PARIS (AP) — Laurie Hernandez pauses briefly and taps her head.
“There’s a lot going on in here,” the two-time Olympic gymnastics medalist turned TV analyst said with a laugh. “There’s a lot of chatter.”
Yes, there is.
And whatever gets through the filter — which, to be clear, is most of it — has helped make the 24-year-old’s foray into commentating a hit with both TV viewers and those like Hernandez who are perennially online.
Eight years ago in Rio de Janeiro, she was the youngest member of the Simone Biles -led “Final Five” team that stormed to the gold medal. Hernandez added a silver on beam later in those Games, where her boundless energy helped make her a breakout star.
Not much has changed in Paris other than Hernandez’s point of view.
There are nerves to be sure when she slips her headset on alongside broadcast partner Rich Lerner, just very different ones than the kind she experienced as an athlete.
Yet…
