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Chat Reel: Shannon Miller
Gold-medal winning gymnast reflects on career
Posted: Monday November 08, 1999 12:25 AM
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Miller: "The sport has definitely changed ... It's more tricks, skills, and more powerful gymnasts." Clive Brunskill/Allsport |
Gold-medal winning gymnast Shannon Miller recently participated in a chat with CNNSI.com users. A full transcript of the chat follows:
CNNSI Host: Welcome to our chat today with gymnast Shannon Miller... please keep the questions coming and we'll relay as many as we can to Shannon. Welcome, Shannon!
Shannon Miller: Thank you!
From Guest: What have you been up to since the 1996 Olympics?
Shannon Miller: A lot has happened since '96.
I competed in the '97 University Games and got married this year.
Next year I'll be working with NBC for the Olympics.
Doing behind the scenes work ... I'm an associate producer.
From Kristen: Do you plan on returning to gymnastics even if it is just for some exhibitions here and there?
Shannon Miller: I just started working out about a month ago. I'm going on tour a month after the Olympics. I'm having fun and really excited about it.
From Guest: Hi Shannon! Do you think the 2000 team will be as strong as your team was in 1996 and what do you think of Vanessa Atler's chances are of winning the all around?
Shannon Miller: I guess no one ever knows what's going to happen.
I just saw them at Nationals and they have a good shot.
Next week they'll be competing in China. It'll be a benchmark as to how they'll compete at the Olympics.
From Guest: Hello Shannon, is there one particular gymnast that you most enjoyed competing against in the Olympics?
Shannon Miller: Not really competing against. I really enjoy competing and being out there and competing with the apparatus.
I enjoyed the international competitions because you get to meet people from around the world.
From Guest: Are you still at the University of Oklahoma?
Shannon Miller: Yes. I'll major in either marketing or finance.
From Guest: Hello Shannon, Do you still keep in touch with any women who were on the 1996 Summer Olympics Team with you?
Shannon Miller: We keep in touch a lot through e-mail
We see each other a bit through different functions. We do our best to keep in touch.
From Guest: Hello Shannon, Describe what it was like to win a Olympic Gold Medal as a member of the USA'S Women's Gymnastics Team?
Shannon Miller: It was amazing just being out there in front of a welcoming audience.
It was close with that team. We were all friends.
We had a good time, especially on the tour afterwards.
From Cyndi: Given your own experiences, would you let your son or daughter enter elite gymnastics?
Shannon Miller: If I have kids, it will be their choice.
I want them to be in sports, but everyone is special is different things.
I'd encourage them to take a musical instrument or sports, but it will up to the to see how far they'll take it.
From Guest: Of the awards and accolades you've received, which is the most precious?
Shannon Miller: I think one of the best accomplishments was staying in school and keeping up with my education while competing.
I may not have gotten a medal or trophy for it, but I'm proud of it.
From Guest: What do you think drives athletes (in general) to the top of their sport?
Shannon Miller: It's a personality. Just wanting to be the best at something in anything you do.
Most athletes strive to go the Olympics or World Championships are competitive all the time in everything they do.
From Guest: Hello Shannon, Who are the next up and coming Gymnasts that could represent the USA in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney?
Shannon Miller: there are so many good athletes out there
Vanessa Atler, Jennie Thompson, Kristin Maloney.
Morgan White
From Guest: What do you think of Jennie Thompson and how well she is doing now?
Shannon Miller: Right now she's preparing for trials and hopefully going to the worlds in October.
From Guest: Did you always want to be an Olympic Gymnast growing up?
Shannon Miller: No, absolutely not. I never watched the Olympics ever. I didn't really have a clue what it was
They signed me up after jumping on furniture.
I kept up with it and just kept on getting better until the Olympics.
From Guest: Who did you idolize growing up, in sports and otherwise?
Shannon Miller: My idol in gymnastics were the older kids in my gym. Those are the ones I worked with every day and saw how hard they had to work to get to where they got.
I idolized my parents because they instill the values of who you want to be.
I was able to still go to public school while training and that helped me stay grounded in my values.
From Guest: Hello Shannon, What was your favorite event to compete in as a gymnast?
Shannon Miller: Balance Beam. I've always liked it. When I first started gymnastics, all of my friends thought it was the most challenging and scariest to go on.
I was supposed to be scared of it, but I wasn't. The challenge kept me going on.
I wasn't scared of competing on it.
