ALY RAISMAN GYMNAST AND TEAM CAPTAIN Once there was a girl named Aly who found magic inside every sunrise Aly saw the sun rise a lot because she got up early to practice her cartwheels jumps and round-offs From the time she could walk she was in love with gymnastics When she turned 10 Aly told her coaches I'm going to go to the Olympics and I'm gonna win floor She had just met these new coaches a few days before But they took one look at her bright determined face and knew she meant business A few years later she began collecting gold medals in major competitions She flipped and vaulted soaring through the air in glittering leotards Her favorite routines were on the floor where she danced and leaped with a huge smile In 2012 Aly made her dreams come true She was going to the Olympics She and her incredible teammates were nicknamed the Fierce Five And these fierce gymnasts chose her to be their team captain Being a gymnastics team captain is challenging The athletes compete together to win team medals But they also compete against one another for individual medals Aly did her best to bring out the strongest performance in each member of the team She knew when to give a teammate space when to give a pep talk and when to tell them all to take a nap Her efforts paid off Aly won a gold medal for her floor exercise and she led the team to a gold medal too And four years later Captain Aly went back to the Olympics and did it again She won three more medals Through it all she says It is the journey and not the destination that really matters BORN MAY 25 1994 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 6
13 AS LONG AS YOU HAVE ONE PERSON WHO BELIEVES IN YOU THERE'S A LOT OF MAGIC IN THAT ALY RAISMAN ILLUSTRATION BY SALINI PERERA 2012
8 ANGELA MERKEL CHANCELLOR Once upon a time in Templin Germany there lived a seven-year-old girl named Angela One Sunday she was listening to her father's sermon in church when her mother started to cry What's the matter Angela asked They are going to build a wall her mother said They want to seal off the border between East Germany and West Germany Angela was stunned Why would they build a wall she thought People should be free to go wherever they like The Berlin Wall prevented East Germans from going to the West They were also barred from listening to the news coming from the other side Every day Angela hid in the school bathroom with a little radio It was illegal to listen to stations from the West But she didn't care She wanted to know what was happening in her country When Angela grew up she studied chemistry She wanted to become a university professor But the government had a special force known as the secret police They told Angela that she would be promoted but only if she spied on others Angela refused She never became a professor She was working as a researcher in a lab in 1989 when the Berlin Wall was demolished She called her mom and said I think we're free to go to the West Indeed they were Angela eventually became chancellor of Germany the head of the whole country She is a determined leader who knows the pain that walls can cause She never wants her people to be divided again BORN JULY 17 1954 GERMANY
WHAT WE SEEK IS HARMONY AMONG NATIONS THAT WAS AND REMAINS THE GREATEST GOAL OF EUROPEAN UNITY ANGELA MERKEL ILLUSTRATION BY ELENIA BERETTA
