Raismans Go for (Viral) Gold

Alexandra Raisman Image by getty images
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.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
