Raisman was born on May 25, 1994, in the Boston suburb of Needham, Massachusetts, to Lynn (née Faber), a former high school gymnast, and Rick Raisman. She has three younger siblings: Brett, Chloe, and Madison. Raisman is Jewish, and has said, “I take a lot of pride in being able to not only represent the U.S.A, but also the Jewish community everywhere.”

She trained at Exxcel Gymnastics and Climbing through Level 8, when she moved to Brestyan’s American Gymnastics Club under coaches Mihai and Silvia Brestyan. There, she trained alongside Alicia Sacramone, of whom she said: “She’s kind of like my older sister. I can ask her about anything because I know that she’s been through it all.” Raisman graduated from Needham High School in 2012, after completing her senior year via online classes while training for the Olympics.

In September 2012, Raisman was injured during the Kellogg’s Tour of Gymnastics Champions in Ontario, California. She fell while performing a Maloney on the uneven bars and landed off the mats, bruising her knees. This occurred shortly after teammate McKayla Maroney injured herself performing a flyaway dismount on the same bars.

On the second day of competition in the team final, Raisman competed on vault, balance beam, and floor exercise to help secure the gold medal for the U.S. team and defend the title she earned with the Fierce Five in 2012. Individually, she scored 15.833 on vault, 15.000 on beam and 15.366 on floor. At the end of the competition, she and her teammates dubbed themselves “The Final Five”, because they were the last Olympic team Marta Karolyi would name before she retired as team coordinator. These were the last Olympics where the teams would consist of five gymnasts, as it was announced earlier in the year that, starting with the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, that competing teams would be reduced to four gymnasts.

Raisman was given the honor of igniting the 2013 Maccabiah Games flame in Jerusalem, Israel. Raisman attended Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts in 2013 before returning to her professional career.

In 2014, Raisman returned to gymnastics at the October national training camp, her first since the Olympics. Longtime coach Mihai Brestyan had Raisman do a year of conditioning before allowed her to return to the apparatus. After the November training camp, she was named again to the U.S. National Team, along with Olympic teammate Gabby Douglas.

Raisman is Jewish with roots in Romania. In 2016, she joined UNICEF Kid Power as a brand ambassador Kid Power Champion.

In November 2017, Raisman came forward as one of the many victims sexually abused by the former Olympic team physician, Larry Nassar, starting from the age of 15. On January 19, 2018, Raisman was one of several victims that read impact statements at Nassar’s sentencing. On February 28, 2018, Raisman filed a lawsuit against USA Gymnastics and the USOC claiming both organizations “knew or should have known” about the ongoing abuse. On May 16, 2018, it was announced that Raisman and the other survivors of the USA Gymnastics sexual abuse scandal would be awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. Later, Raisman co-starred in the Maroon 5 music video “Girls Like You” featuring Cardi B, wearing a T-shirt with the words “Always Speak Your Truth”.

Raisman and fellow Olympic teammate Simone Biles appeared in the 2017 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Raisman also participated in the 2018 edition to show empowerment for women following the Nassar abuse scandal.

In November 2017, Raisman released her memoir book Fierce: How Competing for Myself Changed Everything.

In November 2019, Raisman had a cameo in the Charlie’s Angels reboot film, written and directed by Elizabeth Banks.