I've never had a teammate competing with me my whole life.
I was able to do Classics, the U.S. national championships and the Pan American Games and feel like I improved with each meet, but I was still struggling with a lot of residual pain from the two surgeries.
I live for Pilates reformer class. I go at least three times a week. It's a great way to lengthen your muscles, stretch, and kind of relax your mind.
People put too much emphasis on looks.
We're taught at such a young age that you can always be better and that you're never perfect and that you're never good enough.
I was at the Olympic Games winning medals and I still doubted my image. I doubted what I looked like. That's sad.
When I was younger, my coach, Liang Chow, made all the decisions. I would go to the gym for practice, do exactly what Chow told me to do, go home, come back and start all over again. If Chow told me to do 50 squat jumps, I did 50 squat jumps.
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.
My approach to gymnastics in Beijing was heavily based on the amount of difficulty I could do.
Staying healthy and consistent is paramount.
I missed being considered an athlete and having that competitive drive, and missed having something to work for every day. I'd taken two and a half years away from the sport and was out of shape. I wanted to get back to where I was in 2008.
I'm doing four hours of gymnastics training a day, six days a week and then an extra two to three hours in a fitness center as well.
I don't want to be all power and muscle.
I started taking gymnastic classes when I was 3 years old.
I usually work out 4 hours a day during the week and 5 to 6 hours on Saturday, with Sundays off.
A typical practice consists of practicing every event for about an hour. A lot of people assume I have private coaching, but I work out with 13 other girls at the gym!
Every year I just kept going back to gymnastics, but I didn't start out training 10 hours a day. When I turned 10 or 11, I got more serious and I focused a lot on making it to the elite level, and from there I just kept going.
I get less and less sleep these days, so when I have any down time all I want to do is sleep!
I think about my goals. There were a lot of times in gymnastics when I really didn't want to go in and train, but you can't make it to the Olympics if you don't train!
I have a healthy lifestyle, but there's nothing you can really do to prevent from rolling an ankle or something like that.
