Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What challenges did Aly Raisman face growing up as an athlete?
What is up, Daddy Gang? It is your founding father, Alex Cooper, with Call Her Daddy. Allie Raisman, welcome to Call Her Daddy. Thank you so much for having me. I am so happy that we're doing this. I'm such a huge fan. I've been a huge fan for a while. To be able to sit here in person with you, it's an honor. So thank you for being here.
I am such a big fan of you, too. And I think we have the same name. Is your legal name Alexandra? Yes. Me, too. Should we call each other Alexandra?
Should we go by Alexandra today? Yeah. Nobody calls me Alexandra in interviews. Oh, my God. I wonder, like, how did you get Allie and how did I get Alex? Like, who, where did you, oh.
Okay. So, first of all, I'm a very big fan of you, too. Congratulations on everything. It's amazing. Love listening to your podcast. I, so my legal name is Alexandra. Right. And really, no one calls me that. When I was little, I used to actually be called Sexy Lexi. Which is probably weird, but when I was, like, five years old, everyone called me Sexy Lexi. I don't know why. Okay, Allie.
I didn't know what sexy meant, but everyone called me Sexy Lexi in kindergarten. Like, even, like, some of the moms around me, too. They still call me that to this day. And then when I was... Like a couple years later, I thought my real name was Alexander. And I asked my mom one day and she said it was Alexander. And I felt like I had been lied to my whole life because I was a very dramatic kid.
So then I went by Alexander for a little bit. And then I actually don't remember where Allie came from. But I love when my childhood friends call me Lexi because it's just like they knew me before everything.
I was about to say, I thought you were to say, I love when my childhood friends call me sexy Lexi. I'm like, yeah, I wish my childhood friends would call me sexy Lexi.
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Chapter 2: How did Aly's experiences in gymnastics affect her body image and self-esteem?
They call me big Al. Like you got sexy Lexi and I got big Al from Alexandra. Like make it make sense. I love that for you.
I don't know where it came from, but I was five years old. And it's funny because some of my guy friends that are married now, I'm like, I don't.
think they call me sexy lexi anymore oh but i don't think they do their wife is like what yeah but my girlfriends do from childhood it's it's funny but now that i look back i'm like imagine hearing someone call a five-year-old sexy lexi it's so weird oh my god you were exuding just like i had no idea what it was okay well today we're both alexandra yes so i read your article
And to anyone that didn't read it, you're going to read it because you're going to fall in love and we're going to talk about it today. But you basically wrote an article about being single at 30. And you talk about how it's really not where you thought you were going to be in your life at that point.
So there is a lot to discuss today about timelines, comparison, just how hard it is to date in general. But before we get into that, because the daddy gang is going to freak out over that conversation, that's literally all we talk about over here, OK? We need to talk about the Olympics. You are going to the Olympics this year? Yes. I am going to the Olympics this year. We will be hanging out.
I can't wait. What are you most excited for about Paris?
I am so excited. It's my first time going, not competing, so I don't really know what to expect, but I'm so excited. And I'm obviously the most excited to watch the gymnastics. And I... Got to go to Olympic trials last week. And it was so fun. And it's so emotional watching everyone. And I know everyone works so hard. So I am a huge fan of gymnastics too.
And I grew up just being obsessed with it and watching it. And so I love watching incredible athletes from all over the world too. And I think that's what's so cool about the Olympics is obviously I'm rooting for the US team. And I think that they look so good. And I'm so impressed with them. But I also love how as an eight-year-old,
you know one of my favorite gymnasts was a Ukrainian gymnast and so I just feel like what's so cool is the whole world comes together and you just really appreciate just greatness and such incredible um athleticism so I'm so excited and then I also want to go to like my brother is coming and he wants to go to ping pong finals I'm like that would be so cool can we go together I would love to I'm like ping pong and then also like break dancing is a sport officially in the Olympics this year I'm like
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Chapter 3: What insights does Aly share about dating in her 30s?
Aside from sexy Lexi. I've never been asked that. I think that, well, I was obsessed with gymnastics. I loved it more than anything else in the world. I just always wanted to be there. I'm the oldest of four, so I loved being a big sister. I still do, but I'm two years older than my brother, Brett, and then six years older than Chloe and eight years older than Madison.
