McKayla Maroney left Rio Olympics & starting career as a Female Drake!

McKayla Rose Maroney is an American former artistic gymnast. 

She was a member of the U.S. women's gymnastics team 

dubbed the Fierce Five at the 2012 Summer Olympics, 

where she won a gold medal.

 Born:December 9, 1995 (age 20), Aliso Viejo, California, United States

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McKayla Maroney won’t be competing at the Rio Olympics but she doesn't want anyone to feel sorry for her. She has her sights on a new goal: building a music career in the vein of her biggest inspiration, Drake.

"I was a gymnast my whole life," Maroney told Seventeen Magazine. "I mean, I'd go to Starbucks and people would be like, 'Are you going to the next Olympics?' And when I'd say no, they'd literally look sad. So it was very hard for me to get excited about anything else."

Maroney skyrocketed to fame after winning two medals at the 2012 London Olympics. First, her Amanar vault in the team final was so flawless that one of the judges literally dropped her jaw. With Maroney's big vault score boosting the U.S. women to an early lead, they became the first American gymnasts to win an Olympic team gold since the Magnificent Seven at the 1996 Atlanta Games. The Fierce Five were born.

Marony had one more event at the London Olympics: the vault final. She was the reigning world champion from 2011 and had proved in the team final that she was still one of the best vaulters on the planet, so it's an understatement to say she was favored to win gold. But then the other half of Maroney's fame arrived: as she puts it herself in her Instagram profile, she became "that one gymnast girl who fell at the Olympics."

Her fall on her second vault shocked fans and left her with a silver medal, but it was her reaction on the medal stand—a two-second puckering of her mouth to the side to express her disappointment—that made Maroney a full-fledged internet sensation.

Maroney rode the wave of meme-dom, even doing the face with President Obama at the White House. And she kept competing, going back to the world championships in 2013 to win another gold on vault.

And then came repeated injuries and a decision to stop training for the Rio Olympics. In an interview with Gymcastic in February, she said she didn't want people to use the word "retiring" because the sport would always be a part of her life.

 "I really thought I was going to be there. Even six or seven months ago," Maroney said. "But I ended up having some different health issues and I didn't even realize that I was starting to fall out of love with the sport and in love with music."

But then she turned her focus back to her new passion: her music career.

"I've loved writing songs since I was really young," Maroney said. "I thought I was going to be like Sia and sell my songs to people. But after they were done, I was like, 'I'm not going to sell these to anybody! I want to sing them.'"

"My biggest inspiration is Drake. I love the way that he tells stories. It has a little bit of a Calypso jam vibe. He's real and always lyrically-driven in all the melodies. If there's one person I want to sound like, it's him," Maroney said. 

"I think it freaks people out to see somebody change just a little bit," she said. "I don't mean to freak anybody out. At the end of the day, I have changed. I can't blame anybody for saying, 'Oh, she changed!' You know, because I have."

Credits:http://www.nbcolympics.com/news/mckayla-maroney-wants-be-female-drake