From Guest: For many young women, gymnastics represents their first experience in sports. What do you recommend that parents do to encourage and help girls gain the skills and the confidence they need to succeed and reach the Olympic level?
Shannon Miller: I don't think the Olympics need to be the main sport.
The sport teaches you about good nutrition, setting goals, competing, staying fit. Those are things parents need to look at when sending their kids into gymnastics.
Only 6 go to the olympics where there are millions of girls wanting to compete. It's only every four years.
You need to enjoy the sport for what it is and not necessarily look at the Olympics as the main goal.
From Guest: There's a lot of discussion in the media about some of the negative sides of the sport, like eating disorders. Do you think the US Federation and coaches provide enough support to prevent young women in the sport from falling into this trap?
Shannon Miller: There can never be enough support.
Lots of kids all over the world have eating disorders, not just gymnasts.
AS a parent, coach, whatever, you should look out for their well-being and communicating that they're doing OK and watching out for signs that may pop up.
From Guest: You mentioned good nutrition -- what kind of diet do you recommend when training?
Shannon Miller: I recommend good nutrition for every day life. I recommend no diet. Everything in moderation and drink lots of water.
From Guest: Does it concern you that the trend in your sport is to have the gymnast competing at very early ages? Doesn't this preclude them from enjoying the benefits of being in multiple sports?
Shannon Miller: It depends on the person. There are a lot of athletes that do multiple sports.
Then there are people like me who enjoyed it so much, that I kept to just gymnastics and go after my goal.
It's great to have goals. It's great to be involved in any sport and learn that there's a time to stick with it and time to try something different.
Gymnastics isn't the best sport for everyone, there's so much out there.
From Guest: When did you know you would become a professional gymnast?
Shannon Miller: I never really knew what pro gymnastics was.
I became a pro at 13 because my parents =didn't have the money to keep me in gymnastics.
If you finished high enough at competitions, you received money that went to your training.
I needed that money to keep me in the sport headed into the '92 games.
From Guest: Was there a downside to becoming so famous after the Olympics?
Shannon Miller: I don't think so. :)
I guess when you grow up in the spotlight, you get used to it over the years. It didn't come as too much of a surprise.
It's a lot of fun and step back and think that people spend valuable time watching you do things you do for fun.
It's wonderful to see people asking to take pictures with you or want an autograph from you.
From Guest: How important is the mental aspect of a gymnast in a World or Olympic competition?
Shannon Miller: Extremely important. Sometimes mental can override the physical. You need to be mentally tough, esp. in int'l competition. At world or Olympics it's crucial.
At times you have to block things out -- camera, crowd -- to stay focused so you don't make silly mistakes that may cause injury.
From Guest: You wrote a book last year. What was that process like, and do you think you'll write another?
Shannon Miller: I really enjoyed the process. The opportunity came up and I didn't want to write an autobiography at the time. I wanted to write something to help people out, not just in gymnastics.
I enjoyed writing and may do another book in the future.
From Guest: Do you get to have a lot of contact with fans?
Shannon Miller: I do, especially when I go to gyms and talk to kids, especially in Q&A sessions and answer their personal questions.
There are a lot of questions so off-the-wall that it's fun.
I get a lot of questions on tour, which I'll see next year.
From Guest: Your mother wrote a book about you. Can you tell me what that was like for you? Did you like the book?
Shannon Miller: I read the book so long ago. It was funny reading it for the first time. There were things I couldn't remember b/c I was so young. There were other things to see their point of view of what I was doing.
It brought us much closer, since I saw their point of view while I was training.
From Guest: Hello Shannon, How is married life treating you?
Shannon Miller: Fantastic. I'm still traveling a lot, so that's rough, but I'm enjoying it.
From Guest: What was the biggest surprise about married life?
Shannon Miller: I don't know if it was too surprised about anything. My parents set a good example for me and Chris has great parents. So we've come in with a good set of values.
From Guest: Are you still affiliated with your longtime coach, Steve Nunno?
Shannon Miller: I'm still going in to train at Dynamo. He's doing well and expecting his third child in a couple of weeks.
From Guest: What has been your biggest personal accomplishment in your life, outside of gymnastics?
Shannon Miller: I still think education is a big one. Staying in school the entire way with all the travel and training still amazes me.
I thank my parents for keeping that a priority above all else.
I was able to keep up with family and friends. You definitely need priorities.
