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.