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'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?'
When I was a kid, I did many sports. Judo, like my dad, but also volleyball, handball, and gymnastics. We never played much football.
Gymnastics is not at all as popular as, for example, soccer. Gymnastics as a sport isn't promoted very well.
I did gymnastics, I wanted to be like Dominique Dawes. But the good think about role models is that you don't just have them when you are kid. My role models from WWE came when I was older. When I was 27, my role models from WWE became Jacqueline and Beth Phoenix.
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 parents have tried not to intrude. They kind of stayed apart from my gymnastics but are very supportive, and that's very helpful as a gymnast to not have your parents say, 'Did you do this today?' and just be very on top of you.
I was a very focused kid. I always had this crazy lifestyle... billions of jobs, two hours of gymnastics every day, handball, anything with a ball, really. I must have had ADHD or something. I was very energetic, and very small. I didn't start growing until the last year of high school.
I did ballet from the age of five, but what I loved was my gymnastics. I kept the ballet going because of the gymnastics, then found I was going to be too tall.
I wasn't very good a communicating as a kid. I wasn't very good at speaking my mind, and I went through some challenges as a kid with my family, as we all do.
I was born and raised in Huntington Beach, California. I was very athletic, playing volleyball and softball. I did gymnastics for about ten years, too.
I had very little going for me as a kid except for the fact that I had demanding parents and was very good at filling out bubbles on standardized tests. I went to the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins University because I did well on the SAT. I went to Exeter because I did well on the SAT.
I did rhythmic gymnastics and I absolutely adored it. I was in the squad for Sussex. I wasn't stupendous, but it was something that I was good at and I really loved the combination of discipline and expression. That, to me, was just dreamy.
I did gymnastics, I went to school, then I did homework. I missed out on a childhood.
I wasn't the kind of kid who would get A's without even trying. I had to work to get good grades, but I was very organised about it because I always wanted to do well at everything I did. I'm very competitive.
I did a lot of thinking, and used mental activity to relieve whatever feelings I had. I became very left-brained, and I was good in school. That is, I was a smart kid.