Aly Raisman’s parents have an extraordinarily hard time watching their daughter compete
While the brightest spotlight during the Olympics always falls on the star athletes themselves, the glare from that light sometimes spreads to the parents who have devoted so much of themselves to their children's success.
The parents of U.S. gymnast Aly Raisman are no different. And like Debbie Phelps, the mother of Michael Phelps, and other parents before them, the Raismans can find it excruciating to watch their daughter in competition. Case in point: the Raismans watching Aly during the uneven bars segment of the women's gymnastics preliminary competition. As entertaining as Raisman's routine was on the bars, her parents' routine was equally worth a second look.
As the 54-second video above shows, the Raismans -- mother Lynn and father Ricky -- have a seriously hard time taking in their daughter on the bars for fear of any problems. As is their wont, both parents have very different ways of handling their nerves, with Lynn talking and squirming her way through Aly's entire routine while Ricky stayed cautiously silent until the conclusion, when he offered up an explosive "Yeah!" as if, well, his daughter had just won something big.
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That was rather appropriate, seeing as how that bars score helped set the stage for Raisman's advance into the women's overall finals.
For their part, the Raismans, who hail from Massachusetts, told NESN that they were living in the moment with their daughter. Like many other gymnastics parents, the Raismans never dreamed they'd be traveling to the Olympics to watch their daughter when they first brought her to a local gym at age 2.
Now they're there, and everyone else gets to enjoy their uncomfortable fidgeting from the stands while their daughter shines below.
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