Gracie & Her Mom on Raising an Athlete, Sacrifice, & Motherhood

you are my realest truest you're my best friend i think it was cute to say it all those years you know because we relied on each other so much and i think i relied on you needing me as much as you relied on me i i think maybe at times maybe it was unhealthy but it got us here so i wouldn't trade any of those difficult times she's my best friend my biggest supporter and the one who's been there through it all oh my god i'm gonna cry already today i get to sit down with the person who's been there through the wins the losses and the moments in between that shaped who i am from my very first flip in the backyard oh my god why am i crying i don't know you got this though come on come on pull it together g this is crazy i'm just so proud of us this is crazy how did we get here i'm proud of us too from my very first flip in the backyard to the biggest moments of my career she's been right there beside me usually she's behind the scenes or in my comment section hyping me up every day but today she's stepping into the spotlight mom welcome to athletes after hours thanks for having me i'm so thrilled to be here oh my god i can't believe i could not get through that intro i don't know why i got so emotional but i think what's hitting different is the fact that like reflecting on everything that we've been through like this is gonna be a really emotional episode yeah because it has been the wildest roller coaster i think of all time and you're the only person that truly understands every single step you're the only person that truly understands every single step and has been there every step of the way which is heavy it is heavy yeah it's been it's been remarkable well thanks for coming on yeah in honor of mother's day i know but i feel like i'm i'm sort of an imposter why because i i mean this is athletes after hours and i'm just like i'm just i am just in the background most of the time so i feel really honored to be here oh yeah thanks well you're not just my mom you were literally the reason i'm here today you're the reason i competed as well as i did at ucla you're the reason i even stayed in college true oh my god these are facts yeah yeah like everything that i've thought of in my past every trial tribulation i've had in my lifetime you were the person that got me through it so that's why it's going to be really emotional today um well i think it's only right to start from the beginning okay and talk about how i was as a kid before i got into gymnastics before the chaos began kind of walk me through okay your perspective i'm actually really curious what you thought about me as a kid i'm one of four you had four children all two years apart yeah none of us could sit still you you you you were definitely the catalyst for my craziness yeah in a sense um it's interesting because i saw a neighbor and their home they were just doing some last minute fix-ups to it and they had this enormous ladder and it was just parked out front where their kids are all playing and they've got their tricycles and whatnot and i'm thinking to myself holy shit grace would try to climb that i mean i that's literally here i am 28 almost 28 years later yeah and i still think about what you might have done so i mean you were my first girl i expected you know a little mini lorraine and you were far from it i kept buying you dolls do you remember oh yeah i bought you these expensive madam alexander dolls thinking we were going to have this enormous you know double generation legacy of collectible dolls girly pop you wanted nothing to do with them um you wanted to you know be in ren's shadow your brother's shadow and do what he was doing and skateboard and you know ski and flip on the trampoline you you were you were there for it all and uh it was terrifying at times i mean we had our moments you know i mean even recently i we went through like all of our home videos and you watched a video of dad skateboarding with us between his legs on the skateboard bombing this hill and you literally were like when was this i can't believe you did this why have i never seen this video before and i'm like mom we literally did this all the time this is like our daily routine best though is when one of our neighbors called and said i'm sorry to do this i hate to rat on your babysitter but your babysitter it's on a skateboard and i'm like oh hell no later came to find out it was just dad it was yeah so yeah but you were you know you were just i i think you were a tomboy through and through even though you wore bows and had long beautiful hair and were darling and precious and yeah suffered through the girly ballet stuff you know like you did you you tried to fit that mold and i kept trying to push you into that mold i think too but um i just came to the conclusion eventually when i saw you out on the trampoline that we needed to somehow channel whatever this was yeah you know like we had a really scary incident yeah when julia was first born i was helping julia nursing julia and watching you climb you know a huge apothecary chest and watching it fall on top of you and i mean literally to this day i think that an angel grabbed you and pulled you out from under this massive piece of furniture because you know you were left fairly unscathed with just literally almost died yeah yeah i mean you watched my life flash before your eyes and honestly i was what three or four three no you were you were two wow you were two years old yeah because julia was a and of course i'm just rebellious af and right bouncing off the walls and she's like grace do you remember what i told you what no i said honey this house is not baby proofed like everything in our house was like you're trying to reason with a two-year-old i know but i mean honestly i kept telling you i was nursing julia i'm like grace this house isn't like our house you can't be climbing all over the place yeah i didn't listen nope didn't end up with a broken foot and basically learned how to walk with a pink cast pink cast but even then like all the neighbors used to watch you and just like be in complete awe and amazement because you were just you just push through yeah you know you would run on that thing do cartwheels on that it's made of like rubber yeah it was crazy when did you make the decision to put me into gymnastics and then how did you feel about that decision well i was in gymnastics as a young girl and i loved it i felt like it really i don't know the agility the flexibility all of those things i think really pay off regardless of whatever sport you go into yeah it's a great outlet and um when i was watching you throw some flips on the trampoline i thought this could end really badly you know yeah a weird fall to the i still worry about you i mean literally you texted me yesterday and you're like please when you please get a can you have someone in the gym next time this is stressing me out yeah i'm like 27 years old almost 28 and we're still doing this yeah but yeah so yeah i knew then that you had a lot of energy and you know you just you loved flipping you loved challenging yourself and i just thought gymnastics would be a really cool thing to experiment with and it worked out i mean one week in and made pre-team we thought it was going to just be this fun little hobby on the side that you can just drop me off at gymnastics take me off your plate i thought it was gonna be wrecked gymnastics and that was it i never expected team anything yeah you know and the coach approached you yeah by like what the end of the week and just said there's potential here she saw a lot of promise in you yeah i mean i think first and foremost you really didn't have much fear yeah you weren't very flexible no but strong as hell i mean that was throughout your entire career yeah