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When I was a child, doctors sent my grandmother home in a wheelchair to die. Diagnosed with end-stage heart disease, she already had so much scar tissue from bypass operations that the surgeons had essentially run out of plumbing. There was nothing more to do, they said; her life was over at 65.

I was having these terrible back pains, and then one day in Switzerland, things got very bad. My wife Maryanna called the hotel doctor, but I don't remember any of this, I was out of it. I had an operation, and I was nearly lost.

I had to work in one of the most beautiful ski resorts in the world for almost three weeks. Pity me.

The biggest tragedy I had was the loss of my daughter from neuromuscular disease in 2000, at age 46.

After 13 years of hard landings in gymnastics, one ski run had delivered the biggest injury of my career.

Skiing not only for yourself and your family, but for your country, was surreal. The amount of support I got from back home in Indiana was insane.

As soon as I got the Nobel Prize my back collapsed and I was in hospital.