Laurie Hernandez‘s book, “I Got This: To Gold and Beyond,” is out Tuesday, and the Olympic champion gymnast stopped by TODAY on Monday to discuss its contents and life post-Rio.
An excerpt on Hernandez’s experience in Rio and the story of her floor-exercise wink to judges, is here.
On TODAY, Hernandez discussed another interesting anecdote from the book about tissues.
“Before Olympic Trials, we went out to eat, and I had a little breakdown because practice was really rough, and my routines weren’t coming the way I wanted them to,” she said. “This poor waitress kept bringing me over piles of tissues. … We were leaving, and my sister [Jelysa] told my dad, I’m going to save these tissues. I’m going to give them to her when she makes the team. I’m thinking to myself, you guys are crazy, this is not going to happen.”
Hernandez went on to finish second to Simone Biles at the Olympic Trials and make the five-woman Olympic team as the first U.S. female Olympian born in the 2000s.
The family celebrated the achievement, where Jelysa handed the tissues to Hernandez in a bag.
“Even when you fell, you couldn’t believe in yourself, we were there for you,” Jelysa told her.
“So it was a really defining moment,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez is away from gymnastics while promoting her book and touring with “Dancing with the Stars,” but she is expected to return to the sport at some point.
MORE: Hernandez explains 2017 goals: First date, driver’s license, Law & Order
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