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" I didn't realize that winning the Olympics at age 14 automatically put me in the category of being a celebrity. "

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" I work out every day, but my idea is to make something short. I work out a maximum half hour. I only do like 20 minutes of cardio, and I do some stretching and some light weights, and I'm out of there. "

" Once you become an Olympic champion, you are expected to win all the time. "

" That's what everybody remembers. They don't remember how many medals I won in my career. They remember the 10s. "

" 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. "

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

" When I got married in Bucharest, there were 10,000 people on the street. People didn't go to work that day. It was emotional to see how people care about you. I didn't expect that. "

" I thought I was going to retire at 20, and I was going to be a surgeon. "

" I thought celebrity meant Hollywood, that's it. I began to see that does include Olympians. People have so much respect for Olympians. "

" As an Olympic champion gymnast, I have always stayed involved in my sport. "

" I like America. I don't want to hurt America. "

" I wasn't allowed to leave Romania. That made me mad. You just want your freedom. You want your space. You want opportunity. "

" I'm not a dreamer for, you know, 'I want to go to the moon someday.' I accomplished something when I was young, which was much more than I expected to. My results were much bigger than I ever dreamed about it. "

" 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. "

" Uchimura is the greatest of all time. "

" Hard work has made it easy. That is my secret. That is why I win. "

" I used to tell people if they looked at a map, it was right in the middle of the United States. But now everybody knows Oklahoma because of the Thunder and their success. I don't know if I'll get 'Why?' anymore. "

" In Montreal, I kept thinking, 'Pay attention: this is the Olympics! It only happens once every four years!' "

" What can you know about life at 14? I have learned a lot since, but you learn slowly. You get hit by many things and try to make sense of it. "

" I was turning actually 15 at the Olympics in '76... I don't think that one year makes a huge difference. "

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

" Enjoy the journey and try to get better every day. And don't lose the passion and the love for what you do. "

" Gymnastics should be popular everywhere; you just need the right person to start the right programme. "

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

" I remember before the Olympics, I was asked, 'What do you think you're going to do in the Olympics?' and I said, 'I'm hoping I'm going to win a medal, and, if possible, it's going to be a gold one.' "

" Near the end of my career, I saw things that didn't make too much sense to me when I was a kid. "

" I believe that you should gravitate to people who are doing productive and positive things with their lives. "

" It was good to be a kid because I did not realise all the things that came with the success. Going to the Games, I was asked what I expected to do. "

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

" 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. "

" Every generation comes with a unique athlete, I don't think anybody wants to be the next Nadia; they want to be themselves. "