Healthful with Norah O'Donnell
Healthful with Norah O'Donnell

Healthful LIVE with Olympic Gold Medalist Aly Raisman

September 16, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman spent her childhood training six days a week, sometimes for six and a half to seven hours a day. More than a decade after retiring from gymnastics, she says her body still has not fully recovered. “I saw this thing online that said if you do not pick a day to rest, your body will pick for you,” Raisman tells Norah O’Donnell in a live recording of the Healthful podcast. The result, she explains, was total burnout: in her early twenties, she would lose her train of thought mid-conversation, and she has been hospitalized multiple times because her body “completely just gave up.” The hard-won lesson, she says, is that she has finally stopped feeling guilty about resting.

The Habit of Anxiety and the Limits of Visualization

Raisman describes a mental technique she used as a young competitor that she now views ambivalently. Before a bar routine, she would close her eyes and vividly imagine the experience of competing at the Olympics—not a calm, idealized version, but the full sensory reality. “Practice that feeling of how it feels to have that anxiety where my palms are sweaty or my body feels a little bit more stiff,” she says. She would make herself nervous on purpose so that the actual competition would feel familiar.

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:00) **Olympic Training and the Roots of Anxiety** - Aly Raisman describes how she used visualization to prepare for competition, but now recognizes it created a lasting habit of anxiety.
  • 2 (03:18) **Post-Retirement Burnout and Learning to Rest** - Raisman explains how decades of intense training left her body exhausted and forced her to learn to rest without guilt.
  • 3 (05:31) **Why Vulnerability Resonates and the Danger of Comparison** - Raisman discusses how sharing her experience as a survivor of abuse has connected her with countless others who feel their own pain isn't "bad enough."
  • 4 (08:58) **The Struggle to Ask for Help and Set Boundaries** - Raisman reveals that even at 32, she still finds it very hard to ask for help and is just beginning to learn how to set boundaries.
  • 5 (14:07) **The Mental Health Benefits of a Rescue Dog** - Raisman shares how her dog Milo has been a transformative source of joy, routine, and mental health support.
  • 6 (16:06) **The Relatable Struggle for Women's Health Care** - Raisman details her own frustrating and painful journey to get care for severe period pain, highlighting a systemic access problem.
  • 7 (19:14) **The Under-Talked-About Pain of IUD Insertion** - Raisman addresses the excruciating pain many women experience during IUD insertion and the need for better advocacy in medical settings.

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Guests on this episode

Norah O'Donnell

Show Notes

Olympic Gold Medalist Aly Raisman joins Norah for a vulnerable discussion about giving yourself grace and why she no longer feels guilty for resting her body when she needs to. Raisman has become an outspoken voice on mental health and the importance of advocating for yourself. The two discuss how so many women struggle to get the care they deserve and why it's important to talk about issues that are often considered taboo - from painful periods to IUDs.
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We’d love to hear what topics you want to hear covered on Healthful. Text Norah at 202-217-1107.

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