Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Laurie Hernandez will deliver William & Mary’s 2022 Atwater Lecture on March 24 in the Sadler Center’s Commonwealth Auditorium.

The event, which begins at 7 p.m., is free for students. A limited number of tickets are also available to the public for $10 each. People interested in attending must register in advance. An audience question-and-answer session with Hernandez will follow her speech.

The lecture is sponsored by Alma Mater Productions with generous support from the Janet and Peter Atwater Lecture Endowment.

Hernandez was the first U.S.-born Latina to make the U.S. Olympic team since 1984. She won a gold medal as part of the team event during the 2016 summer Olympics. During her speech at W&M, she will discuss diversity and inclusion and her challenges with mental health as a young Olympian.

Hernandez is currently the gymnastics analyst for Peacock and the Olympic Channel and covered the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. She is also an advocate for mental health and literacy as a pathway to leadership, and she has written two New York Times-bestselling books, “I Got This: To Gold and Beyond” and “She’s Got This.”

In addition to her career in gymnastics, Hernandez won Dancing with the Stars in 2016 and has appeared in numerous other TV shows. Additionally, Mattel created a “Shero” Barbie in honor of her.

, University News & Media