Olympians are the best athletes globally, and they are also some of the world’s youngest celebrities. They compete in their country’s colors, and they wear their country’s colors in competition. We usually see these athletes in competition when they are in their prime, usually under 30, and in many cases under 20. It’s no surprise that they grow up quickly because Olympic events only happen every four years. However, we rarely hear from athletes after they retire, and we have no idea what they’re up to! You’re in luck because we’ve tracked down the best so you can see what they’ve been up to lately!
Famous Olympic Gold Medalists: What Do They Look Like Now?
Shawn Johnson
When she was three years old, she began gymnastics. By 2008, she had won the gold medal in balance beaming. She was named “America’s Most-Liked Sports Figure” by Forbes the following year. Then, on June 3, 2012, Johnson announced her retirement from gymnastics.
Shawn Johnson
Alicia Sacramone
Between 2004 and 2008, Alicia started gymnastics at the age of eight and won 12 medals at the US National Championships. She has since amassed a total of ten medals, making her the second most decorated American gymnast. She retired from the sport in 2012.
Alicia Sacramone
Michael Phelps
Michael Phelps is simply the best in the world at everything. He has the most gold medals (23), gold medals in individual events (13), and 16 medals overall in individual events. He has won 28 medals in total, making him the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time.
Michael Phelps
Aly Raisman
Aly was the captain of the Fierce Five, a US women’s gymnastics team that competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. She won gold for her team as well as for herself. She won gold for the team and silver for her individual efforts in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
Aly Raisman
Dara Torres
Dara is the first American Olympic swimmer to compete in five Olympic Games. She has 12 medals (four gold) and was the oldest swimmer to be selected for an Olympic team at the age of 41. She has worked as a reporter and announcer for several networks, including NBC, ESPN, and Fox, and has had a successful modeling career.
Dara Torres
Greg Louganis
Greg Louganis was a gold medalist at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics (he was a favorite for the 1980 Olympics but was unable to compete due to the boycott by the United States). For his outstanding achievements as an amateur diver, he has received awards. Since then, he has served as a coach for the US diving teams in 2012 and 2016.
Greg Louganis
Nastia Liukin
Nastia’s parents were both highly qualified gymnasts, and she began gymnastics at the age of three after spending so much time in the gym. She was the world champion on the balance beam in 2005 and 2007 and the Olympic individual all-around champion in 2008.
Nastia Liukin
Apolo Ohno
Apolo Anton Ohno is an eight-time Winter Olympic medalist and retired short track speed skating competitor from the United States. In 2019, Ohno was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame as the most decorated American Olympian in the Winter Olympics. Ohno was raised by his father and began full-time training in 1996. After winning eight medals (two gold, two silver, and four bronze) at the 2002 Winter Olympics, Apolo has become known as the face of short track in the United States.
Apolo Ohno
Mary Lou Retton
Mary Lou Retton is regarded as a pioneer in the field of women’s gymnastics. She became the first woman to win the all-around gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics (a title she held for 20 years after). The famous “Retton Flip,” a gymnastics maneuver, is named after her. In 1997, she was inducted into the National Gymnastics Hall of Fame.
Mary Lou Retton
Michelle Kwan
Michelle Kwan, a figure skater, was the most popular female athlete in the 2000s and held the record for most Olympic medals. She is also known as the greatest figure skater of all time. In 1998 and 2002, she won two Olympic medals, as well as 14 other prestigious awards.
Michelle Kwan
Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner
Jenner won the 1976 Olympic decathlon title in Montreal, earning him the unofficial title of “world’s greatest athlete,” according to tradition. Following his victory, he set a third consecutive world record, earning him the title of “all-American hero.” Jenner underwent gender transition surgery in 2015 and is now known as Caitlyn Jenner.
Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner
Shaun White
Shaun White is widely regarded as the greatest Olympic snowboarder of all time. He won gold in the half-pipe at the 2006 Winter Olympics, scoring just three points shy of a perfect score. He had a high enough score to win gold without having to run a second time at the 2010 Olympics, but he decided to do so anyway. He came up just 1.5 points short of a perfect score this time.
Shaun White
Nadia Comăneci
Nadia became the first gymnast in Olympic history to receive a perfect score of 10.0 – and she did so at the age of 14! Six more perfect scores and three gold medals were awarded to her at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Over the course of her career, she has won nine gold medals and four World Championship medals.
