2011 Maroney made her senior international debut at the
City of Jesolo Trophy in
Jesolo, Italy, and won the all-around competition. She also won gold medals with the American team and on the vault. She only competed on the
balance beam and the floor exercise at the U.S. Classic, finishing sixth and fifth, respectively. She then competed at the
U.S. Championships in
Saint Paul, Minnesota. During the first day of competition, she fell on a double
Arabian on the floor exercise and ranked fifth in the all-around rankings. She improved her performance on the second day to ultimately finish second to
Jordyn Wieber in the all-around. Additionally, she won the vault competition. Maroney was selected to compete at the
2011 World Championships in
Tokyo alongside Wieber,
Sabrina Vega,
Aly Raisman,
Gabby Douglas, and
Alicia Sacramone. She contributed scores on the vault and floor exercise toward the American team's gold medal win by over four points ahead of Russia. She then won the gold medal in the vault final by more than half a point ahead of silver medalist
Oksana Chusovitina.
2012 In preparation for the Olympic season, Maroney kept the
Amanar as her first vault and upgraded her second vault to the
roundoff half-on
layout full. She also increased her
difficulty scores on the
uneven bars and balance beam. She began the season at the
City of Jesolo Trophy and won gold medals with the American team and on the vault. Additionally, she placed fourth in the all-around competition with a score of 57.950. In May, Maroney competed at the
U.S. Classic in Chicago, Illinois. She placed first on vault with a score of 16.100 and tenth on balance beam with a score of 13.800. She then competed at the
U.S. National Championships, and after the first day of competition, she was ranked seventh in the all-around with a score of 58.700. During the warmups for the second day of competition, she fell on a tumbling pass on floor landing on her back. Maroney was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with a minor
concussion and a
nasal fracture. She took a week off from training and successfully petitioned to compete at the Olympic Trials. At the beginning of July, Maroney competed at the
Olympic Trials in
San Jose, California. On the first day of competition, she fell off the uneven bars and balance beam, but she had the highest vault score. She ultimately placed seventh in the all-around with a two-day combined score of 117.650. She placed first on the vault and fifth on the floor exercise. Maroney was chosen as a member of the team that was sent to the
2012 Summer Olympics alongside
Gabby Douglas,
Aly Raisman,
Kyla Ross, and
Jordyn Wieber. Afterward, she said, "This is the best feeling – it's just so amazing. I'm in shock right now. I think this will be the happiest I'll ever be in my life... my teammate Kyla Ross– we have been best friends since we were six years old, so it's just absolutely amazing to be going to the Olympics."
London Olympics At the end of July, Maroney competed at the
2012 Summer Olympics in
London. She told
NBColympics.com that while training a balance beam dismount, she aggravated a previous bone break in the big toe of her right foot, but she still chose to compete, stating, "I worked so hard to be here, I can ignore the pain for a little bit." In 2021, she claimed she actually had a broken foot, and team doctor
Larry Nassar downplayed the injury to head coach
Márta Károlyi to keep Maroney on the team. Along with
Jordyn Wieber, she helped change the team's nickname from the "Fab Five" to the "
Fierce Five". While on the bus to a training session, they decided to change the name because the "Fab Five" was in use by
a basketball team associated with the
University of Michigan as well as associated with the musical group
Duran Duran. They searched for
words starting with the letter 'F' to describe the team. The top choices were "feisty" and "fierce". Maroney and Wieber opted for "fierce". They said it described their floor routines, and the rest of the team concurred. Maroney helped the American team qualify for the team final in first place, and individually, she qualified in first place to the vault final with a score of 15.800. In the team final, she stuck her
Amanar vault and contributed a score of 16.233 toward the American team's first-place finish. Her vault received an execution average of 9.733, the highest execution score at an Olympics or World Championships under the
open-ended scoring system which was introduced in 2006. They became the second U.S. team, after the "
Magnificent Seven" in 1996, to win the Olympic team competition. According to Alexa Ainsworth from
NBC Olympics and Juliet Macur from
The New York Times, Maroney went into the vault final as the favorite to win. She successfully performed an Amanar for her first vault, but she fell on her second. This fall ended her 33-vault hitting streak in competition. With the fall, Maroney came in second behind
Sandra Izbașa of Romania with an average score of 15.083. After the competition, she said, "I didn't get my full block, my hands didn't really touch the vault. I still walked out with a silver medal and I'm happy about that... I know I can do better vaults, but I also know I didn't deserve the gold medal because I fell on my second vault."
