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I don't want to be considered a gymnast anymore.

I was a gymnast for years.

It sounds funny, but the 2008 Olympics were something that just kind of happened, and I was lucky they came at a point when I was uninjured and well prepared. As a gymnast, you can't ask for much more.

She said I did good and I think she was happy with what I did. She just wants me to get my higher Start Value vault, which I'll be competing at Trials and, hopefully, the Olympics.

As an Olympic champion gymnast, I have always stayed involved in my sport.

My gymnasts are always the best-prepared in the world. And they win. In the end, that's what matters.

When I look back, I am happy that my mum took me to the gymnastics club. I didn't join gymnastics to become a famous athlete or celebrity; it just happened - I did more than I expected, of course.

There's so much denial in gymnastics. It's a beautiful sport but the other part is numbing. You become machinelike. They'll refute this, but I've been around it. I know.

Up to nineteen seventy six when I quit gymnastics I was very, disappointed because I didn't have anything which is, live with. I didn't have a friend so I didn't have a coach anymore.

It might have been easier to retire, to say my knee couldn't handle it and let that be that. At the same time, the prospect of not being able to compete in gymnastics anymore was heartbreaking.