but you were powerful and you just didn't have fear and you were just kind of crazy you threw you threw stuff yeah you know thank god this was around the time that like sean johnson was really popping off too because it created this new mold for strong gymnasts strong powerful girlies to be valued just as much as the flexibility because i think before that it was really just like you have to be flexible and if you're flexible and you're you have these long lean legs like you will be successful in gymnastics well i i remember my teeny tiny little career in gymnastics i had to retire because i i think i got to be like five two five three i was too tall i mean literally five three i mean so again it's like it's it's a whole different you know set of set of standards now so yeah i feel like the the world has opened up a lot more to the diversity of body types and everything i know like kyla ross being five seven and so fun getting a million perfect times it's like look you can be tall and still be great that's why i love watching ncaa still yeah just the the wide array of gymnasts i mean some are powerful some are slender and tall and long lines and others are just so strong and you just lean into your strengths and amplify it it's so fun gymnastics is obviously one of the most demanding sports yeah and being one of four kids you've had to do a lot of things to get to the top of your pretty ridiculous things to make it work a lot of juggling yeah yeah a lot of juggling like what's the most ridiculous thing you had to do to make my gymnastics career come to life that's a good question um obviously you know we did a ton of research or i did a ton of research i wanted to make sure that we were always making the right choices kind of forging the right path for you because i didn't know where this was gonna go yeah i mean because we talked very you know candidly just in passing in the car usually about what you want to do with this always in the car yeah always in the car and ultimately like olympics never really came into conversation very often yeah um you loved watching college gymnastics and i think that's always where you kind of set your sights yeah and i was good with that so i just wanted to just make sure that whatever we took on together set you up and if olympics was still maybe on the back burner and you know who knows like you were only you know when i was making these choices with you and for you you were like 10 years old and um they're kind of scary choices as a parent to make it's just like is this crazy like i'm feeling like i'm a crazy gym mom now like what are we doing and then when they proposed these homeschool hours to me i'm like oh this is getting really nuts yeah because we were at a program we had moved gyms because the first gym didn't have the level of gymnastics that i kind of outgrew the level of gymnastics i was kind of exceeding all the expectations they didn't have a lot of level 10s no and i wanted you to have girls to look up to yeah i wanted just to have you have the mentors and girls to inspire you yeah they didn't have a surplus of higher higher levels um so then we went to gym max went to gym max and they had olympians they did and big names and a lot of experience coaching really successful athletes and i thought this is michaela maroney was there kyla ross was there big names yeah it was crazy it was crazy but it was also crazy from the you know from the aspect that i was giving up a huge part of our time together to the sport and i was giving up and sacrificing a lot of our family time for the sport my whole family would travel without us right i mean it got to a point where it was like grace has to stay in train well not even that like we would have dinner as a family and you would be at the gym yeah i can count on maybe one hand how many times i had dinner with my family so the one to 9 p.m training schedule ultimately was hard for us and we weathered through it and thank god for our time in the car so many car dinners i mean to give people an idea the reason why we spent so much time in the car is because we had to go to the gym and we had to go to the gym and we had to go to the gym because it was a 30-minute drive up to the gym and 30-minute drive back so i mean that's an hour of us you know i think the most ridiculous thing you ever had to do was at one point in my life you had four kids going to three different schools yeah doing multiple different extracurricular activities and you were averaging 200 miles a day on your car yeah that we drove your car into the it was literally like a nightly discussion how far did you drive today mom and it was crazy yeah it was not unusual on a daily basis to log 200 miles a day no it was but i wouldn't trade it for anything and i didn't want to pass that responsibility off to anybody because i felt like those times were just way too precious and that's when i that's when i learned stuff that's about your little celebrations in the gym i wasn't there when you got to do ring the bell or whatever they do when you get a new skill because they really didn't encourage parents to sit and watch nor would i want want to sit and watch yeah that wasn't your thing it's never my thing but i i still felt like i was missing chunks of memories and moments with you um and ultimately i think that was the catalyst for us to look at other gyms yeah you know really realizing okay the olympic dream is really not going to come to fruition yeah and we were all good with that and i think we just saw what the olympic dream looked like on a day-to-day like we saw the behind the scenes and it wasn't as glamorous as the olympic yeah dream seemed you know we saw the tears we saw the the devotion we saw the sacrifice and it was like yeah i could do that but one like how realistic is it really like i don't think i could have gone to olympics unless i was like doing the same gymnastics i was doing in college that i you know when i was 10 years old like that's the thing that people don't realize is when you're you're a late bloomer too with that part for sure yeah and like i had to decide if i wanted to go to college or go elite at literally 10 years old yeah you do have to decide early so early and we were doing homeschool we were i was picking up classes on the weekend to make up for credits that i had lost because i was training like i did not have a life and i think you and i both recognize like i'm not going to do something i don't want to do yeah i've always been that way it's my greatest strength and sometimes my greatest weakness you were my feisty child and um if i don't want to do it i'm not doing it there were times i'm like what the hell do i do with her like she's she's so crazy feisty but i kept telling myself this attribute of grace this characteristic is going to be so powerful when she gets older really yeah for as i mean for as long as i can remember like i've always said that to myself i've had i have conversations with myself all the time yeah she is nothing like me you know um but i i do think that crossroad you know like okay where does she see herself with this gymnastics thing was really important it was a huge future life decision yeah and and we were able to take back our family time which was really special you know moderate training schedule yeah we moved me to wildfire yeah and they were a family-run business so they had such a great yeah understanding and appreciation for balance and geared toward college college recruiting i was like hell yeah they produced a ton of college athletes so we saw the the proof in the pudding and yeah they were great i it was the best move of my life yeah and you were able to actually take back aspects of your teenage life that a lot of elites really never had the opportunity to do and i'm grateful for those aspects of your life