

Who could forget the “not impressed” girl from the 2012 London Olympics. McKayla Maroney was the gold medalist behind the meme that shot her to fame. McKayla got her start in gymnastics when she was a very young girl and continued to train into her teenage years. She was incredibly successful and a very talented gymnast. Her work ethic combined with her physical abilities landed her a spot on the American Olympic gymnastics team back in 2012. So besides getting into trouble on Instagram, what has McKayla Maroney been up to seen she made that unimpressed face on the podium at the Olympics? Negative Press McKayla Maroney had a lot of success during her time competing in the Olympics. However, after she returned home from the glory of the Olympic stadium, her career and personal life were subjected to complications and disappointment. She even ended up in news headlines but not for the reasons she wanted. But was McKayla Maroney able to bounce back from these setbacks or did she let them affect the rest of her life?

Athletic roots McKayla was born to Erin and Maroney in 1995 on December 9th. McKayla was basically destined to be an athlete from her birth since both of her parents had a sports background. Her mother Erin was good at figure skating and an athlete in her school days while her father was a football player in college at University. McKayla got started in gymnastics from a very young age and was even home schooled so that that she could concentrate on her training.

She was always climbing McKayla was put into gymnastics from a very young age after her mother saw how rambunctious her little girl was. McKayla recalled, “When I was younger, I would be watching Tarzan and running around on all fours. My mom was like, ‘I need to put this child in gymnastics. She’s crazy.’ I was technically in gymnastics at the age of 2 and always felt comfortable in the gym.” While it was just a fun hobby in the beginning, gymnastics soon became the center of McKayla’s life.

She had big dreams By the time she was 9, McKayla was already training very seriously. She was at the top of her gymnastics class at her gym in California. It was clear that McKayla was talented very early on and that she had big dreams. “I realized that I had a dream that I wanted to go to the Olympics and I wanted to go as far as I could go. I thought I should probably move to a new gym and start thinking about the Olympics.”

Her hero McKayla had olympic dreams from a very young age and even recalls watching other gymnasts on television during the Olympic games. “I remember watching Carly Patterson. She was one of my favorites. I loved her floor routine. I went to Olympic Trials that year (2004) with Kyla [Ross].” Patterson was a role model to McKayla during her training and gave her an example to follow of how far she could go in her gymnastic career.

She did not want to be tall In addition to admiring other gymnast’s careers, McKayala also admired their appearance. She explained, “I remember seeing the gymnasts on the floor and I loved all of their leotards. I thought they were so little and so amazing,” she said. “‘How am I going to stay this little?’ I was worried that I was going to be really tall because my dad is 6’3″ and my mom is 5’2″, so I didn’t know which one I was going to be.”

A big accomplishment McKayla’s first big competition happened when she was only 13 years-old in 2009. It was at a championship competition which took place in Texas. McKayla was very successful as she came in third in one of the events. She did not understand how well she had performed at the time. She said, “I was just really little and I didn’t really know what was going on. But I just did it, and I was just very happy that I landed on my feet.”

She continued to improve McKayla returned to the same competition the following year which took place in Connecticut. Not only did she do well again, but she placed higher than she did the year before. She came in third over all in the competition and got first place in the vault event. McKayla continued to improve in her skills which resulted in placing in more competitions. She was getting so good that she started competing internationally.

Pan American games McKayla began to travel all over the world for gymnastics. She went to the ‘Pan American Games’ in Mexico. There, she competed with the American team and her efforts in many events helped contribute toward their first place win. McKayla even finished first in both the floor and vault events. She was becoming a gymnastic star and continued to improve with every competition. She was a great asset to the American gymnastic team and was clearly a strong athlete on her own.

Continuing to travel McKayla continued to do well and was travelling more as well. She went to compete in Italy in 2011. McKayla did very well as was expected and placed first in the overall competition. She was now an experienced gymnast and competed again in the same championship competition for the third year in a row. This competition took place in Minnesota and McKayla continued to impress the judges as she came second overall in the competition.

Winning streak McKayla kept her winning streak up when she travelled all the way to Tokyo, Japan in 2011 to compete in the ‘World Artistic Gymnastics’. She again competed with a U.S. team and heavily contributed to the team winning the gold medal. McKayla said of her success, “For every competition, I just went in there with confidence in myself and in my team, and each day it felt like I gained more and more experience.”

Fab Five McKayla’s faith in her team would prove to be very useful in her upcoming major competition. Her team later became known to us all as the Fab Five. The group was composed of Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber, Kyla Ross, and McKayla herself. The group of young girls were quickly becoming well known in the gymnastic world. They were extremely successful as a team which was advantageous for them as the Olympics were quickly approaching.

Name change While the team were extremely successful in their sport and excelled in competitions, Jordyn and McKayla thought that their group name need a slight change. The University of Michigan had a sports team with the same name and McKayla thought that she and her team should be unique and set themselves apart. It was hard for them to decide between feisty and fierce, but the team eventually decided on the latter.

Olympic success The now Fierce Five took their talents all the way to the Olympic games which took place in London in 2012. McKayla was a major asset to her team as she was always been in other competitions in the past and was a big contributor for the American team’s ultimate victory. Their average score was an impressive 9.733. She explained, “I just wanted them to do so well and I’m just so proud of them…That last event on floor was really exhilarating, but amazing at the same time. I don’t think I will ever, ever forget that.”

