If 18-year-old Tsotne Machavariani gets nervous competing in his first Olympics this summer, he'll have one teammate he can really count on: his mother.
That sentence isn't hyperbolic; it's literal, fam. It's also literal fam.
Tsotne and Nino Salukvadze will make history this summer in Rio de Janeiro by competing in the same Olympics at the same time for the same country.
SEE ALSO:Viva Shaun Livingston: Why Steph Curry's replacement is beloved by basketball fansBetter yet, Tsotne's mom has a wealth of experience to draw from. It may be his first Olympic go-round, but Rio will be Nino's eighth. In her first Olympics, in Seoul in 1988, Nino won a gold medal in pistol shooting.
Now they'll both represent Georgia, a former Soviet territory, in target-shooting this summer.
They're the first mother-son duo to represent Georgia in the same Olympics -- and they're believed to the first mother-son duo to represent any country in the same Olympics.
There have been 70 instances of a parent and child competing in the same Olympics, according to the site OlympStats.com, but never a mother-son tandem.
Tsotne says he doesn't feel any pressure from his more accomplished mother.
"My mother tells me that although she was almost my age when she won her Olympic gold, she represented the Soviet Union at that time and had better training conditions, more experience in tournaments," he tells the Associated Press. "She tells me that we do not have that luxury and she does not demand any results from me. I think this her way to calm me down and minimize my nervousness during the tournament."
Nothing like a mother's love to calm one's nerves -- on the playground, or in the Olympics.
TopicsOlympics
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