Aly Raisman Gets Gold and Bronze After Olympics Appeal as Vampire Diaries Cast Wishes Team USA Good Luck

Women's team gymnast earns an individual medal after appealing her fourth-place tie finish as she and Gabby Douglas earn last-minute motivation from a fave TV show

By Gina Serpe Aug 07, 2012 4:01 PMTags
Alexandra RaismanRonald Martinez/Getty Images

Better late than never may just be Aly Raisman's favorite new phrase.

The U.S. women's gymnast today added another two medals to her haul: firstly, as the new Olympic gold medalist for the individual floor exercise competition (yay, Ali!) and as a new bronze medalist after appealing her fourth-place finish on the balance beam.

The latter turnaround came after it once again seemed bronze had slipped from her grasp, when judges reevaluated her scores from the nail-biting competition and ultimately raised her execution points, thus placing her ahead of Romania's Catalina Ponor, who had previously placed third. Ironically, the same tie-breaking rules that cost her bronze in last week's all-around earned it for her in today's event.

The ecstasy of victory, the agony of defeat, indeed. And as if that wasn't enough of a high, she and teammate Gabby Douglas got another big lift heading into today's individual competitions.

Yes, while rappers, snake-ridding plane-based actors and even our own commander-in-chief have publicly offered up congratulations and good-luck messages to the U.S. Olympic team in the past week, Raisman and Douglas had the honor today of an entire cast joining together to send them their best wishes.

And that cast happens to be The Vampire Diaries, one of the gold medalist all-arounder Gabby's faves.

"Hi Gabby, we heard you were a big fan of The Vampire Diaries, and all of us here are big fans of you, too," the cobbled-together cast said in the video.

"We'd like to congratulate you and the rest of the U.S. women's team on your gold medal—it's so cool—and you, for winning gold in the women's individual all-around competition. And we want to wish you and Aly good luck on Tuesday. We're really gonna be pulling for you here at Mystic Falls. Good luck."

So sayeth Mystic Falls, so sayeth the nation. And at least for Aly it seemed to do the trick. Sadly, Gabby, who failed to medal in the uneven bars yesterday, fell during her routine and did not medal.