Aly Raisman is dating a football player who asked her out on social media

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I became a little bit obsessed with Aly Raisman during the Olympics this year. I was just so proud of her, and I loved her personal story – her nice, involved parents, her humble middle class life in Needham, Massachusetts, her single-minded focus on gymnastics. She seems so driven, but not in an uncomfortable child-star sort of way. Probably because Aly is 22 years old now. Anyway, following the Olympics (where she won three more medals, following her three medals in London), Aly got asked on a date on a live online Q&A. The guy asking was 24-year-old Raiders tight end Colton Underwood. Apparently, they did meet up after she accepted his date invitation on her Twitter, and they’ve been secretly dating for months. They made their red-carpet debut Monday night at the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year ceremony.

Five months after agreeing to go on a date with tight end Colton Underwood, Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman has let the cat out of the bag and revealed they are officially a couple! The two walked the red carpet on Monday night at the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year Ceremony 2016 at Barclays Center of Brooklyn, New York. The 22-year-old tells PEOPLE exclusively that the couple “kept it quiet for a while” but they have been dating since the VMAs in August after Underwood, 24, asked Raisman out over social media and she accepted.

“We happened to both be in Denver at the same time,” she says. “I was there for less than 12 hours, he was flying in for just a few days. it just ended up working perfectly.”

The couple looked “really happy together” inside the ceremony, a source tells PEOPLE. “He had his arm around her throughout the dinner and they laughed a lot.”

Raisman tells PEOPLE that Underwood, a free agent, drove 90 minutes back and forth to meet her for their second and third dates. She has met Underwood’s family and will be seeing them again for the holidays. The Olympian says she’s looking forward to the new year, hinting at future projects that she deems as “surreal.”

“I’m just looking forward to 2017,” she says. “I think it’s going to be an exciting year for everyone.”

[From People]

I think this is so cute – the gymnast and the football player. The Olympian and the tight end. He’s so huge and she’s so tiny. They don’t really “match” physically, but he seemed to have a crush on her and he went out of his way to make it work. It’s a sweet story and I hope there’s no drama.

Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN.

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19 Responses to “Aly Raisman is dating a football player who asked her out on social media”

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  1. Sayrah says:

    Cute couple! I love Aly

  2. Alix says:

    I swear, I read his name as Cotton Underwear.

    • Wren33 says:

      Ha! I did too. Colton Underwood just seems like a made-up name from a romance novel. He’d be a cowboy or something.

  3. Kirby says:

    Needham ma! Whoop whoop! Hometown pride! Jk its a rich, WHITE suburb of Boston, but it does have lovely parks.im older than Aly, but Ive heard nothing but nice things about her

    • lightpurple says:

      I’ve heard nothing but good things about her locally. And she has really held her own with the other local sports “legends” like Ortiz and Brady. They all seem to have tremendous respect for her.

      And this “secretly dating” thing has been known around Boston for months.

    • Wren33 says:

      I grew up in a neighboring town in the 80s and Needham was definitely middle class then, but Boston real estate went crazy, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it is now rich.

      • lightpurple says:

        Upper middle class, very affluent.

      • S says:

        Yeah, if anyone saw that Gold Medal Families reality show, there is no doubt that the Raismans far exceed “middle class” … Not that, that takes away from them in any way, but their life was definitely far more affluent than average.

  4. Esmom says:

    Very sweet. Is she retired now?

  5. Merritt says:

    Shawn Johnson is married to a football player.

    • S says:

      Yeah, gymnasts and football players are, weirdly, a thing. Two of the first-round draft pick quarterbacks of recent years, Andrew Luck and Brady Quinn, are both engaged/married to gymnasts. Quinn to Alicia Sacramone, from the 2008 Olympic team and Aly’s home gym in Massachusetts. They had a baby earlier this year, and Alicia’s instagram is super adorable (https://www.instagram.com/asaq_3/?hl=en).

      Luck is engaged to Nicole Pechanec, whom he met at Stanford, where she was on the gymnastics team and Luck, obvs, the football team.

    • msw says:

      It happens a lot! Kayla Williams, a former world champion and a college team grad, is engaged (maybe married now) to a player on the Seahawks. Gymnasts seem to marry football players as often as they marry each other 🙂

  6. Lucy says:

    Sweet! Best wishes to them.

  7. tracking says:

    Aw, that’s adorable. I remember when he said he had a crush on her.

  8. Milena says:

    So cute!

  9. chaine says:

    I’m sorry, but I don’t think this is cute. This reeks of a man who wants control and wants to be the center of attention. He could just as easily have asked her out privately, not over the internet with an audience where she is put on the spot and going to be asked questions by reporters, etc. over whether she will go out with him. To me, that would be a big red flag and a reason NOT to date him. Plus, he looks like the poor man’s Chris Pratt.

    • Boxy Lady says:

      IIRC he asked her to go out on a double date with gymnast Shawn Johnson and her football player husband, a couple they both know. I thought that was rather respectful as it seemed he was trying to make it comfortable for her if she accepted.