Mom: Naomi Shibutani
Athletes: Maia and Alex Shibutani
Sport: Figure Skating
Getting to the Olympics has been an amazing journey for the ice dancing duo of Maia and Alex Shibutani.
For the "ShibSibs" that incredible ride began as a weekly, boring ride to the ice rink in the back of their mom's car.
Naomi Shibutani had to take Maia to the rink, so Alex came along, and Naomi gave him an ultimatum.
"It was okay, either you're going to study, you know and do your homework, or you know, if you want to skate you can skate," Naomi recalls. "But you're not going to crawl around looking for quarters in the slot machines," she laughs.
For a young kid deciding between homework and ice skating was a no brainer and it changed the lives of the entire Shibutani family. Naomi started driving her kids all over to get ice time, even moving them to Colorado and then Michigan for training.
"Was it always easy? No, because we, as a family, were split up. Because my husband had to work in a different city. I was happy to do it because they were so devoted and passionate about it," Naomi explained.
All that driving, all that sacrifice to bring the dreams of two very young skaters to realities as adults.
And now the ride continues in PyeongChang with the Shib Sibs looking to turn mom’s dedication, into podium performances.
"So to imagine ourselves being Olympians representing Team USA, that was always such a huge dream for us," Maia says.
"Every step of our journey was leading to this moment," Alex explained.
"You know there's nothing better for a parent than to see their kids do something meaningful that makes them happy," Naomi said.
Naomi says she's always impressed by how many people her kids reach through social media.
The “ShibSibs” have more than 40,000 followers on their twitter account and they even have their own YouTube Channel.