Olympic disappointment While McKayla won gold with her team, she was disappointed in her placement in the individual events. While McKayla was performing in her individual routine, she fell off of the vault and landed on the floor. While she still won the silver medal, which is a big accomplishment, McKayla was disappointed in herself as she knew she could do better and wanted to win gold. This just show how dedicated and hard working McKayla is.

Wanting to do better McKayla took full responsibility for her mistake and wanted to know what she did wrong to improve herself for future competitions. She said, “I’ll have to watch the video and figure out what happened, it’s really sad that I had to fall on that vault but I’m glad I won a silver medal. I know I can do better vaults but I also know I didn’t deserve the gold medal because I fell on my second vault. It happens. It’s gymnastics. You can’t always be perfect. Sometimes things don’t go as planned.”

Disappointment turned into fame While McKayla was disheartened by her silver medal, it ultimately rose to her international fame and notoriety. When McKayla was standing on the podium to receive her silver medal, she made a face that would live on in meme culture forever. She had pouted her lips to one side of her face in a display of disappointment. Someone started a blog entitled “McKayla is not impressed” and posted the picture of her making that face.

Internet fame McKayla’s face turned became a viral internet sensation overnight and everyone now knew the name McKayla Maroney. Her face was posted in all different kinds of memes and they were quite humorous. Many of them featured McKayla looking unimpressed at very impressive things. For example, someone cropped her picture over the ‘Great Wall of China’ and in another meme, someone put her beside Usain Bolt as he won first place in the Olympics.

Rise to fame McKayla took her meme fame in great stride and said that she thought it was, “kinda funny.” Although she was gaining attention for her face and not for her athletic abilities, McKayla was able to make light of the whole situation. It pushed her into the public eye and she even appeared on shows like David Letterman’s talk show and ‘Dancing with the Stars’ as a result of her unimpressed face.

Devastating injury With all of her success, McKayla intended to continue her gymnastics career and keep accepting new opportunities and competing in other competitions. However, McKayla was not able to go through with her big plans. Only a few months after the Olympics had ended, McKayla was competing in California when her shinbone was badly injured. She had screws put into her leg and could no longer compete. She came back on the tour to support her teammates.

Road to recovery As we know, McKayla is extremely determined and it was no different after her injury. She worked hard and was able to fully recover. In 2013 she returned to the U.S. team and was healed and excited to make her big return to the vault. She came back with a bang at the ‘World Artistic Gymnastics’ that took place in Antwerp, Belgium. McKayla made a big comeback to the gymnastics scene as she took home the gold in the final vault competition.

Making her comeback As if coming back from a major injury was not enough, McKayla also broke a record in the process. She was the first woman ever from the U.S. to defend the world title in the vault competition. It was an incredible comeback story as everyone thought that she would be forced to retire at 18 as a result of her leg injury. This was McKayla’s moment of triumph that she had been waiting for ever since she fell in 2012 at the Olympics.

Miss America McKayla has had a lot of success since the London Olympics shot her into fame. Everyone was after her to make appearances and it opened doors to major opportunities. One of those opportunities came when the organizers of the Miss America Pageant invited McKayla to be a judge at the 86th annual competition. It was a big spectacle and she judged alongside Mary Hart and Cheryl Burke. It was finally McKayla’s turn to be a judge instead of being the one getting judged.

Music videos McKayla’s success did not stop there. She continued to receive many opportunities and even starred in a music video for Jared Leto’s band, Thirty Seconds To Mars. The song was fittingly titled “Up In The Air” and it featured McKayla doing a gymnastic performance. Her job offers did not end there and she and Jordyn Wieber later worked as burlesque dancers for a Dita Von Tesse video. McKayla was not only receiving dancing opportunities but also endorsements.

Brand ambassador McKayla began signing brand deals and even accepted a major deal with the well known sports company Adidas. Her face was in advertisements and she was very sought after by other companies. McKayla talked about why she was a great ambassador for the brand. She said, “I’ve worked so hard to achieve my dreams because I truly love it. I’ve learned in life to do what you love and what makes you happy – it will always be worth it.”

She’s an actress It seems that McKayla is not only a talented athlete but she is also an actress. She made her debut into acting when she appeared in a number of episodes in the series entitled Hart of Dixie which is a well known television program. The show stars Rachel Bilson who is famous for her role as Summer on The O.C. McKayla also made guest appearances in Bones and in the sitcom entitled Superstore which America Ferrera stars in.

Retirement In 2016 McKayla announced that she was retiring from gymnastics only two days after her former teammate Kyla Ross announced that she was retiring as well. McKayla discussed her decision on a podcast called GymCastic and explained that she had gotten many injuries since her Olympic days. She also said that she had been struggling with fitness for the four years following her team’s gold medal win. While it might have been the end of her athletic career it was not the end of McKayla Maroney.

Instagram controversy After her announcement, McKayla was thrust back into the spotlight but this time it was for controversial reasons. In 2017, McKayla got a lot of negative media attention after she posted a provocative video on Instagram. McKayla responded to attacks by saying that she wanted to post the video and no one had hacked her account. Critics were saying that as a hero to many young girls, McKayla should not have posted the video but McKayla responded and said she had no intentions of being a role model.