"McKayla is not impressed" After winning the silver medal in the vault finals, Maroney was photographed on the medal podium while giving a brief look of disappointment with her lips pursed to the side. The image became an
Internet phenomenon sparked by a
Tumblr blog called "McKayla is not impressed". The image went
viral after it was
Photoshopped into various places and situations such as on top of the
Great Wall of China and standing next to
Usain Bolt. Maroney said that she found the
Internet meme "kinda funny." She later poked fun at the meme on various occasions, including appearances on
Late Show with David Letterman,
The Colbert Report,
Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars,
Extra, and when she and the rest of the U.S. Gymnastics team met
United States President Barack Obama at the
White House in November 2012. She and President Obama posed for a photo together, both making the same pursed-lips expression. The podium picture made the top spot on
Yahoo's list of "Most Viral Photos" of 2012. Maroney starred in a 2021
GEICO commercial playing on her "not impressed" pose.
Post-Olympics In September 2012, Maroney was injured during an uneven bars dismount while performing at the Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions in Ontario, California. An
MRI revealed that she had fractured the
tibia in her left leg. The injury occurred shortly before teammate
Aly Raisman injured herself performing on the same bars. On September 13, 2012, Maroney had two screws inserted to repair the fractured left tibia. She wore an immobilizer to keep the leg straight until doctors determined that she was ready to resume limited walking and rebuilding range of motion. Then 15 days later, she had surgery on the toe she injured before the Olympic Games. Then in December, she had another surgery to remove the screws in her leg. She was cleared to return to training in January 2013. On January 12, 2013, Maroney served as one of the judges for the
Miss America pageant. She participated in the
Thirty Seconds to Mars music video "
Up in the Air". In 2013, Maroney signed a sponsorship agreement with Adidas Gymnastics.
2013 In July 2013, Maroney made her return to gymnastics at the 2013
Secret U.S. Classic, where she placed first on vault with an average score of 15.425 and third on the floor exercise with a score of 14.350, posting the highest execution score on that apparatus. She then competed on the vault and floor exercise at the
U.S. National Championships and won gold in both events. On September 15, Maroney was one of four gymnasts named to the United States team for the
2013 World Championships in
Antwerp, Belgium. She was originally put on the team to compete on the vault and floor exercise, but she was later named to compete as an all-around gymnast alongside
Simone Biles and
Kyla Ross after performing well during training. Teammate
Brenna Dowell was named as an alternate instead, as there could only be three gymnasts competing on each event. In the qualification round, she scored a total all-around score of 57.149, finishing sixth overall, but due to the two-per-country rule, where only two gymnasts from each country can advance to an individual final, she could not compete in the all-around final. She was the top qualifier for the vault final. Also in the qualification round, Maroney finished in sixth place on the floor exercise with the same total score as Ross. Due to Maroney having a lower execution score, Ross progressed to the final. In the vault final, she successfully defended her title, winning the gold medal with an average score of 15.724.
2014–16: Injuries and retirement In March 2014, Maroney underwent
arthroscopic surgery on her left knee due to issues related to her previous tibia injury. On August 31, 2014,
underage nude images of Maroney were published as part of the
2014 celebrity nude photo leak. She missed the entire 2014 season. In 2015, Maroney shared she had been dealing with
adrenal fatigue since 2013, but she had returned to training. On February 24, 2016, the gymnastics podcast
GymCastic released a 49-minute-long interview with Maroney regarding her health issues preceding and following the 2012 Olympic Games. She shared that she had been dealing with
depression and
burnout. In the interview, she announced her retirement from competitive gymnastics. ==Post-gymnastics career==