because i think it forged a lot of personal growth for you um a lot of social growth you know i'm so glad you encouraged me to do things too because like even i remember like it was yesterday like driving from practice straight to a football game and getting doing my makeup in the car getting dressed in the getting dressed in the car with like chalky legs and my hair is in a crazy messy bun and figuring out a way to fix it throw a hat on and make it work and it's like you never once discouraged me from that you never once encouraged me you kind of just let me be me yeah and do whatever i felt like was my thing and what i wanted to do and if i came to you and told you like i want to do this thing like you were like we're gonna find every resource possible to make it happen yeah we're gonna make it work i mean shit like we've done meets where i literally you brought my winter formal dress in the car and i threw it on in the car and we got to winter formal because i had a meet that night and we somehow made it work where i just showed up late always make it work yeah and so like anytime i have to get ready in the car now it's like so funny like literally triggers those memories where i'm like no getting ready for winter formal in the car after a meet is insane but hey like best vault score of my i think high school career was that night i remember and it was such a fun one to be able to do both of those things both yeah you never made me feel like i had to choose one and so that was a really really cool feeling and i think it's going to be really special when i do raise my own kids because i've had such an incredible experience with a parent who helped me feel really strong and who i am and be able to do everything i wanted to do yeah you know yeah it was it was teamwork oh my god it was teamwork but you know i i do have to say that um like every one of those moments that we captured back for you were so special to me like i i loved picking out your prom dresses with you and you know throwing it in the back of the car and you know all of that it just i don't know it just it worked and i forgot about how logistically it was challenging um against all odds we made it work i mean even there were times where like just to give you an idea of the devotion of this woman to make my life easier and to make my career happen like i had this crazy phobia growing up of hotels oh god not to trigger you wait and it started so so young so young we were down at a meet in san diego you were maybe six years old this is when you were first on it like an official team my first ever season and competing and we had stayed in hotels and stuff before no problem traveled as a family and so i could never have really expected this reaction from you but random hotel not a pricey one like might have been a motel yeah and uh they just happened to have drapes with no i had a nightmare you had a nightmare that i was being attacked by bees yes and i woke up screaming my head off and i'm trying to figure out why yeah like what inspired this dream and like we're up at two three in the morning and we have a meet the next morning at freaking 8 a.m because compulsory is always at the ass crack dawn absolutely and so i'm like what is going on you were like what's going on and then we like look around the room we're trying to figure out what you're like is there a bee in here like yeah did you see a bee in i'm thinking bed bugs or something like anything and yeah and you're like did you watch a scary movie like what my dream six years old and we look on the drapes of this motel and there's bees on it yep and it was so weird it was so weird and ceiling drapes yeah bees all over it was so still to this day i have no idea where that phobia came from but it set the stage for really difficult times oh i think it lasted like two years anytime we had to travel we had this is when you were with jim max we had to go to a meet in vegas and no malibu it was like no it was it was northern we drove up i can't even remember it was like west lake and i had to book like a fancy room for you like princess like yeah you got princess treatment and i had to like really like because it was a hail mary you were trying to figure out like okay how can we get her to stay in this hotel we had to spend the night because you were you were scheduled to start really early the next morning yeah and i promised you every oh you can watch what was the show you were watching back then we would watch it it's like the one with um you know the one with the brother and the sister that one on disney i don't even know which one was the other one i don't even know which one was the other one you're talking about was it waverly place oh was this waverly place that was the one i think we just had it on a loop oh my god and whatever you wanted for room service but i remember literally pulling you out of the elevator like you were hanging on like white knuckling you didn't want to get out of the elevator when you heard we were going to a hotel yeah it was wild we got through it i was like yeah i remember there was one time i refused to stay in a hotel room and we had a meet it was the lady luck invitational in vegas oh my god and this was level four level five and you literally woke up at three in the morning and drove us to vegas because i would not fly and stay in a hotel yeah i did do that for you you did yeah thank god dad was so understanding because and thank god dad loved me as much as you did because i know like i honestly i'm shocked he didn't put a bad spin on y'all's marriage because it took you away from the family for a long time i mean you were traveling with me constantly yeah that was always kind of a concern i had in the back of my mind like am i favoring her is it going to be is it going to affect the other siblings is it going to be misunderstood by the other kids in the household are they going to feel like you know she's my favorite and i always felt like i needed to come back from those trips and come back from you know like overcompensate almost yeah um luckily i don't feel that way anymore but i mean on the flip side i mean how many moms and daughters do we know that don't have what we have so yeah like i know that every moment that we got through together is why we're here yeah and is why i can't go a day without hearing your voice yeah or getting you on facetime like i call her constantly i call you every day and i call you well i'm afraid to call you sometimes yeah you don't call me i call you i check location first i check to see if you're on instagram first and then i'm like okay cool i think this is safe yeah she knows how chaotic my life is she's like you could be on a plane to freaking you know honestly florida for all i know like the best thing that you ever did for me was share your google calendar yeah true yeah because dad will say hey have you have you talked to grace why don't you give her a call and i'm like hold on you she's recording with just today actually we can't talk to her yet let's give her an hour that's so funny no she might need to decompress after the podcast episode we did talk about right before recording if i was high maintenance or not i mean producer west asked if i was high maintenance or not yeah and i'm now that we're talking i'm like i was so high maintenance mom i tried to make you high maintenance with certain things because like i go semi bougie with things like you do for sure i don't have a lot yeah of materialistic things but i do value like some of the nicer designer things so you'll buy a designer thing and you keep in your closet for 10 years and you don't touch it no it's like my vintage louis vuitton bag it's in your closet now you know no i mean you're low maintenance um like you're not you're not like a high maintenance girly in the sense that