So I felt like I was like, I just like loved being the big sister. And I remember, you know, those little like, cars, the little mini ones that like kids drive around. I just like would pretend I was like the mom and taking them around the driveway. Like I just loved being a big sister and they used to sleep in bed with me every night, which is just so cute. Where'd you grow up?
Um, I grew up in Newton Nita mass.
Um,
Yeah. And I just – I have so many great memories of that. And then I just loved – I used to beg my coaches to let me stay later at practice. And actually, thankfully, they wouldn't let me because they didn't want me to burn out. But I was so sad to leave the gym. I was obsessed. Like, I remember – I would miss Halloween even at a young age because I wanted to be at the gym.
I was just like so driven. I think you have to be like born with something a little bit extra crazy in you to be that intense. But I loved it.
I can see how you being the oldest probably shaped a lot of them like your relationships in gymnastics because it's like you have this like maternal feeling about you. What was your relationship like to your parents?
I'm very close with my parents I still am so very grateful for that because the older I've got I've realized a lot of people don't have good relationships with their family so I didn't realize when I was younger just how lucky I am for that and I also appreciate how
when I didn't do well at a meet or practice they didn't get mad at me and they were even more I think loving and supporting when I didn't do as well and if they weren't supportive I would have never survived like I had teammates when I was younger that were actually better than me but because their parents put so much pressure on them they just couldn't do it I don't blame them I wouldn't have been able to do it because we're already I think our own worst critic and then our coaches are hard on us and then you go home and your parents are on you it's just so I'm so glad my
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Chapter 4: How does Aly navigate societal pressures regarding relationships?
I'm still exhausted from it. Sometimes people, when I tell them that they're like, that's not bad. I'm like, yeah, it is. It was bad, but it was really exhausting. It was exhausting. I'm like still recovering from that, which we, we can get to after, but I can remember I would train in the morning and I, I would then like literally be like covered in chalk and like go right to school.
Like I was so self-conscious because I'd like be like trying to like wash my body, like really quickly go to school, trying to look cute for boys. I was so uncomfortable. High school is also so hard. I was so, so insecure. And then I would go to class and then I would quickly do my homework after school and then go back to the gym after. It was just so, I was so driven.
And so like none of my friends understood, I think how,
serious I was about it like when I competed in 2012 at the Olympics um it was right after I graduated high school and I remember my high school friends were like you never told us you were like that good and I was like well I don't know what do you I'm like I don't know I didn't want to say anything but also like what did you guys think I was doing I'm like bad at this thing but I just get up every morning and go every afternoon and I just keep at it like oh
Allie?
It was so intense. But it's funny. One of my family members admitted to my mom. He's like, I have to admit, I always thought that he said to my mom that you and my dad were crazy. Because he's like, I would... He was like, I would just watch you like drive Allie to practice over and over again. And I just thought it was so odd because I would, you know, miss a lot of days of school.
I was, you know, like traveling all over the place. And he was like, I didn't understand how good she was. So he's like, it took me a really long time. And he was like, I kind of judged you. And now he's like, I'm just telling you I don't anymore. But we OK, hold on.
No one knew how good you were. That's kind of interesting because why?
I still it's funny when people ask me about gymnastics in my career, like
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Chapter 5: What role do Aly's parents play in her journey as an athlete?
No one cares. So it was very interesting. But in the moment, I was so in the thick of...
always kind of being critiqued all the time that I thought other people thought of me that way can you talk a little bit more about that of like insecurities in high school and it's crazy to even talk about high school because it's like in gymnastics world like that is when most women are like really girls I literally say girls are coming into their prime in the sport but you're so young like
what insecurities when you're talking about boys versus then what you're working towards on like in the gym like what were the insecurities for you personally yeah it's really interesting so I when I was younger I used to get made fun of all the time for how muscular my arms were and I remember when I was in fifth grade The boys would make fun of me and told me I looked like I was on steroids.
