Danell Leyva

Danell Leyva was a Cuban-American gymnast who won a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Born in Cuba and raised in Miami, you might say that Leyva was born to be a gymnast. His mother and stepfather were both members of Cuba's national gymnastics team, so they both instilled their love for the sport into their young son. With a love of gymnastics firmly established, Leyva began his training at four-years-old. With his stepfather serving as his coach, Leyva took quickly to the sport. His specialty was the parallel bars, and before long, he was wowing his teammates and coaches with his sheer mastery of the bars. While racking up a number of medals in various national competitions, Leyva was invited to join the U.S. Men's National Gymnastics Team in 2009 at the age of 17. In joining the team, Leyva made history as its youngest member, as well as the team's first Cuban-American member. Over the next few years Leyva started winning medals in numerous international gymnastics competitions. In addition to nabbing a gold medal at the 2010 World Artistic Gymnastic Championships in Melbourne, he also won a gold medal for the parallel bars at the 2011 World Championships in Tokyo. With his gymnastics career already at a high point, Leyva achieved success on the sports world's biggest stage in the summer of 2012 when he won a bronze medal in the Men's All Around at the London Olympics. Over the next four years Leyva continued competing in gymnastics competitions, both on the national and international levels, in the preparation for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. As a member of the U.S. men's gymnastics team, Leyva hoped to improve on his success from four years prior by taking home a gold medal.