you love to shop and you look yeah i get my nails done and i have just started enjoying the whole makeup deal yeah but you were always kind of more tomboy yeah growing up like none of that stuff really mattered to you and i was cool with that that was fine besides the hair besides the hair but high maintenance um just in terms of mood management maybe it's the truth yeah i mean a little adhd that was crazy was crazy to understand and navigate well you had three other kids who were extremely smart excelled in school liked school loved school loved school i mean julia's still in school so much maybe but yeah he thrived i mean like julia literally went back to school because she missed studying like yeah ew could not be me yeah we are not the same and so to have three kids who were all so they all adopted dad's brain they all inherited dad's brain yeah and then there's me and i'm just like the weirdo black sheep over here who has to go to freaking brain camp to train her brain to not you know need medication for adhd haywire yeah well that's why i think gymnastics was so critically important for you because like i'm a big fan of holding off on any of the outside medications and draining your brain as much as possible so that you can navigate life and make decisions make good decisions and not just be crazy impulsive you know like that was my my biggest fear was that you were going to do something impulsively and i was just going to be like shit i'm gonna have to pick up the pieces yeah um but gymnastics and you know even like conditioning you know we were an active active family so you'd get home from gym on the weekends and we'd still be going yeah you know we're at the beach we're doing stuff and i think that really helped kind of mitigate some of those stressful moments yeah you know and and frustrations for you i imagine with an adhd brain oh my gosh there were so many times like at the dinner table when everyone's talking i mean i'm one of four kids yeah we're all young everyone's yapping everyone's talking at once and i would get so agitated and i remember now like i remember back then not understanding why yeah and then when i got diagnosed i'm like that's a side effect absolutely like even now like as a freaking grown adult white noise still agitates me yeah like if something's happening even like when we're on facetime and your your fridge i'm doing is beeping because you left it open and i'm like mom your fridge your fridge it's like it's a weird thing it's so weird but it's like i've heard that that's like a side effect of adhd just because you literally like if i'm not medicated i can literally go to a restaurant and hear every single conversation going on around me except for the one that's happening in front of me and it's so debilitating as a woman trying to further her career and network and be in these big crowded spaces and yeah talk to these you know really important people yeah and so i'm really grateful that we figured out a way to like medicate on a lower dose that works for me yeah and i'm glad that you guys supported me in that and like you recognize yes obviously there's things that we can work on on the holistic side right but sometimes things just you just need a little extra boost you know and yeah so i'm i'm definitely a huge advocate for trying everything outside of medication yeah trying everything conservatively first yes and then you also have the tools to be able to do that when you don't want to be on medication for a day or two or whatever or you want to be on a lower dose and you don't have to be like full-blown cracked out like the way i was in college right like yeah ucla was insane required oh my god i mean training four or five hours a day going straight into school having to sit still for another four or five hours and then after that do homework and study and try to stay on top of my shit and then i'll do it all over again you know day after day after day four years straight it's like yeah obviously i had to have a higher dose but i remember and asu would have required a much lower dose probably like ucla was just like oh my god of the four kids like she's my least academic kid and she's at freaking ucla yeah wait a minute this is how did we get here we need to rewrite this story yeah like this is a chapter i didn't expect i know that was the plot twist for sure yeah but then i remember getting you know obviously when i tore my achilles having panic attacks from the level of medication i was on and being like oh my gosh like i'm not getting out this energy yeah the same way i was required to you were stagnant yeah you were stuck the first time in like my whole life yeah and it was brutal and we were living together at the time i was living at home like i don't even know how you dealt with me honestly yeah and then we were back in the car driving to get personal training driving to get physical therapy and that was huge that was helpful yeah you without movement you without some type of athletic outlet you're i'm like the tasmanian devil you're tricky you're tricky but but you know the good news is i've i've had 28 years with you and i think i finally get you you do i do you do i mean like there's some mornings when i'm calling you and i'm like okay grace you need to make a flight for you know reservation for this and we need to take care of this and you're like whoa mom i haven't had my coffee yet call me back in 20 minutes i'm like oh shit i forgot that she needs her you know her morning routine and i need to ease her into these things you know it's yeah we're two very humans yeah i yeah i could not agree more but that's why we love each other so much maybe i don't know i know we're like yin and yang like god gave you what you needed yeah yeah so obviously as much as there's been incredible times in my career there have also been a lot of lows and you've seen the lows a lot of people have not seen the lows but you've been so blessed to be around for all of the low lows yeah when was there a time where you felt like i wanted to surrender yeah yeah um i felt like i kept throwing tools your direction like whether it was physical therapy or hypnosis or sending a yoga instructor up to you even because i'm like about that she needs to move her body and she needs to stretch and she you know like i kept trying to find aids solutions um because then i felt like i was in control to some degree yeah um or helpful like i just you know me like i live for i live for my family i live for my children and you know like i want to do everything in my power in my control to ease whatever stress anxiety disappointment there is i mean not sheltering you from it because i know there's always lessons in those moments yeah and i don't regret that you experienced any of those moments but as a mom they were tragically stressful for me and like i probably needed therapy myself yeah like as a deep empath yeah you feel feelings deeper than i felt feelings at times yeah i mean even like breakups oh god it's like i went through a breakup like they call me still like and i was trying to like figure out a way to fix it yeah you know like that was dumb yeah but you know i did i felt i felt everything that you felt probably exponentially more yeah and i don't understand that really i know and i i don't know if i did that with the other kids as much yeah it was a weird it was a weird phenomenon i think what the difference is though is that no one else in the family needed you as much as i did true true true facts absolutely i needed you from the womb yeah you did and i think what's so crazy now is we're closer than ever but i'm far more independent than i ever was yeah it's weird it's really weird i wish i could go back honestly and do it all over again yeah and be the be the human i am now yeah and trust the human you are