The Summer Olympic Games has more than 10,000 athletes competing, and plenty of parents will join their kids as they chase their Olympic dreams.
“In my heart, in my tears. It’s very, very exciting, I never thought she would be here,” Kerry Morris, mother of USA pole vaulter Sandi Morris, said.
A parent’s pride can be seen in a lot of different ways.
“You have goals and then you have dreams, and this is both,” Harry Morris, Sandi’s father, said.
But when your child makes it to the Olympics, you sure hope that pride can be seen and felt in person, rather than back home, half a world away.
“It means the world to me to have them here,” Sandi says.
Friday night, Sandi will vault for gold, but before the jump, she planned to see her family at the Athletes’ Village.
“We just wanted to see her and not get in the way,” Harry said.
Although something did.
“There was a little confusion. We brought copies of passports instead of the real thing so we can’t get them in,” Sandi said.
But this family time would not be denied, the Morris family stood outside security just for a few minutes to encourage their Olympic daughter.
“We are going to make the best of it, and just the fact that they’re here in Rio to support me, I mean we knew it would be a little bit of a rough journey. It’s a foreign country, and the Olympics is going on, so it’s going to be super tight security, but they’re here and that’s all that matters,” said Sandi.
A heartwarming Olympic moment, possibly motivating one vaulter to Olympic glory.
“It’s very, very exciting, never thought she would be here. It makes you appreciate America, and I appreciate my kids, and I’m proud of Sandi,” Kerry said.
