Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Back to Opinion

Raismans Go for (Viral) Gold

Okay, we all know it’s not nice to judge someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes, but it’s unlikely that most of us will have a daughter in the Olympics. Therefore, while judging is off-limits, we sedentary, computer-glued Americans are welcome to laugh uproariously at gymnast Aly Raisman’s parents as they watch their daughter perform in the Olympics.

In case you haven’t been watching, the Raismans got captured on live video, which has proceeded to go viral after being featured on Gawker and elsewhere.

For most of the video, Aly’s dad, Rick, seems almost to be bored. But her mother, Lynn, looks like she’s riding a mechanical bull with a cactus on the saddle. Jerking back and forth in her seat, and apparently completely unaware that a camera is trained fully on her, Lynn mutters throughout the entire performance.

“Come on Aly come on Aly, let’s go, let’s go, handstand, come on Aly, come on, come on, stick it.” Aly’s mother’s face looks like she’s undergoing a nasty medical exam, but her voice conjures up that monotonous science teacher we all had.

At the end Aly’s father Rick chimes in. “Stick it!” he shouts, then settles back in his seat and covers his eyes.

Turning toward the camera, which he seemingly just noticed, Rick laughs. “Ahhh,” he yells, in possibly the best Olympics coverage to ever reach television.

This is what the Olympics is all about, people.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.