Nadia Comăneci
Mark Spitz
Mark Spitz is a swimmer who won nine Olympic gold medals, a silver medal, and a bronze medal in four years. He also won five Pan American gold medals, 31 Amateur Athletic Union titles, and eight National Collegiate Athletic Association titles. He won seven gold medals at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, a record that he held until Michael Phelps won eight medals in 2008. Spitz became a stockbroker in 2002 and now gives around 25 motivational speeches per year all over the world.
Mark Spitz
Natalie Coughlin
Natalie Coughlin became the first woman to swim the 100-meter backstroke in under a minute while at the University of California. In addition, she became the first American female athlete to win six medals in a single Olympiad and the first woman to win gold in the 100-meter backstroke in two consecutive Olympics at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Natalie Coughlin
Gabrielle Douglas
Gabrielle Douglas was one of the five gymnasts who made up the Fierce Five at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and she helped her team win a gold medal. In addition, she was the first black woman to win the individual all-around title.
Gabrielle Douglas
Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee
Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee is a retired American track and field athlete who is regarded as one of the all-time greats in the heptathlon and long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals at four different Olympic Games in those two events.
Jackie Joyner Kersee
Shannon Lee Miller
Miller won the All-Around World Championships in 1993 and 1994 and the gold medal on the balance beam at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Simone Biles was the most decorated gymnast in Olympic history until 2016 when she competed in the games with a total of seven medals.
Shannon Lee Miller
George Foreman
Although he has a personal grill named after him, the professional boxer has accomplished much more. He is a two-time world heavyweight champion as well as a gold medalist at the Olympics. He won 76 out of 81 fights in his boxing career. He went on to become an ordained minister, author, and entrepreneur after retiring from boxing.
George Foreman
Mia Hamm
Mia is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and a FIFA Women’s World Cup winner. In 2004, she was selected to carry the American flag during the Athens Closing Ceremony. In 1997, she was named Sportswoman of the Year by the Women’s Sports Foundation, and with her 108th goal in 1999, she broke the all-time international goal record.
Mia Hamm
Janet Evans
Janet Beth Evans is a former competitive swimmer from the United States who specialized in long-distance freestyle events. Evans was a world champion and set a world record while competing in the 1988 and 1992 Olympics, winning four gold medals in total.
Janet Evans
Carl Lewis
Carl Lewis won nine gold medals in track and field during his career, which spanned 1979 to 1996. He is one of only three athletes in Olympic history to win four gold medals in a single event. In 2011, he attempted to run for the New Jersey Senate but was found to be unqualified.
Carl Lewis
Larisa Latynina
Larisa currently holds the record for the most gold medals won by a gymnast, with nine. Until Michael Phelps surpassed her as the most decorated Olympic athlete, she held the title for 48 years. Her achievements contributed to the Soviet Union’s dominance in gymnastics.
Larisa Latynina
Ole Einar Bjørndalen
Ole Einar Bjrndalen, dubbed “The King of Biathlon,” is the most decorated Olympian in the history of the Winter Games. He is also the most successful biathlete, having won 44 medals at the World Biathlon Championships.
Ole Einar Bjørndalen
Dorothy Hamill
Dorothy Hamill finished second in figure skating at the 1976 Winter Olympics, then won the short and long programs for gold. She is the only figure skater to win a gold medal without using a triple jump since then. She even invented a new skating move, the “Hamill camel,” which is a camel spin that transforms into a sit spin.
Dorothy Hamill
Rulon Gardner
At the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, Rulon won gold by defeating Russian wrestler Aleksandr Karelin, who had been undefeated for 13 years. It was also the first time an American won a gold medal in wrestling in full international competition.
Rulon Gardner
Mike Eruzione
Mike Eruzione was the captain of the 1980 United States Olympic hockey team, which is best known for defeating the Soviet Union’s undefeated record. Since then, the game has been dubbed the “Miracle on Ice.” Eruzione led his team to a historic victory (and even scored the game-winning goal), earning them the gold medal.
Mike Eruzione
Bruce Jenner
After winning the decathlon gold at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, he first attracted significant attention. We wonder what he has in mind for the future. He frequently makes appearances on the extremely popular reality series Keeping Up With the Kardashians. His official biography calls him an “entrepreneur, commercial spokesperson, television personality, actor, producer, and author.”
Bruce Jenner
Muhammad Ali
He competed in the light heavyweight division and won the gold medal at the Rome Summer Olympics in 1960. Parkinson’s disease has been identified in Ali, who is now 70. On his official website, it is stated that he has transitioned into a philanthropist who “has helped to ensure that more than 232 million people around the world no longer go hungry. He has visited many different countries on different continents, bringing aid to children in need by delivering food and medicine.”
