Gymnast Aly Raisman is joining in on the Olympic pin trading frenzy
RIO DE JANEIRO — Aly Raisman is a veteran and captain competing at her second Games, so she takes it as her job to show some of her teammates the ropes. In Rio, that’s the art of Olympic pin trading.
Raisman has asked tennis star Novak Djokovic and track star Usain Bolt, but neither had any.
She had more luck with Japanese gymnast Kohei Uchimura, the six-time world champion and defending Olympic all-around champion.
“I traded with Uchimura, so that’s good luck,” Raisman said. “I keep seeing him in the cafeteria and I say hi, he’s just very chill.”
With opening ceremonies on Friday and plenty of competition left, Raisman is still in the market to collect more pins.
Even if Mihai Brestyan, her coach, and Laurent Landi, coach of Raisman’s teammate Madison Kocian, laugh at it, she has a pretty good strategy.
“I try to trade pins with the cute boys if I can find them, to be honest,” said Raisman, 22. “I just kind of look in the cafeteria. Even Mihai and Laurent, they laugh at me, but they’re like, ‘If it keeps you a little bit distracted, that’s good.’ So a little distraction is OK.”