“She understood his belief in her, and it made her believe in herself, and those two went off and conquered the world,” Cindy Lloyd, Carli’s mother and Tomlinson’s half sister, said. “It was awesome to sit back and watch.”

The United States women’s volleyball team is trying to win a gold medal at the Olympics for the first time. Carli Lloyd, often confused with the American soccer star with the same name, is a backup setter. Tomlinson, still as fit as a gladiator at 55, with tiny streaks of gray in his Superman-style dark hair, is a big presence in the stands.

“I attribute me being here to him more than anyone else,” Lloyd said.

They are practically inseparable. He was her first coach and her constant workout partner. When she moved on to other coaches and left for college, he was still there at every match, sitting in his usual spot, giving nods and signals in a language that only the two of them share.

Lloyd calls him “Uncle.” But Tomlinson is the only father figure she has ever known.

Lloyd was 4 when her father committed suicide, leaving Cindy Lloyd to raise three children on her own. Tomlinson, by then a twice-divorced father and a star on “American Gladiators,” had time on his hands. The show taped for three weeks a year, and his only job the rest of the time was to stay fit.