Muhammad Ali
Tommie Smith
Tommie Smith, who won the Olympic gold medal in the 200-meter sprint that year, and teammate John Carlos made headlines by raising their fists in a “human rights salute” in 1968. He set a new world record with a time of 19.83 seconds. Smith won a lot of praise and a ton of awards for the salute he delivered during the 1968 Olympics. He currently earns a career as a public speaker, giving speeches across the world on a variety of topics, including racial harmony and human rights.
Tommie Smith
Nancy Kerrigan
Nancy Kerrigan won silver in 1994 and bronze in 1992 at the Winter Olympics after surviving an attack on her knee planned by Tonya Harding’s ex-husband Jeff Gillooly. Since she gave up competitive figure skating, Kerrigan has undertaken a variety of endeavors, including working as a commentator, writing two books, and participating in the 2017 season of Dancing With the Stars.
Nancy Kerrigan
Joan Benoit
Benoit became the first female Olympic marathon champion in 1984. (the year the event was introduced). Her victory was all the more impressive because she underwent knee surgery just before the Olympic trials. Benoit and her husband Scott are presently residing in Freeport, Maine. She has experience working as a keynote speaker, sports pundit, and coach for female runners of all lengths.
Joan Benoit
Michael Jordan
You’ve probably heard of this man, who is often regarded as the greatest basketball player in history. He was a member of Olympic gold-medal winning squads in 1984 and 1992. Is there anything Jordan hasn’t tried yet? Jordan departed the NBA in 1993 to try his hand at baseball. Two years later, he came back to the court to play for the Chicago Bulls. Jordan finally made an official exit from the Washington Wizards in 2003. Since then, he has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama, and in 2017, Forbes magazine named him the highest-paid athlete in history.
Michael Jrdan
Lisa Leslie
Basketball player Lisa Leslie made her Olympic debut at the Atlanta Summer Games in 1996. Between 1996 and 2008, Leslie won four gold medals, becoming only the second basketball player in history to accomplish so. Additionally, she has set new records for the United States in terms of points scored, blocks made, and boards taken. Leslie has made appearances in a variety of movies and TV shows, including Sister, Sister and Think Like a Man, and she has offered commentary for ESPN, NBC, ABC, and Fox Sports. She is now a co-owner of the Los Angeles Sparks, her previous squad.
Lisa Leslie
Kerri Strug
The most notable accomplishment of Kerri Strug is that she competed in the vault event at the 1996 Olympics despite suffering a serious ankle injury. Her coach, Béla Károlyi, had to physically hoist her onto the podium after she helped the U.S. team win the gold medal thanks to her performance. Since her Olympic days came to an end, Strug has worked for the United States Treasury, the United States Justice Department, and the White House’s Office of Presidential Student Correspondence. She is currently a marathon runner and a mother to Tyler and Alayna.
Kerri Strug
Tara Lipinski
Lipinski made history by becoming the youngest woman to ever win an Olympic gold medal with her triumph over Michelle Kwan, who was largely regarded as the favorite to win the medal. She apparently surprised the judges with a triple loop combo while performing to music from the cartoon movie Anastasia. A series of hip injuries forced Lipinski to give up competitive skating at an early age, but she is still active in the sport as a commentator. In Sochi, she made her Olympic commentary debut, and according to reports, she will be joined by Johnny Weir for the future Winter Olympics.
Tara Lipinski
Andre Agassi
Despite having a difficult start to the competition, Andre Agassi, one of the top players in the world, went on to win the men’s singles gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. He did it in the sport of tennis, becoming the first American to do so since 1924. Agassi is still actively engaged in the world of professional tennis even if he officially retired in 2006. He frequently participates in competitions and charitable events. He participated in the 2017 French Open as Novak Djokovic’s trainer.
Andre Agassi
Lindsey Vonn
2010 saw Vonn, a skier who made her Olympic debut at age 17, win the first gold medal for the United States in the women’s downhill. Tiger Woods, a golf professional, and the skier made their relationship public in 2013. After over three years of dating, they broke up in May 2015. P.K. Subban and Vonn eventually came into contact. In December 2020, exactly one year after they announced their engagement, they split up. Vonn competed in the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, despite missing the 2014 Winter Olympics due to a knee injury. In the women’s super-g, she tied for sixth position and took home a bronze medal. The skier announced her retirement from professional skiing in February after taking third at the 2019 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Sweden.
