Laurie Hernandez, the 16-year-old breakout star and youngest member of Team USA's Olympic team, won her first Olympic GOLD medal. Hernandez, a New Jersey native of Puerto Rican descent, said she could not have gotten to the Rio without her parents' help.
"To be at the biggest competition of my life, I think that's such an amazing thing because I feel like we went through it together," Laurie Hernandez said.
Team USA's women's gymnastics squad won gold medals by a massive eight-point margin, and they all credit their parents for helping them achieve their goals. Laurie Hernandez' father and mother were in Rio to watch their daughter win.
Watch Hoda's interview with the 'Final Five' after their big win.
"I thought I was going to faint a couple of times," Anthony Hernandez said. "Other than that, it's just incredible."
Her father Anthony Hernandez said in an interview with NJ.com that she learned her work ethic and passion for gymnastics from her mother.
"She likes to perform and she does it with a smile and with passion," Anthony Hernandez said to NJ.com. "I think people feed off it. It's not just a chore for her. She enjoys it. She enjoys it. Her mom taught her well. She told her, 'a smile costs nothing but can make somebody's day.'
