Raisman’s validation

Aly Raisman

Former American gymnast Aly Raisman has learnt the importance of being there for oneself the way that we would for our loved ones.

Raisman, a two-time Olympic gold-medallist, told Insider: "I have a puppy, Milo, and if there's anything even slightly off with him, I want to take him to the vet and make sure that I am caring for him and taking care of him. And I realised, why am I not doing the same thing for myself? We often will go out of our way to help other people. And we advocate for other people to go to the doctor, but we don't always do the same thing for ourselves. So I've just learned the importance of really validating how we feel and being there for ourselves the way that we would care for someone else."

Raisman, who spoke against USA Gymnastics and the USOC for the way they handled sexual abuse allegations against former team doctor Larry Nassar, is vocal about topics like mental health care, pet adoption and body positivity.

Also Read: We had to act like everything was fine: Raisman on mental burden of Olympics