006 Achievements

At the 2005 National Championships, Sacramone won individual titles on floor and vault. She scored an impressive 9.9 on floor. She also placed third on balance beam and fourth in the all-around. She was chosen for the American team, along with Nastia Liukin and Chellsie Memmel, for the 2005 World Championships in Melbourne, Australia. There, she won a gold medal on floor and a bronze medal on vault. She also successfully defended her World Cup vault title.

Sacramone continued to compete for the U.S. team in 2006. She participated in the World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark. She won a silver medal with the American team and an individual silver medal on the vault. She also defended her vault and floor titles at the U.S. Nationals that year.

In September 2006, Sacramone started attending Brown University and joined the school's gymnastics team. During the 2006–07 season, she managed to balance a full NCAA competition schedule with her elite training. She was one of the first American female gymnasts in a long time to combine full-time university studies and NCAA competition with elite gymnastics.

During her first year at Brown, she set new school records for the highest scores in the all-around, vault, and floor exercise. She was named ECAC Rookie of the Year. She also won every event at the Ivy League Classic, becoming the first gymnast to win the all-around and all four individual events. She qualified for the NCAA National Championships on floor exercise as an individual.

2007 World Championships

At the 2007 National Championships, Sacramone competed on three events, skipping the uneven bars. She won her title on vault again, placed second on floor exercise, and third on balance beam. After Nationals, she was chosen for the American team for the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

During the first round at the World Championships, Sacramone qualified for the event finals on floor and vault. She also helped the American team qualify in first place. She scored high enough on beam to make that final too. However, due to a rule that only allows two athletes per country in each event final, she couldn't compete for a beam medal. Her teammates Liukin and Shawn Johnson had higher scores. In the team final, she competed on vault, beam, and floor. When the American team struggled on beam, Sacramone encouraged her teammates to refocus. The American team earned enough points to win the gold medal, beating China and Romania.

In the individual event finals, Sacramone won a bronze medal for her vault performance and a silver medal on floor, behind Shawn Johnson.

Both her coaches and the U.S. National Team Coordinator, Márta Károlyi, suggested that Sacramone stop competing in NCAA gymnastics for the 2007–08 season. This would allow her to focus completely on preparing for the 2008 Olympics. In September 2007, Sacramone announced she was "turning pro" and signed with an agent. This meant she gave up her remaining NCAA eligibility.

2008 Olympic Games

During the 2007–08 school year, Sacramone continued to help the Brown gymnastics team as a volunteer assistant coach. She remained a student at Brown, studying sociology. She took the spring 2008 semester off to get ready for the Olympics. She performed well at the National Championships in Boston and the Olympic Trials in Philadelphia. On July 19, she was named to the U.S. team for the Beijing Olympics.

At the Olympics, Sacramone competed on three events in both the qualifying and team final rounds. In the team final, Sacramone scored 15.675 on vault. However, she fell on both floor (14.125) and beam (15.1).

After the Olympic team finals, some media reports largely blamed Sacramone for the American team winning a silver medal instead of gold. Sacramone herself said, "It's kinda hard not to blame myself." However, many gymnastics experts pointed out that the American team started with a score disadvantage compared to the Chinese team. They also noted that mathematically, Sacramone alone could not have been responsible for the team's final result. Her teammate Bridget Sloan also said, "We've all made mistakes. It's just really hard to see her go and leave these Olympics knowing that she thinks it's her fault. It is definitely not, and we've all been encouraging her very much."

Individually, Sacramone placed third on vault in the first round of competition. This qualified her for the individual final on that event. In the vault final, she placed fourth. She also placed fourth on beam in the first round. However, she did not advance to the eight-person event finals due to the "two per country" rule, as Liukin and Johnson had higher scores.

After the Olympics, Sacramone confirmed her retirement in February 2009.

2009-2010 Comeback

On August 6, 2009, Sacramone announced she was returning to training for elite competition. Her comeback was slowed because she had shoulder surgery earlier that year.

On July 24, 2010, Sacramone competed in the CoverGirl Classic. She placed first on both beam and vault. She did not compete on floor or bars. She was named USA Today's Athlete of the Week.

At the National Championships in August, she again performed only on vault and beam. She placed first on vault, which was her fifth national title on that event. She placed second on beam. She was also named Sportsperson of the Year.