Lindsey Vonn
Gabby Douglas
According to Douglas, she and her Fierce Five teammates Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney, Kyla Ross, and Jordyn Wieber won the Women’s All-Around Gymnastics championship in 2012. It was an amazing sensation. Since winning gold at the 2012 Olympics, the gymnast has continued to rule her industry. She won several medals in various competitions in 2015, then in 2016, she added two more gold medals. She competed once more at the 2018 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she helped the US team capture the gold medal in the team event for two years running. Douglas took part in the first season of Masked Dancer and was declared the champion in 2020.
Gabby Douglas
Ryan Lochte
The New Yorker known as “Jeah” made his Olympic debut in 2004 and captured his first individual gold in the men’s 400-meter individual medley in the 2012 London Olympics. Despite difficulties in his professional career, Lochte has seen success in his personal life. He gave birth to a baby named Caiden in June 2017 with the model Kayla Reid. The couple had their civil wedding seven months later. In November 2018, they announced that their second child would be a girl. Their daughter Liv Rae was born in June 2019.
Ryan Lochte
Hope Solo
Hope Solo, a soccer goalie, made several saves to help Team USA upset Brazil and win the gold medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. After finishing fourth on Dancing With the Stars in 2011, she tested positive for a prescription substance that was illegal in the country. Before the 2012 Summer Games, the Anti-Doping Agency forewarned her. She helped the United States side win the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, for which she received the Golden Glove award as the year’s top goalkeeper. She contemplated skipping the 2016 Summer Games due to her concerns regarding the Zika virus, but she ultimately decided to participate in order to win a third gold medal.
Hope Solo
Simone Biles
Biles burst into the gymnastics scene in 2016 when she won five medals at the Rio Olympics, including gold in the team competition, the individual all-around competition, the vault, and the floor exercise. She also received a bronze in the balance beam competition. The competitor shattered the mark for the most gold medals an American had previously earned in a single competition. Following her Olympic triumph in Rio, Biles decided to retire from gymnastics. With Sasha Farber, she competed on Dancing With the Stars season 24. She also wrote an autobiography titled Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, A Life in Balance. Biles began competing in 2018, the same year she disclosed that she, too, had been a victim of Nassar.
Simone Biles
Kerri Walsh Jennings
Walsh and Misty May-Treanor, who played beach volleyball together, won gold medals in the Olympics in 2004, 2008, and 2012. After the London Olympics, Walsh Jennings revealed she was pregnant with her third child while competing in the Olympics. She gave birth to her daughter Scout in 2013. The athlete returned to the sand for the Rio 2016 Olympics with a a new partner, April Ross, and the two won a bronze medal.
Kerri Walsh Jennings
Ashley Wagner
The skater triumphed at the 2012 U.S. Russia’s Sochi hosted competitions and championships. In the women’s individual competition, she finished eighth, and she attacked the Olympic judges. The athlete was miffed that she placed fourth overall, behind three competitors who had failed to complete their routines. Since Michelle Kwan, Wagner is the only American woman to make three consecutive Grand Prix Finals. She was the nation’s first medal-winning female athlete in more than a decade at the World Championships. She was an alternate for PyeongChang 2018. 2019 will be Wagner’s retirement year.
Ashley Wagner
Gracie Gold
The skater triumphed at the 2014 U.S. Olympic short program and took home a bronze in Sochi. In the singles, she came in fourth. In 2016, gold won the U.S. Championships and Team Challenge Cup, but made the decision to skip out on a few competitions because to personal problems and coaching changes. After pulling out of the 2019 U.S. competition, the skater admitted that she was preparing for the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022. Nationals.
Gracie Gold
Gus Kenworthy
At the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014, the skier won a silver medal in the slopestyle competition, but that wasn’t the only reason for his international fame. In order to get four puppies and their mother to the United States, the athlete spent an additional month to assist in finding them homes. She also contributed to raising awareness of the condition of the stray dogs in Sochi. Kenworthy himself took in two of the animals. He then made a cameo on American Horror Story in 2019. In April 2021, former Bachelor contestant Colton Underwood came out as homosexual, and it was revealed that Kenworthy would be collaborating with him on a Netflix series. Kenworthy earned his first gold medal in February 2020.
Gus Kenworthy
Meryl Davis & Charlie White
The ice dancing team, which has been together since 1997, took home silver at the Olympics in 2010. They won the gold medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi after taking first place at the 2011 World Championships in Russia the year after. After their significant victory at the Sochi Games, Davis and White embarked on the Stars on Ice tour. They both also took part in Dancing With the Stars’ 18th-season competition. For her part, Davis’s Mirrorball Trophy-winning team included professional Maksim Chmerkovskiy. In contrast, White finished fifth with professional Sharna Burgess. The Olympic champions announced in 2017 that they would not compete again in ice dancing.
