The Best Part of a Post-Covid Olympics? Athletes Get Their Embarrassing Families Back

Pandemic restrictions in Tokyo meant competing in nearly empty stands. In Paris, not only are fans filling seats, but loved ones are allowed back too—to hoot, holler and sometimes humiliate.

LUIS ROBAYO/AFP/Getty Images

When American canoer Nevin Harrison thinks back to the Tokyo games, her first memory is of her shocking gold medal in the C1 200-meter sprint, the U.S.’s first by a woman in sprint canoe history. Her second memory is of the soundtrack that accompanied the victory.

“Dead silence,” she recalls. 

Covid restrictions kept fans out of the stands and Olympians’ families back at home. The effect was especially strange for Harrison given that she’s accustomed to picking her mother, Laura, out of any crowd. 

“My mom has this very strange, loud cheer,” Harrison says. “You’ll be able to hear it on TV. She screams louder than everyone you’ll ever hear. She’s always running up, as close as she can, and I love it. I love her for it. But sometimes I’m like, ‘Mom!’”

She’ll get to hear that sound again when racing begins next week. Fans are back in force, and among the estimated 9.7 million people who will attend will be Laura. The best part of the Paris Olympics, especially for those who were in Tokyo: They get to watch their families embarrass them again. 

“When I’m racing, even with big crowds, I hear that woman,” says Harrison, laughing. “I hear her scream.”

Team USA athletes get their friends and families back in the stands for the Paris Games. / CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU/AFP/Getty Images

Even the athletes who weren’t in Tokyo spent time practicing and competing in front of empty arenas, and they are ready for what’s coming. “My whole family, [they were] trying to rent a boat,” says boxer Morelle McCane, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. “They’re crazy! They’re like, ‘We don’t care what it is! We’re gonna make it!’ I’m like, ‘All right, y’all just calm down.’”

But she knows they can’t.

“My mom, she’s literally never at any of my fights,” she says. “She came to the first few fights I had, and she had the whole crowd praying with her! And I’m like, ‘That’s the opponent! She can’t pray for me!’ But she’s just so excited. Even if I put her all the way in the back of the stadium, you’re still gonna hear her.”

Marathoner Fiona O’Keeffe knows the feeling; no matter how focused she is, she says she can always hear her mother’s “high-pitched scream” as she runs.

The mortification methods range from the oral to the visual. Shooter Mary Tucker recalls a giant cutout of her head that her friends and family passed around during the 2021 NCAA championships, where she won gold in 10-meter air rifle and 50-meter smallbore. She loved it, she says, although she did stuff the cutout deep into her closet afterward. “But it’s able to come out,” she acknowledges with a grin. 

Cameras have caught former gymnast Aly Raisman’s parents glued to her routines from the stands, leaning the direction they want her to go, yelling, “Stick it, please!” Gymnast Simone Biles’s parents often appear in TEAM BILES T-shirts, carrying cutouts of her face. Speedskater Maame Biney’s father brought a series of homemade signs, including one that read KICK SOME HINEY BINEY, to the 2018 Olympic trials. 

Parents and loved ones often make heartfelt—and sometimes embrassing—signs for those competing. / Pete Dovgan/Speed Media/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

In some cases, the athletes know their families will embarrass them—they just don’t know how.

“A hundred percent,” says breaker Sunny Choi. “A thousand percent.” She can’t even begin to imagine what they will do, but she knows it will be bad. “I’m just waiting,” she says. “Because they’re all gonna be there. Some embarrassing T-shirt or something like that. NBC, I’m sure, will catch it.”

But they’re used to it.

“I think my dad sufficiently embarrassed me as a kid—Dad, don’t take this as a challenge—so I don’t know what he could manage to embarrass me any further,” says field hockey goalie Kelsey Bing. “I’m just so happy to have them there and have their support, because they’re part of the process too, and that should be celebrated.”

Well, maybe in some cases, they could be celebrated after the competition is over. Skateboarder Jagger Eaton is worried about his parents’ ability to smooth down his rough edges. 

“I love my family, but they’re gonna be very sympathetic, and I don’t really want sympathy in that environment,” he says. “I want to feel like a dog! I want to be around other dogs!”

But the 23-year-old former Nickelodeon reality star (Jagger Eaton’s Mega Life, which lasted one season, from 2016 to ’17)  isn’t worried that they will cause him shame. 

“There’s nothing my family could do that’s embarrassing,” he says. “If anything, I embarrass them.”