At the World Championships in October, Sacramone won a gold medal on the vault and a silver medal in the team competition. This gave her nine world medals. At that time, she was tied with Liukin and Shannon Miller for the most world medals by an American female gymnast.

2011 World Championships

In July 2011, she added floor exercise back into her competitive routine at the CoverGirl Classic in Chicago. Competing on three events, Sacramone won gold on vault. She tied for gold on beam with Jordyn Wieber, and won the bronze on floor.

At the National Championships in August in St. Paul, Minnesota, she won the balance beam title. She placed second to McKayla Maroney on vault. After attending two selection camps, she was named to the World Championships team.

While training for the World Championships in Tokyo, Sacramone tore her Achilles tendon. She immediately returned to the U.S. for surgery. However, the team kept her name on the roster, and she was given a gold medal even though she didn't compete. This gave her ten World Championships medals, the most of any female American gymnast at that time. Simone Biles later broke this record in 2015.

2012 Olympic Trials

Sacramone qualified for the 2012 Visa National Championships. She placed first on vault and third on balance beam. At the Olympic Trials, Sacramone placed second on vault and balance beam. However, she was not chosen for the Olympic team. "I leave this sport with no regrets," she wrote on her Twitter page shortly after the team was announced.

USA Gymnastics Leadership Role

Since May 2022, Sacramone has been one of three high-performance leaders for the USA Gymnastics Elite Women's Program. In this role, she helps develop the National Team and individual athletes who are part of or might join the National Team. She is also one of the three people on the selection committee for the U.S. women's artistic gymnastics team for the 2024 Olympic Games.

Other Activities and Honors

In June 2008, Sacramone and her teammates Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin became the first female athletes to be signed as CoverGirl spokesmodels. Sacramone is also a member of Team 24 Fitness and speaks for the fitness company. In 2009, she appeared in a Gatorade commercial.

During the summer of 2009, Sacramone briefly lived in Los Angeles and designed for Tank Farm, a men's fashion company. She has talked about returning to college. In August 2009, she said she was not planning to return to Brown University. "I plan to continue school, [but] I’m looking into transferring somewhere in Boston," she said. "Brown is a great school and I loved it, but it was just not the best atmosphere for me. It was a great two years, and I learned a lot. I’m looking at Boston University, Boston College and Harvard. I want to weigh my options before I make an ultimate decision, but I would love to transfer to Harvard. I think that would be pretty much ideal."

On December 15, 2015, it was announced that Sacramone was inducted into the 2016 class of the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame. In 2013, Sacramone was also inducted into the Louisiana Italian American Sports Hall of Fame.

Personal Life

Alicia Sacramone announced her engagement to former Notre Dame and NFL quarterback Brady Quinn in August 2013. They married in March 2014. They have three daughters, born on August 6, 2016, July 6, 2018, and February 12, 2020. They also have two sons, born on March 17, 2023, and January 16, 2025.

Competitive History Summary

Year	Event	Team	AA	VT	UB	BB	FX
2002	U.S. National Championships (junior)		22			7
2003	U.S. National Championships		14
2004	U.S. National Championships		19
	Pacific Alliance Championships
	World Cup Ghent						4
	World Cup Birmingham
2005	U.S. National Championships		4
	Melbourne World Championships
	World Cup Ghent
	World Cup Paris						6
	American Cup
2006	U.S. National Championships		5		8	6
	Aarhus World Championships
	World Cup Ghent
2007	U.S. National Championships
	Stuttgart World Championships
2008	U.S. National Championships
	U.S. Olympic Trials					5	5
	Beijing Olympic Games			4
2009	did not compete
2010	U.S. National Championships
	Rotterdam World Championships					5
2011	U.S. National Championships						8
	Tokyo World Championships
2012	US National Championships
	U.S. Olympic Trials

Floor Music Choices

• 2002: "Jazz Machine" by Black Machine
• 2003–04: "Explosive" by Bond
• 2005: "Que Locura" by Christian Reyes
• 2006–08: "Santa Maria (Del Buen Ayre)" by the Gotan Project
• 2011: "300 Violin Orchestra" by Jorge Quintero and "Heart of Courage" by Two Steps from Hell

See also

In Spanish: Alicia Sacramone para niños