And they would call me roids. And it made me so sad. And this has affected me so much that at 30 years old, I have just started to be able to wear sleeveless or tank dresses. And it makes me so sad that I wasted that much time. But it's really incredible how, I guess incredible in a bad way, how when
people make fun of you how it can really stay with you and then I remember in seventh grade so vividly I was wearing a tank top and some guy told me that I look disgusting and some of my arms were disgusting and so I literally actually this was a big moment for me at Olympic trials last week I wore a dress that totally showed my arms and I was saying to my mom I was like this is like such a big deal for me that I'm doing this because I would have been so
self-conscious and worried and now I'm just trying it feels so freeing to just try not to worry as much but it's just so I think that like as I do more therapy it's amazing how much stuff sticks with us and I think that's also why I have anxiety or social anxiety because I'm like I hope I've never said something that would ever stick with someone I would feel so bad and I know sometimes I
You know, sometimes we're all human. We all say things sometimes we don't mean or we don't even realize someone interpreted in a different way. But I think I'm like so afraid of making someone feel the way that other people made me feel that I'm almost like too hyper aware. But so that was a really big one. I think I was always...
self-conscious of like my body because in gymnastics they were so strict with my weight and even though we worked out so much i still had to watch what i ate a lot i also want to be careful with saying this because i know how many people struggle with body dysmorphia and eating disorders so i think it's so important no matter what sport you're in to fuel your body and eat a lot of food.
And I wish I could go back and tell myself to eat more and fuel my body. But I just felt so much pressure to always be skinnier and skinnier. And it was so unhealthy because I was already working out so much. And it's crazy for me to look back at photos of myself where I was being told to lose more weight. And I'm like, I was didn't have an ounce of
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Chapter 6: How does Aly's past trauma influence her current relationships?
It is. It's funny because the Olympics are coming up. I am having dreams that I'm competing and I wake up and I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm so glad I'm done. I mean, look, like you mentioned, there's so many beautiful things that have come out of my gymnastics career, but it's also, it's such an interesting time right now. Obviously, as the Olympics comes up, I'm so excited and I can't wait.
And I've been doing... a lot of actually exposure therapy right now where for people who don't know, it's sort of like exposing yourself to the trauma or whatever it is that has caused you stress or pain. So that could be if you had someone that hurt you and they wore like a specific perfume or a cologne, like maybe you like smell the cologne or their perfume every day to like
remake better memories with that. Or it could be, you know, writing down a memory or talking about a memory or watching something. So I've been doing that a lot and that's been really helpful, but it's kind of like, sometimes it can make things worse before it gets better. Or I'm like, oh my God, I have so much to work through. It's so overwhelming. There's just so much there.
And then there's stuff I forgot about that now I'm like, it's coming back up.
I was going to say like, I think a lot of women write in about therapy and everyone has like a different journey with like what type of therapy will work for them. And I think the exposure therapy is like, has been known recently to be very effective. But I was going to ask you like, in general,
doing that type of therapy are do you have to be strategic like if you know you're going on a long trip coming up like if you're going to Paris like are you doing sessions while you're in Paris are you doing it before are you too anxious around this type of like we're talking about gymnastics right now and that's the crux of the trauma like
you know what I mean like such a good question yeah it's so we actually have stopped doing the exposure homework so what we what I do is I do therapy every week and then I would try to do exposure a little bit every single day but because of I had mentioned before like my body's never recovered I've struggled with some
Health stuff, which we can get into after from just like the over exhaustion of what I put my body through. So depending on the day, however, because there are so many actually like exposures of, you know, whether it's doing interviews or.
Even going to Olympic trials was actually such a wonderful experience and I'm so glad I went, but I was so nervous and just like being back in that environment, like certain smells or even like there's like a bell that rings before you compete. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I haven't heard this in so long, like all these little things. So I stopped the actual exposure homework and therapy, but.
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Chapter 7: What advice does Aly have for women struggling with societal expectations?
And it's It was so scary because also my abuse happened with the doctor. So being in the first time it happened was during COVID. And so they wouldn't let my mom in the ambulance with me. So I was also it's really interesting because I'm I can't I can understand what someone is saying to me and asking me like I know they're asking me what my name is, but I can't.
remember my name or say what my name is and I was aware enough to know like oh my god I have two men that I can't move my arms and my legs I can't move my body I can't speak like what if they take advantage of me and so that at the time this was years ago during COVID so I was like really still struggling a lot with PTSD where people don't realize how much
it still lives with you when you've been through something traumatic. Um, so that was really hard, hard for me. And then, um, it happened again, um, a little bit over a year ago where it was like, I, it actually was in the hospital for three days and like, they obviously don't keep you in the ER for three days for, for nothing, but it was really scary.