yeah like if i had known who you were going to become and how you were going to handle life yeah and like you were going to take on these big dreams and be this amazing human i don't think i would have been nearly as stressed like life would have been easy and good and yeah i mean not that it wasn't good but it oh you were stressed i stressed you out all the time i was stressed i probably should have taken copious notes and written a book yeah still can it was funny like we laugh about this the the gym moms and i laugh about this all the time they always wanted to go over early this was during ucla yeah for warm-ups and i'm like oh shit warm-ups i hate warm-ups yes warm-ups stress me out because it it was either you would nail your vault and i'm like shoot we should have saved that for competition you know like why why during warm-ups yeah and finally i'd be like you know or you'd go out of bounds on your tumbling pass i'm like oh too much power yeah i'd exit i exit the arena and i take laps would just take laps over and over again i'm like cool warm-ups are done my cue was to go back in take a seat yeah and my friends were all there and they thought it was so hysterically funny well and to give people an idea too you don't even drink alcohol i grew up around parents who don't drink i did discover i did discover well that's what i you were so stressed out you literally made your own drink we call them champagne lorraine champagne lorraine where it's champagne and grapefruit juice it's a glorified mimosa it's yeah it's just a little fun spin on a mimosa but that was i think it was hallie mozat mozat's mom who coined the term i don't no no i don't think she she didn't coin the term but i think she liked that drink she put you onto it yeah i mean the rest of the parents were doing shots oh my god so yeah but i'm glad you went with the champagne lorraine we had so much it was like i i wouldn't trade those moments for anything yeah that was a really cool thing to see too because i had come from club where the parents were insane the parents were extremely involved and i think where the difference is between you being involved and the parents that were involved that i had seen in the past was these parents were involved because they wanted something bigger than what their kid wanted yeah and you wanted as much as i wanted absolutely every time like the only reason you were even remotely invested was because you felt my level of passion and my level of investment and you just matched the energy i was just along for the ride literally yeah i was there i was there and this is why i loved to travel with you guys so much too is because if you just needed me in your space oh my god there were so many times where i was like so anxious for a meet yeah and i would just text her and i'd be like i'd show up in your room yeah and after show yeah we just vibe hang out it was just our togetherness just allowed you i think to to be free thank god you were there there were so many times i mean when miss val took my credential at nationals and you and i were in the living we're in the hotel room and i'm sobbing yeah and i'm like my teammates there and she's competing and she's like i don't know what to do with this like this is not my problem you know what i mean not that she was not wanting to be there for me but it's such a heavy situation and it's yeah and you hate to burden your teammates no of course not like she has to compete i'm not competing now and it's like yeah so it was nice to be able to go to your room kind of separate myself from the team touch some grass be you know separate myself you needed mommy that wasn't it at all it was just i think you're my rock through the years you just started to identify your mom as something more than your mom yeah all of a sudden i think i was just kind of like this safe little space and you really got it because you know my intentions you know my character you know who i am to my core absolutely so then it really wasn't like i had to explain myself i didn't have to yeah mask or be something i wasn't because you've been there through it all so you know the level of pain that i was feeling yeah and you were able to empathize and to sympathize with me through a lot of really hard moments and i think that's what got me through it because i was like okay i'm not alone no ever and even though you never knew what it was like to compete at the level i was at it was like you still knew because you knew everything that had gone into it you knew every practice every hour that i had trained to get to the point that i was at so it's like but that was because you shared that with me and you let me in like i feel like a lot of parents don't have those opportunities yeah you know so you were part of that too yeah like a lot of kids are like back off like you know you don't need to come to every meet mom you know what i mean like oh yes i do i remember with the meet that you couldn't come to and i'm like university of arizona i still remember it was and it was a special mother's day tribute shoot me yeah yeah you were you were sad yeah yeah just so just knowing i'm in the stands i think was important for you you know i i don't know maybe that's why i took on the role that i did with ucla yeah you got to be the gym mom you were team mom i was the team liaison or the parent liaison or whatever and you were team mom it was sick you were like you made matching shirts for everybody i did you gave everyone pom-poms you organized them and you were like oh my god i'm so sorry i'm so sorry i'm so sorry i'm so sorry itineraries for everyone to travel like you were that girl i made it for three years of my career i made it way too big maybe it was so good no people literally like mourned when my when i graduated because they missed you like you know for me it was what can i do to increase the level of hype support yeah and love that you and your teammates are going to feel when they look up and see this huge community in the stands i felt like we had the biggest community of fans at traveling groupies like it was crazy and parents you know it's like we were all bought in and and it was fun for you guys it was so fun they were my best friends yeah you know and when season was over at the end of the year it was sad you know and miss val did a great job of keeping us all unified and and together and we all were like one big family and i i still i still feel like i'm a part of the family i feel like i'm a part of the family people will sometimes look at other teams they're lining up to send their teams off to the meets or whatever they'll show like little clips during ncaa i'm like not anywhere close yeah like we were so good you were so unified yeah and it was really special yeah yeah even though you weren't in the stands for that one meet out of millions that i had i had it i had a decent excuse though so you did you had surgery i did have surgery um and as painful as it was i remember trying to like reel it in and not show too much emotion even though i know that you you needed a little bit of emotion to know that you were needed and that you were i always want to feel like i'm missed if i'm not there yeah i had to find a really solid balance between the two where i didn't want to make you feel guilty for not being there yeah i know but you were there for some pretty insane moments what moment was your favorite oh my god there's so many which one sticks out like the most um obviously you're 10 and i love the fact that we have photographs oh my gosh we're gonna have to overlay the photos they're so good i haven't seen my dad cry oh we were all in he was sobbing yeah it was crazy it was really cool it was crazy that was a really special moment i loved seeing you close out your career with a 995 vault i was like thank god her nemesis