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" I come from a wonderful country with wonderful people. "

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" I like seeing advanced acrobatics, but I also like to see more than tumbling. It's important to combine the artistry of gymnastics with the tough skills. It's called artistic gymnastics. We should stand by the name. "

" Of course I used to smile and laugh in 1976, but not when I was competing. Please show me somebody who laughs when they are concentrating; I always smiled. "

" In the '80 Olympics... people expected me to win. I was good enough to win, and I made a mistake and ended up second, which is pretty good, too. "

" 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. "

" People think you have pressure when you are young. It's the other way round, actually. "

" We only had white socks in Romania. But when I used to come back from the States, I used to bring back pink and yellow socks with all kind of designs, and hair clips and elastic bands for the ponytail that had colourful designs. "

" I made the cover of 'Sports Illustrated,' 'Newsweek' and 'Time' all in one week, and I didn't even know what that meant. "

" If I have a feeling of not trusting, I don't get too close. "

" I ended up in the US for a month or so, before moving to Montreal with some Romanian friends. "

" I have a classic taste with a twist, because classic never goes away. "

" You should also appreciate the goodness around you, and surround yourself with positive people. "

Surround Yourself

" Two gold medals and two silver, I don't think is that bad... I think I still did a pretty good job. "

" When you go out of your country and meet people, you get a wider perspective. "

" At the end of the day, I just want to see good gymnastics! "

" I come from a communist country. We learned nothing of lawyers, nothing about rights. "

" See, when I went to the Olympics in '76, the gymnastics people knew that I was good, but everybody else, after I won, everybody was like, 'Where's she coming from? Who is she? What is Romania?' "

" I had a lot of energy, and my mom decided to look for a place where I can spend the energy, because I was jumping on the couch and furniture, and I was jumping on the top of the things in the house. "

" I think gymnastics was associated with the 10. I thought that belonged to the sport, and somehow we gave it way. "

" I didn't know I wanted to be a gymnast; I was just introduced to the gym. I loved the place because it looked like a hi-tech playground with mats and a lot of things I can hang from. "

" Romania doesn't have a big tradition of gymnastics as a fun activity. We were a little behind in this aspect. "

" People always accused me of not smiling like my rival Olga Korbut, but that was just my personality. When you're balancing on a nine-inch beam, you have to concentrate. But if you look back at the footage, I was always smiling and waving at the crowd after my performances. "

" I had more pressure when I competed in Moscow. I had no pressure in Montreal because I only went to do my routines and hoping I didn't mess it up when I was on the bar. When I came back, 10,000 people were at the airport and I thought, 'Why?' because, in my mind, I hadn't done anything different from what I used to do in my gym. "

" Nellie Kim, an Olympic champion from the former Soviet Union, got a 10 right after me in '76, but nobody talks about that. "

" My message to the ladies would be, you can do all of the things, but not all of them at the same time. "

" We are not coaching on a daily basis because we often travel with our charity and commercial interests. "

" When I was 14, I had no pressure. I was a kid, and I didn't understand all the attention. "

" At some particular time, when I was 14 years old, I've done something that people didn't expect. "

" Gymnastics is so huge in the Olympics. There are a lot of fans who want to see more. "

" I never thought I would be standing here, married to an All-American guy, living in Oklahoma. What a country. "

" People ask me what the definition of perfection, I said it's none: there is no definition of perfection. "