And I remember like, I, they wouldn't release me because I couldn't like sit up on my own. It took me so long. I needed help. Like
walking going to the bathroom like it was just the most to be able to to go from being like an athlete and being able to push myself so much to being able to literally not even be able to like move my fingers move my legs I had like complete like body paralysis um and not even to know like what my name is it was so scary and it's something where like on a daily basis like I have to
manage making sure that I'm not like a stress exacerbates it like what I have is a real medical thing but stress makes everything worse so I have to like be very on top of my therapy but then also my therapist has to work with me of like if I'm starting to feel off like I just don't do the exposure stuff so it's very
it's very hard and very interesting because I'm also like, to your point, I'm very young. So to have something like that happen was very hard. And then also when I went both times, actually the second time, They didn't know who I was when I first got to the hospital, which is totally fine. That shouldn't matter.
And the only reason why I share that is because my mom had said that they kept coming in and asking me to like lift my legs and I couldn't, they kept saying, what's your name? And I was kind of just like, it almost like, even like lifting my finger would like take so much energy that I couldn't even like, I just was so out of it.
And they kept kind of like rolling their eyes and not really paying much attention to me. And then finally, Um, my mom was like, I really hate to do this, but you guys are like ignoring her. I think you think she's like, I don't know what's going on, but you should treat everyone the same way. But she's like, I just want to tell you because you're not believing her.
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Chapter 8: How is Aly finding balance and self-acceptance in her 30s?
And Also, like this would probably shock people, too, but I barely have worked out in eight years because my body is just like so tired. And it's interesting, like I don't recover because of the similar with the hospital stuff, like my body doesn't recover the way that it used to. So if I were to.
run even for like a couple of minutes like it might actually take me like several days to recover or I'll get like a migraine or I'll get super nauseous so like I just have to be very careful and get very creative with how I take care of myself. But I think that, you know, for people who are obsessed with working out, like they might be like, well, why don't you work out?
Like in my favorite is like when I'm, it's funny when you talk about dating, like when I've dated guys, a lot of them are like, but if you work out, you'll feel better. I'm like, no, I have like a full on like medical diagnosis and like, I'm going to be okay. Like my doctor is like confident that it's not going to get worse because I'm aware of it and everything. But I'm like, I just, because
you might feel better working out. Like right now for me, it literally makes me like almost like vomit and I get a migraine. So I just have to do like, I might have a good day, but sometimes when you have a good day as an athlete, I like push myself too much and then I'm exhausted.
But people, it's been hard with dating to get a guy to be very empathetic and like know how to like be there for me if I don't feel well. Like people, people don't always know how to like
handle it well and my mom is so good at it like in the times where i've gone to the hospital my mom instead of being like you're fine because that's also the worst you're like i'm not fine right you're like i'm not okay shit yeah i can't walk yeah so when um my mom will always just say they're gonna help you like it's okay i'm here for you they're gonna help you and that is just like everything i need to hear because it's like she's validating like this is
crazy and we're gonna figure this out we're gonna help you but she's also like there for me and encouraging me but other people just like don't know what to say they're just like just breathe you'll be fine I'm like no I literally I literally am laying on the floor I can't move my body I think sometimes like note to anyone that finds themselves doing that which I understand maybe you're trying to help but it's like
sometimes not saying anything but being like i'm here for you is all you need to do yes like stop trying to solve the problem why are you tired because i'm depressed because i'm anxious like whatever it is just saying like i'm here for you let me know if you need anything like and shut up yes just shut up yeah like sometimes people it's like read the room like just stop um your dating life yeah and and let's i want to talk about this because it is all intertwined and i think there's so many young women that listen to this podcast that like
it's it's hard because when people write in and ask me questions I wish all the time I could sit there and answer all of them being like well I need backstory like what was your upbringing like it all is affecting when you're trying to date and the men that you're picking or the women you're picking or whoever you're picking so obviously you're in this moment of your life right now we're kind of trying to like process separating and correct me if I'm wrong but kind of process separating your identity from gymnastics and then separating that of like Allie and like the adult woman you are today and like
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