Red Gerard's surprising gold medal win in men's slopestyle snowboarding gave the United States its first medal of these Winter Olympics, and it was hard not to get emotional watching the 17-year-old on the podium as "The Star-Spangled Banner" played.
And while he has called Silverthorne, Colorado home since the age of 7, Red was born a son of Rocky River, Ohio, and still has grandparents, aunts, uncles, and many other friends and relatives in the area (his dad was even spotted in PyeongChang wearing a Browns hat).
Many of those relatives were at Market in Rocky River to cheer Gerard on as he took first place, a scene WKYC captured for the world to see.
Gerard was not aware during the event his family in Ohio was throwing a watch party, even saying in an NBC interview after the event, "Hopefully there's people watching. I know it's nighttime over there."
Then, the interviewer showed him the video from Market.
"Woa," Gerard said. "Where's that?"
When told it was Rocky River, Red was nothing short of stunned.
"No way! Actu...Oh my..."
Gerard noticed several family members from both his mom's and dad's side, and continued to watch as they cheered his victory. Red himself was left near speechless.
"Wow...I had no clue this many people were watching."
