There's a reason why it wasn't just Canadians getting emotional at the sight of two sisters winning Olympic medals side-by-side on the second day of the Olympics. As Justine and Chloé Dufour-Lapointe received their hardware — in an already emotionally heightened setting — sharing it with a family member makes it doubly as sweet.
And there's no denying the choke-up factor of so much of the Olympics, from Procter & Gamble's "Thank You Mom" campaign to those "Raising An Olympian" segments.
Of course, that family support is always welcome. As bobsledder Jesse Lumsden noted about the picture below, the people on the other end of those phones? The athletes' moms.
Families abound at the Olympics, and not just those cheering from the sidelines. There are literally dozens of sibling pairs competing together (and against each other) at Sochi this year, with the majority of them practicing the same sport. Of course, having a sibling at the Games isn't exactly rare — Switzerland has 11 pairs in its delegation alone, and the U.S. has seven. But that doesn't make it any less special to see these family members (there's even a father-son pairing!) sharing in the incredible moments of the Olympics together.
Check out the amazingly long list of Olympians who share a genetic heritage (and will likely spawn Olympians of their own):
