Aly Raisman's Summer: Exhausting, but Perfect

By Grahame Turner

Just back from the Maccabiah Games in Israel, and before that "Dancing With the Stars," Aly Raisman is already talking about heading back to the gym to start training for the next Olympic Games. 

"The summer is going by so fast," Raisman, a 19-year-old Needham native who attends temple in Newton, remarked, "I am exhausted, but it has been so fun, and I love it. I am very appreciative for it. If I could say what a perfect year was, this is it."

Patch caught a few minutes with the young Olympic Gold medalist on the phone, and learned about her summer and what keeps her going with training on the hard days. 

She is heading back to her gym in Burlington to prepare for the next Olympic games. At a recent question-and-answer session at the gym, some students asked her and coach Mihai Brestyan whether training is fun. 

Raisman laughs, "He told them, 'look at my gray hairs.'"

"People think training is fun," She went on, "it is a lot of work, and a lot of blood, sweat and tears." 

Her training sessions can take up to seven, sometimes seven-and-a-half hours each day. Raisman says that there are good days and bad days. So, we asked what keeps her going on the bad days.

"I think I have more bad days than good: I'm a perfectionist," Raisman admitted. "I'm hard on myself."

She said what keeps her going is not just love of the sport, but her coach telling her to think of hearing everyone's name called out for the Olympic Games, but not hers -- a sensation she says would be "unbearable."

However, hearing her name called out for the Olympics was "indescribable." 

"I've never cried like that in front of other people," Raisman recalls.

Earlier this year, she came in fourth in "Dancing With the Stars." She told Patch that, when she first got back from the Olympics, all of the attention she received made her shy. ABC's dancing program, on the other hand, "made me come out of my shell," she said. 

When traveling, Raisman says that what she misses most about Needham is being with her friends and family. 

"I don't know where I'd be without my parents," she adds. 

What's next? Raisman is heading to Connecticut for the USA Gymnastics National Congress and Trade Show in Hartford, starting August 15, where she and the rest of the Fierce Five will be inducted into the Hall of Fame.