finally yeah like for you to finally have a moment and we didn't even know at the time it was my last meet no we had no idea yeah so that was pretty insane those were big moments and it was also yeah navigating the whole covid thing was tricky hard sad you know bittersweet in the sense that you know we all got to be together under one roof again yeah we were all home together that's crazy yeah but i mourned the loss of your career too that was hard for me and i i kept thinking that maybe there would be some kind of resolution about you know ncaa offering another year possibly yeah but um you were you were poised to do so well at nationals i always i think i often wonder about what that would have looked like yeah you know like you were just our team also figured it out i mean we got to a point where it was like we could be national champions again i was like i could be everything was falling into place i could be floor champion i could be floor champion i could be floor champion i was second in the nation when covid hit you were which was insane but yeah i mean what would have been but also i'm so grateful that that happened because i don't think i'd be doing gymnastics to this day i mean did you think i'd still be doing gymnastics hell no when i told her that i was getting into like stunts and doing gymnastics again she's like are you freaking kidding me can you give me a break like i've literally had my cortisol levels through the two years you gave me like two months off i did like two months no i gave you i gave you utah state i coached at utah state i gave you like two years but that was stressful i had to like worry about oh crap she's never driven in snow before yeah that too that's fair that's fair there's always something to worry about but that was that was fun too yeah i mean it it had its challenges but it was fun as well but yeah you gave me a little break but you were still training in that gym as well you were training when the girls weren't practicing later that was when i was training though okay like seven months later but the stunt thing that was a little stressful for me because i felt like gymnastics like everything you were doing like i i never question your safety um but when you take on new challenges because i know how competitive and i know how stubborn you are yeah it's just like oh does she know when to say no and the martha stewart commercial was a or how to advocate for yourself yeah so that you protect your your physical body and your spiritual peace yeah you know like i feel i feel a lot more confident in your abilities to discern what's safe what's controllable and what you have to pass on yeah until the jeep trip and then i'm like yeah all bets are off just talking about when i did that moab swing yeah i had to i had to wait wait this girl hates ferris wheels this girl like she was the only one in her family you i we went we went to disneyland one time and i refused to go on any rides i literally watched you guys 40 minutes from disneyland yeah and i love disneyland and i love roller coasters yeah i hate them like i forced you on the tower of terror and i was traumatized i felt like i stigmatized you for years with that you literally traumatized me i was traumatized you were traumatized you were traumatized you were traumatized me yeah i did i remember yelling at you afterwards you were not part of this you're like this is gonna be so fun i'm looking over my siblings my brother is like yeah this is so fun i'm like i hate all of you yeah like this was awful yeah well that's what i'm saying like i i don't understand like how did we transition to jumping off cliffs now the jeep team was relying on me to do so peer pressure professional peer pressure okay no we just need impulse control are you kidding my freaking watch was at 150 for an hour like i was unwell thank god i had a good poker face and i was just out there being quiet and like in the corner and everyone's like cried yeah okay well we don't need to talk about emotional early yeah i will say that has been the coolest part i think of my character arc is being able to be vulnerable and and cry yeah i couldn't cry for the longest time you were a beast yeah all during your childhood like there wasn't a lot that upset you but then when i got into college and i was in like fight or flight i i don't think i let myself cry in front of people for a good chunk of my career that was probably some kind of a defense mechanism maybe yeah yeah i like seeing you cry we cry together i love i love watching these podcasts and seeing you cry for other people yeah like to me that shows that you've really you've collected really special people in your life and created this community and to you you know for you to have these really loving compassionate moments with with other people other athletes yeah huge yeah yeah that's pretty cool it's a good thing how did you feel about me shifting into content and podcasting and youtube and red bull cliff diving like i mean i kind of threw a lot at you yeah in a short span of time um content i was good with because you eased into it to be fair i was living at home when i first started doing content yeah and i remember telling you and dad and they were like just little tiktok trending videos i'm like cool this is this one dad's like silly but that's like how are you gonna pay your bills yeah with instagram like he was a little skeptical yeah because i mean he's the doctor understand no he does not understand that but he does love the reels he does love my videos yes and he loves the podcast and he loves the podcast and he loves the podcast and he loves the podcast but yeah like and he's now brave enough to comment here and there yeah but i remember like telling you guys you know i think i want to really take a stab at it and like do it full on and really commit to this because we were kind of half-assing it for a bit i was doing coaching i had done the mentorship thing fitness apps yeah i had like a fitness app that was like i just felt like i was i was doing workouts in your backyard i just felt like nothing was really firing me up and i i'm one of those people that can't half-ass anything you know - True. full-fledged or nothing and so i'm shocked that you guys had the faith in me to support me through that because it was probably very delusional seeming i still remember you called about red bull that was that was like your first big project i think yeah and it really forced you outside of your comfort zone my first time traveling internationally by myself first time being a host that was stressful for me i'm like yeah she's gonna forget her passport like is she gonna be able like to fill out the paperwork without me but um but i was good with it you offered to come with you're like should i buy a ticket should i meet you in greece absolutely um the way they tested you the way they challenged you yeah was terrifying for me like seeing some seeing me rappel down a 200 foot cliff in ireland terrifying for me like does she have the right gear is she warm enough you no and no no and no absolutely not um but i think those forged a lot of independence and growth for you and those experiences i think caused you to like pivot hard in this role yeah and take on even you know way more stuff outside of gymnastics like it's just been gym gym gym for so long and then it's just like oh my god she's so good at so many other things yeah and you talked well we've talked endlessly about you versus the other kids in the family and how you were the least academic but i'm like but her brain is the coolest like i don't understand it yeah i don't i've never understood what really motivates your choices in life or you know honestly me neither but but yeah i'm celebrating you every day i think it's and you inspire me yeah you know you've inspired