Meryl Davis Charlie White
Michael Johnson
Michael Johnson, an American sprinter, was one of the most successful athletes of the 1990s, winning four Olympic gold medals between 1992 and 2000. Johnson developed a top-notch sports training center in Texas when he retired. He has also worked as an Olympics pundit for the BBC.
Michael Johnson
Amy Van Dyken
In 1996 in Atlanta, the swimmer Amy Van Dyken won a remarkable four gold medals. She and her ex-NFL punter husband Tom Rouen relocated to Colorado to be nearer to family after working as morning radio DJs in Arizona for years.
Amy Van Dyken
Marion Jones
When Marion Jones acknowledged to using steroids, her five-medal track and field performance at the Sydney Games in 2000 was taken away. Jones developed a program to help individuals avoid the kinds of mistakes that impacted her life forever after serving time in prison for perjury and participating in the WNBA.
Marion Jones
Scott Hamilton
The backflips and footwork of four-time U.S. and World champion Scott Hamilton were his trademark moves. He participated in the 1980 Olympics as the flag bearer and finished in the fifth position. When Hamilton won the gold medal in the 1984 Olympics, he put a stop to a 24-year streak for men’s Olympic figure skating. In 1990, Hamilton was admitted into the American Olympic Hall of Fame. At the age of 63, Scott’s goal changed from winning gold medals to helping others. The Olympic Hall of Famer has now performed a significant amount of charitable work after going through such depressing circumstances due to his ailments. The Scott Hamilton Cares Foundation, which supports cancer patients, was established by him.
Scott Hamilton
Samuel Bode Miller
This Olympic and World Championship gold winner in alpine skiing is a former World Cup competitor. He is regarded as the most successful male alpine skier of all time and a two-time overall World Cup winner after triumphs in 2005 and 2008. He is one of just five men who have triumphed in all five alpine ski disciplines at a World Cup competition. Miller is now 44 and concentrating on being a spouse and a father. And despite his retirement from skiing, he continues to participate in it, serving as a spokesperson for Montana’s Big Sky Resort at the moment.
Samuel Bode Miller
Eric Heiden
At the 1980 Lake Placid Games, Eric Heiden became the first skater to win gold medals in every speed skating competition. Heiden won five Olympic gold medals, but he also won other awards. He was a very accomplished cyclist as well. Heiden was really enshrined in the American Bicycling Hall of Fame in 1991. In addition, the former Olympian earned his medical degree in 1991 and served as the United States team doctor. 2002, 2004, 2010, and 2014 saw the Olympic speed skating team compete. At the age of 63, Heiden and his wife Karen own and operate Heiden Orthopedics, a medical practice in the Beehive State of Utah.
Eric Heiden
Dominique Moceanu
Dominique Moceanu, being 14 years old, won the 1996 Olympics as the youngest American gymnast. The “Magnificent Seven,” the first US gymnastics team to win the team gold medal, included Moceanu as a member.
Dominique Moceanu
Dominique Dawes
Dominique Dawes was a part of three Olympic gymnastics teams that won medals. At the age of 16, Dawes won a medal in Barcelona in 1992, made Olympic history by becoming the first Black gymnast to take home a medal in that sport in 1996, and then won three more medals in 2000.
Dominique Dawes
Jaycie Phelps
Phelps, who had a vault named after her that is no longer in the Code of Points, was 17 years old when she won gold as a member of the “Magnificent Seven.”
Jaycie Phelps
Laurie Hernandez
At the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Laurie Hernandez, 16, was the youngest member of the “Final Five.” Hernandez also took home silver in the individual balancing beam finals in addition to the team’s gold title.
Laurie Hernandez
McKayla Rose Maroney
McKayla Rose Maroney is a former artistic gymnast and singer from the United States. She was a member of the Fierce Five, an American women’s gymnastics team that won a gold medal in the team event and a silver medal in the vault event at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Most of you probably know her from her iconic picture.
McKayla Rose Maroney
Kristi Yamaguchi
In 1991 and 1992, Kristi won the World Figure Skating Championships for the second year in a row, and she went on to compete in the 1992 Winter Olympics and win gold. In 2005, she was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame.
Kristi Yamaguchi
Birgit Fischer
Birgit Fischer won an Olympic gold medal in canoeing at the ages of 18 and 41, making her the youngest and oldest champion in the sport. She has won eight gold medals in six Olympic Games, a feat only one other person has accomplished.
Birgit Fischer