LAUREN HOPKINS, FOUNDER / EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Lauren Hopkins began writing for The Couch Gymnast in July 2010, initially writing a few stories each year before becoming the U.S. Editor in 2012.

Inspired by Rob McElhenney’s “make your own stuff” philosophy, she founded The Gymternet in 2014. As Editor-in-Chief, she aims to produce smart, critical, and fair gymnastics content that puts the athlete first, with live meet coverage, interviews, and profiles the cornerstone of her reporting, and she created the You Asked, The Gymternet Answered column where she answers questions and shares her knowledge to help make an often difficult-to-understand sport more accessible to fans.

As a gymnastics reporter, Lauren has covered every elite competition on U.S. soil since 2010, in addition to covering all major international competitions including world championships and the Olympic Games. In 2016, Lauren worked as an associate producer for NBC’s live digital coverage of the Rio Games, for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Trans-Media Sports Coverage as part of the NBCOlympics.com team, and her writing has been featured in publications around the world, including in the Huffington Post. She has also written two young adult novels about elite gymnastics, with a third on the way.

A New England native, Lauren has lived in New York City since 2003 and earned her BA in History at Columbia University. [Twitter]