From winning gold at the Final Five to sharing wedding memories, Aly Raisman recently reunited with her old friend, Madison Kocian, to celebrate the latter's most special day. Their reunion proved that few friendships go beyond the gymnastics floor.

Aly Raisman shared a beautiful photo dump on her Instagram account featuring snaps from the wedding of her friend, Kocian, with Jack Hughes this weekend. With pure excitement, she expressed her joy for the new couple. Her caption read, “Congratulations to @madison_kocian & Jack!”

Expressing the deep gratitude she holds for being invited to Kocian's special day, Aly also wrote, “Thank you for inviting me to be a part of your special weekend.”

Aly and Madison's history goes back to the 2016 Rio Olympics, where they dominated as the Final Five gymnasts. They won team gold together.

Reflecting on their journey together, she shared, “Madison and I were roomies when we competed together.” Quite apparently, sharing the same space as roommates made their bond much deeper.

Bringing some humour to the emotional post, Aly pointed out the messy one of the two and wrote, “Madison is extremely neat, and I was not 🙈 (sorry Madison😂).”

The sweet revelation shows Aly and Madison how far they have come from sharing the same global stage to fighting over small habits of each other, and now attending one's marriage.

Along with photos of the bride and groom, Aly's photo dump displayed that some elite stars like Jordyn Wieber, Cecile Landi, Olympic champion Kyla Ross, and the greatest of all time, Simone Biles, were also there to celebrate Kocian's special day.

Looking at the photos from Aly’s Instagram page, it is clear how some bonds are unbreakable, and these are the same people who stay by your side through low and high moments of life.

A Reunion of Rio's Final Five

The lovely wedding of Madison Kocian turned into a spectacular reunion of the most iconic personalities from gymnastics. From the highlights of wedding pictures, what made the celebration more exciting was the reunion of the Final Five from the Rio.

The Final Five reunion brought back the memories of how the historic five-women's squad represented the country at the 2016 Summer Olympics. The squad included Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Madison Kocian, Laurie Hernandez, and Gabby Douglas. Though Gabby Douglas was not present, seeing the others was nostalgic.

The dream team had completely dominated the global stage. They captured the team gold for the United States by a huge margin of 8.209 points against Russia. The team finished with a total of 185.238 on the scoreboard. They won individual medals, along with Biles winning gold for all-around, and Madison won silver on uneven bars.

Today, all the members have transitioned to different fields after their historic run at Rio. Biles is still continuing to break records in gymnastics, while Aly retired in 2020 and became a best-selling author. Madison, after her stellar career at UCLA, just got married, and Laurie moved into the entertainment industry.

Even though they have chosen different paths, it is the long-time friendships built during their gymnastics journey that continuously bring them together to celebrate each other.

So, in which event are you expecting to watch them together next?

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Written by

Sebi Mehta

Edited by

Souvik Roy