In Romania, of course, gymnastics is among the most popular sports, and my parents had a dream of escaping the Ceausescu regime and giving their child a better life. So they came to the United States and put me in gymnastics.
Gymnastics is not at all as popular as, for example, soccer. Gymnastics as a sport isn't promoted very well.
My parents enrolled me in a gymnastics class when I was three years old, and I just was drawn to gymnastics. I loved it. It was my playground, and I could run around and be free there.
Romania, which had the worst dictator in Eastern Europe, Ceausescu, he was a darling of the West. The United States and Britain loved him. He was supported until the last minute.
My parents met during their time at Cal Berkeley while they were both on the gymnastics team. Due to their intense gymnastics background, I started doing 'Mommy and Me' classes when I was 2 years old.
Because up to sixteen years old you feel gymnastics more. You can show your emotion, grace, like woman gymnastics, not kid's gymnastics. I feel I have good shape, and I can do it elements everything, but, it's not competition for me.
I want to stay involved in gymnastics forever, but the Olympics really opened up doors in terms of motivational speaking. I'd like do some type of broadcasting or commentating for gymnastics events on TV, or even give my insights as a gymnast into other sports; I'm kind of a sports junkie in general.
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.
But let me do I will show the world what gymnastics looks like. Well may be this is a future gymnastics.
I've always had a fascination with gymnastics, since I was a kid. It was the one thing at the Olympics that I would be like, 'Mom can I stay up late to watch gymnastics?'
I think gymnastics trained me as a person, too. Without the lessons I learned in gymnastics, I would be crushed.
My mother and I were part of a deal in the mid-'60s between Romania and Israel. Israel bought freedom for Romanian Jews for $2,000 a head. Ceausescu made a bundle in hard currency. He also 'sold' ethnic Germans to West Germany. Instead of going to Israel, my mother and I came to the United States.
When I was younger, the people making the sacrifice were my parents. It's not a cheap sport. Luckily, I had parents who made a lot of life sacrifices so I could continue in gymnastics.
I definitely want to put my kids in gymnastics at an early age, whether that's what they want to or not. Gymnastics just builds such a great fundamental strength at a young age, and they get great; they learn how to move with their body. I think that can translate to any sport later in life.
Some of the authorities would like to remove rhythmic gymnastics from the list of Olympic sports and turn it into art. I think this would be wrong, as rhythmic gymnastics is a true sport - we train around six hours per day and sometimes spend entire days in the gym.
It is fine to be all focused on gymnastics if that is what you want to do, but once you are finished with gymnastics, what are you going to do?
When I was 3 my parents put me in gymnastics because I was a bundle of energy and they just didn't know what to do with me! They put me in a Tots class and I just fell in love with it.