From Guest: I read that you are getting into figure skating. Is that true? Can you talk about that? Do you think you'll compete?
Shannon Miller: I did some figuring skating last year, but I've been off for 6-7 months. It should be interesting when I get back. I'm still learning and falling a lot.
From Guest: Do you play any other sports (besides gymnastics)?
Shannon Miller: I skydive and scuba dive, not sure if you can call them sports.
From Guest: Who do you think is America's greatest gymnast of all-time?
Shannon Miller: There's no way to measure that.
From Guest: Was there ever a time (like when you were injured) that you thought you couldn't do this (gymanstics any more) and wanted to quit?
Shannon Miller: Absolutely. There was only one time in '93 coming off the '92 Games and winning the '93 worlds and my back was sore and wasn't enjoying it.
I talked to my parents and coach and Steve asked me why I wanted to quit. But I didn't have a good answer -- my back hurt and was bored. Steve said he could fix that and showed me competitions I never knew before -- Goodwill, Pan Am Games.
I learned some new skills in the gym. I didn't tumble much. I found some new goals and challenges. I wasn't bored anymore.
I now had all these challenges ahead of me and started enjoying it again.
From Guest: Where do you see gymnastics heading as we enter the 21st Century?
Shannon Miller: The sport has defninitely changed. There's a big change between the '96 and 2000 games. There's no compulsory anymore.
It's more tricks, skills, and more powerful gymnasts. It's made the sport interesting.
I like the compulsory since it set you up for optionals.
The skills they do these days still amaze me.
From Guest: I have a 3-year-old daughter that does summersaults around the house. What age do you recommend letting her try a gymnastics class?
Shannon Miller: It depends on what gyms. Some gyms have mommy and me classes. If you want to look at the '96 team, some started at 3, I started at 5, others started at 8.
It's not too late or too young start.
Just learn to get some physical activity.
From Guest: You're a spokesperson for Drug Free Youth USA. Can you talk about why you are so devoted to that specific cause?
Shannon Miller: I'm part of two charities ... along with Children's Miracle network.
They get involved with kids. If I'm going to be a role model, I want to be a good one and the best way is to be a role model for kids.
I'm closer to their age that they'll identify with me more. I'm fresh going through those things and I hope I can identify with that.
I hope they can too.,
From Guest: Will you be sad to watch the first Olympics in 8 years that you have not participated in?
Shannon Miller: I don't think so. It's going to be exciting. I didn't watch before.
It's going to be exciting to watching it at a different angle, behind the camera and not competing.
I'm helping out with NBC's coverage.
From Guest: Do you use the Internet? Do you ever go to the Web sites about you?
Shannon Miller: I use the 'Net mostly to do homework. I don't go to the sites about me. I don't know why.
I try to keep grounded by seeing myself as going with her everyday business and not really check out those sites.
From Guest: What made the 1996 Women's Gold Medal Olympics Gymnastics team so special?
Shannon Miller: There's so many different reasons. We had such a good arrangement. Moceanu and Phelps, the younger folks. Dawes, Strug and me were the experienced the veterans and knew how to handle the Olympics.
The younger ones who could do routine after routine.
We had great personalities pulling for each other. We acted like a team, hard to do in such an individual sport.
On tour afterwards, we got time to socialize in a no-pressure realm. We became much like sisters.
We had so much time to really know each other.
From Guest: Do you think with the new code of points that gymnastics is getting just downright dangerous. Gymnasts are now doing harder and harder skills to get bonus points and the older gymnasts (because of the age change) are expected to compete at this level. What do you think about this?
Shannon Miller: I don't know if the code is causing the change. It's just the evolution of the sport.
We did things in '96 that people in '88 didn't think of.
Safety equipment and coaches help keep the sport safe while doing different skills.
From Kristen: How can I contact you to send fan mail? Do you have an official Web site?
Shannon Miller: I don't have an official web site.
my fan mail address is at dynamo gymnastics in Oklahoma City, Okla.
From Guest: You've always been a goal setter, where do you see yourself in ten years?
Shannon Miller: 10 years is a bit too long-term for me
I'd like to have my masters and Ph.D. Other than that, doing a job I'll enjoy and love. Although I don't know what that's going to be.
my goal now is to be happy and enjoy life and see what my next goal is going to be.
CNNSI Host: Thanks for visiting with us today, Shannon! Best of luck in the future.
Shannon Miller: Thanks.
CNNSI Host: Thanks for visiting with us today, everyone!
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