me to let go of you know oh yeah she's currently reading the subtle art of not giving a fuck yeah i am chapter four i do i do have moments where i'm like oh god like yeah like it's just so in your face yeah but um i do think that it's healthy for me i think we were put on earth for each other for sure yeah no doubt because no doubt we balance each other out very well but the podcast um crazy crazy because i think in a like within a span of like two months you pulled this together yeah and telling me you're organizing this launch party i'm like wait a minute like she doesn't know how to do that does she know how to do that like how is she going to negotiate all of this and i was so thankful that like you aligned with an agency i'm like thank god like someone's reading over uta and dba oh my gosh reading over her contracts and pushing her into you know these really good relationships with brands and you know like kind of taking my role over yeah you know like someone else is out there looking out for her and protecting her and building her up and hyping her up because you deserve that i know that was so special that when you came you and dad came to the berries event wouldn't have missed the podcast launch yeah and my agents had gone up to you and knew who you were and i was like oh my god i'm so thankful that you're here and i'm so grateful that you were and you know they were like she's crushing they love you yeah it was so cool yeah it's so it's it's like going to school and like the dreaded teacher parent conference i'm like oh do i have to talk to you about grace right now did she write her number on the bookshelf again what is she doing okay that was the only time i ever went to the principal's office i learned my phone number the week before and someone said you don't know your phone number and i was like oh really yeah and then i wrote it on the wall i'm sure it was a cute boy and then i yeah well someone did pull on my pigtails and i shoved them to the ground so pretty on brand i'm not gonna lie i would expect nothing less okay yeah i honestly i'm really curious what you think our relationship or how you think our relationship has evolved over 28 years i hate that we keep saying 28 because i'm not even 28 yet but well i used to always say that you were my best friend and i don't think i really understood like the power of those words yeah and just the depth of what it meant until we started living it and until i became an adult no it wasn't even it was oh no it was much later it was way later gee um um yeah you know you wanting to live on your own and do these things on your own and like sometimes i'll read your captions and captions on your reels and i'm like who is she like she's brilliant she's smart and she's creative and like i admire you so much and i sometimes have to pinch myself like okay i i had a part in in creating you and you played the biggest role i'd like to think i did but it hasn't been until recently i'm like through and through like you really truly are my best friend like you're my go-to i'm like shit she's busy right now i need to call her because i'm i'm having a moment you know like we've gotten to that point where um there's now so much love and respect and i count on you to tell me you know mom reel it in or you you're my reel it in it's truest um you're you're my best friend and um i think it was cute to say it all those years you know because we relied on each other so much and i think i relied on you needing me as much as you relied on me i i think maybe at times maybe it was unhealthy but it got us here so i wouldn't trade any of those difficult times you know like i can count the number of times that we like fought with each other like we don't fight no i feel i just i feel really blessed and um yeah like to be able to do trips with you like yeah when you invited me to the red bull rampage event i'm like no wonder mom gets to do this really cool shit you know like this is really special or like when i had you meet me in oslo and copenhagen on the girls trip because i was working out there with red bull and yeah that was and i always wanted to be like on the fringes like i never wanted to insert myself or impose myself and you always brought me in yeah we're all going out to dinner with the divers mom come on yeah and um that's a gift yeah because i would have been just happy sitting in my hotel room waiting for you to come home after the after party or you know what i'm saying like yeah no girl we're i mean honestly like it's hard for me to outgrow and expand beyond that role of i just want to do everything in my power to make life easier for you yeah you know like oh that hotel was garbage or you know it's oh it's not it's not close enough to the event i don't want you walking home at night we moved you know like that that's always been my role but i feel like now it's like you're not living for me like you're living with me now yeah like we're not mom and daughter i need you constantly it's like no we choose each other absolutely which is really cool and it's it's a relationship i'll never ever take for granted no so grateful for you and geographically like physically we need to always be close oh my gosh during the launch of this podcast was honestly one of the toughest times because i couldn't go home and see you right and you were going through some health stuff yeah and that was before i mean shit like i went through the breakup yeah which was brutal 2025 was huge a shit year yeah that was a rough one like craziest character arc development ever like went through the worst breakup of my life you dropped everything came and spent the day with me and cory and we binge watched traitors at the house we thought we thought this was your person husband we thought you know you guys were talking about marriage and weddings and um to to endure that kind of sorrow with you i think that bonded us even further you know it's just yeah and then and then you had health stuff i had some health issues hospitalized you made time for me like you brought in cards of humanity and we laughed in my cards against humanity i'm like you know snuck in some yummy food for me it was just yeah like i think that was the first time too where you saw me as an adult where i was dropping everything for you the way that you dropped everything from me you did do that so please don't get sick again thank you for that no no it's it's not on my it's not on my agenda yeah yeah thank god you and dad are so healthy now like it it just it continues to inspire me and you guys have just raised us very well thank you oh my god wesley shit okay um okay last one what's a moment you felt overwhelmingly proud but never told me about oh this is a this is a hard one because there's been a lot of them actually um i've been really really proud of the times as an adult where you've done whatever it takes to pull everyone in our family together like i feel like you're the catalyst sometimes you know and i i think that's really special and i never really saw that coming from you yeah i mean because i'm like oh she's selfish at times you know because you had to be yeah it was just like it was just kind of a side effect of your life to be selfish um but seeing you think outside of yourself but especially related to our family and our family life like it's really cool to see that um really cool to see and get to know your friends like i get that event was really special not even just the launch i get to know people that are important to you yeah yes you're an adult and you live your own little badass life but i get to be a part of it and i get to know the players and to see you choose really cool people as friends and to see how important you are to them like that says everything to me about you doing life and and succeeding in life so gymnastics