Nadia Comaneci

I basically have my life today as a result of what I did as a child. What did I miss out on? Yeah, I missed not hanging out at shopping malls, I guess, but that is not a big deal because you don't get a medal for that.

If I was a boy, nobody would care that I worked out six, seven hours a day when I was 9 years old, no? Why were people always saying 'poor little girl?' I liked to work out and always did more than I was asked to.

I have had a few turning points, the first day I entered a gymnastics school at age 6.

I didn't realize that winning the Olympics at age 14 automatically put me in the category of being a celebrity.

I think that when you are on a four-inch balance beam, you don't care about laughing or smiling or waving to the crowd because you're going to be down in a second.

Maybe that's why I like gymnastics - because I like to fly.

The fans had become used to looking toward the scoreboard whenever a gymnast stuck a landing. You could tell they were thinking, 'Was that good enough? Would the numbers read 10.00?' The athlete was looking, too.

Gymnastics should be popular everywhere; you just need the right person to start the right programme.

Yes, gymnasts aim for perfection, but I never thought about the score. If that's what's in your mind, it will probably mess you up.

When I went into the Montreal Games, nobody expected much out of me.

I live in the moment. I can turn the page and move on.

I wasn't allowed to leave Romania. That made me mad. You just want your freedom. You want your space. You want opportunity.

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.

My mother never watched me train in Romania. She wasn't allowed, it just wasn't done back then. My training was paid for by the government. My parents were not at the Olympics with me, either. I never expected them to be.

I'm not a dreamer for, you know, 'I want to go to the moon someday.' I accomplished something when I was young, which was much more than I expected to. My results were much bigger than I ever dreamed about it.

When I got married in Bucharest, there were 10,000 people on the street. People didn't go to work that day. It was emotional to see how people care about you. I didn't expect that.

At 14, you think you compete, you retire and you get a job. I didn't think gymnastics was a career that was going to change my life.

I was a perfectionist in gymnastics.

It's like someone important is missing from a party because you can't imagine an Olympic gymnastics competition without Romania.

Gymnastics was my way to travelling the world.

I remember before the Olympics, I was asked, 'What do you think you're going to do in the Olympics?' and I said, 'I'm hoping I'm going to win a medal, and, if possible, it's going to be a gold one.'