was great and like all those moments were really special and yeah they're logged in my memory and my heart forever but seeing you um relate to other people and heal other people and be kind and loving and show grace to other people i don't know that to me is really special and makes me feel like i did a really good job you did thank you good job mom thanks g yeah all right wow we covered a lot we might have to have you on every month because it's so fun talking to you i honestly feel like it's this is better than facetime i know yeah can you just move up here already i know i'm so over working on it working yeah we're laying down the groundwork for sure yeah dad i've planned i've planted seats we're looking at real estate yeah um so let's shift into our little segment here on the show okay you've listened to every episode so you already know what's coming it's called dear athlete but i'm not an athlete dear mom yeah but this is more for dear mom parents this is more for the parents of extremely devoted athletes love that because you have more experience than most yeah having so much on your plate on top of dealing with me you know being so diehard passionate about my sport yeah especially it being such a demanding sport an expensive sport a time-consuming sport you know so first question is what's one piece of advice you would give to a parent whose kid is getting into gymnastics gymnastics or any sport gymnastics specifically um you need to trust and let go of the leash a little bit like give your kid some space but always be present so always be there always be there be there but allow them a little bit of independence i mean within safe parameters yeah you know like and i think that's where um it's really important as a parent to do your homework to do your research make sure you're sending your kid especially in gymnastics to a gym that safe is transparent yeah that is very focused on the welfare and safety of the children in the gym and i felt like we always did that with you um and then because i trusted the facility the coaches um i could give you that space yeah and i think that's really important but yeah just being present be present and you always let me have an out which i i always say that was the biggest thing and i will forever give that advice to parents that direct message me there's so many times i get messages like i want to put my kid in gymnastics but i don't know how to do this this or that or like i want to get my kid to ucla how do i do that and it's like do you want to go to ucla yeah it's not about you yeah it's about what your kid wants well i think it's important always to to honor a commitment like if you signed up for something like see it through yeah i'm not saying you know have an out and exercise it whenever you want i think but you let my passion be the driving force absolutely and and if there was ever a moment where you were doubting yourself or doubting your choices like we talked it through yeah and yeah absolutely but i think keeping like an open conversation going with your kids being an opening ear like every day like yeah it's not like what did you do or what you know what skill did you get it's like well how did you feel today yeah like did you come home feeling accomplished do you feel stronger do you feel more empowered like you know it wasn't about results those those are the moments those are the stories that really filled my heart yeah yeah i know i always felt like focusing on results was never a thing for me growing up because i never was really winning right i was never the top kid i was always kind of in the middle you were always like the underdog a little bit a little but i especially never consistently at the top or anything yeah this is like i'm talking like early stages of gymnastics because it really developed grace yeah it developed my approach to like gymnastics as a whole but i do believe like even though sometimes i think it's because i never won i never put my gratification in winning i think it was because of you maybe i think because you never put an emphasis on winning yeah yeah it was it's about the experience yeah yeah for sure okay second question what's something you wish you knew back when i was first starting out first starting out in gymnastics yeah or in this world when i first came out of the womb it's mother's day so when you first came oh i was shocked what was something you wish you knew back when i first came out of the womb this is a hard one grace like i guess i wish i would have known that you were going to be feisty and crazy but i was gonna turn out okay no but i mean like but but that i would i would know how to react i would know how to respond like like i i guess i wish back then i would know that i could trust myself yeah even though i didn't know what i was doing like i felt like the type of kid you were tested me in ways that the other kids didn't and um i don't i don't know if i answered that question really i mean that's that's how you feel so i think you answered it right when you first kind of said that i mean you said it earlier too where you just you you wish that you knew how we were going to end up because you probably would have worried so much oh i would love to go back it would be way more fun i think i don't think i would stress about anything like you come home and tell me stuff and i'd be i'm shocked you don't have a full head of gray hair you're gonna be fine yeah you'll be fine i swear i stressed you out more than anyone last question what's something you wish more parents understood about what really matters in sports um i'm gonna say sports gives us as parents a really unique and special opportunity to um relate to your children differently you know it's outside of the house it's outside of the family it can just be you and the child um and allowing the experiences the lessons to kind of help contribute to what we were doing as parents yeah like i think that's really special and it's it's something that i can't really see happening without sport yeah and um it gave you a really unique opportunity to also show up for your kids in a way that i don't think you could really do anywhere else and us really understand what it's like to have unyielding support yeah and immeasurable love yeah which is really cool yeah it's really cool and holy crap do we have some core memories that came out of that we do i just i think it's really important to encourage parents to be there yeah to show up be present be at every event you know be in the car with them don't don't pass that opportunity off to someone else don't hire i know you hated the carpool yeah i wasn't a fan of the carpool because i felt like some of some of the most vulnerable moments of my life were in the car we're in the car yeah you know well now they're on the pod they're on the pod now our most vulnerable moment is on the pod documented forever absolutely and i am just so so grateful my grandbabies will see this i know yeah hopefully those come at some point they're like grandma grandma you were so cool yeah well thank you for coming on mom yeah i love you i love you too happy mother's day happy mother's day to you too and happy mother's day to all the moms out there you guys are superhuman i say this every time i see a woman who's pregnant giving birth having kids you guys are the real heroes and to have a mom who's devoted her whole life to her kids i know exactly what it takes and i've seen every ounce of you given to others and i'm just so grateful that i can give back to you and support you the way that you supported me thanks honey love you i love you more all right you guys thank you so much for tuning in to athleisure.com after hours i'm your host gracie kramer and we'll see you next wednesday let's go let's go oh my god i cried so much mom give me a hug i love you