A good 80 percent of the vault is still physical and another percentage of it, 20, 25 percent is mental. Mental is always the mental strength, the confidence building up to that contest or repetition, practice, practice, and practice.
I still love to find and develop the young athletes in traditional ways. I like to watch the physical and mental growth. That has always been very exciting.
You have to have competent people evaluating the athlete, not the housewives!
Back in Romania, always I was struggling to compete with Vladislav Rastorotsky, the great Russian coach of Lyudmila Turishcheva. He was a powerful coach, internationally. I took him like the major challenge of my life, and pretty soon I'm beating him and we are pushing each other so hard, so fierce. But out of the arena, we are friends.
This team just wasn't good enough today, but they had the unity I always wanted. To have an American team like this has always been a dream of mine.
In gymnastics, smaller will always be better in many ways. The stress in the head, that will be the same for all. But the stress on the body and the concussions it must endure, that will always be easier for the little ones.
Success depends on how much you are willing to sacrifice, how much you are willing to alter your everyday life for a particular goal.
My attitude is never to be satisfied, never enough, never.
I believe in playing with your heart, with every fiber in your body-fairly, squarely, by the rules-to win. And I believe that any man's finest moment, the greatest fulfillment of all he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out and lies exhausted on the floor of battle-victorious.
I am very familiar with Hungary, because I grew up in Romania, which borders it.
No competition, no progress.
The crowd sometimes plays a tremendous role to give you wings and carry you to victory.
The Olympics shows the community what gymnastics is all about.
When I open many books, or most leading women's magazines, or see almost all TV shows, I don't find myself at all. I am completely anonymous. My value system is not there.
I know gymnastics. It's always been a subjective appreciation.
I consider myself very lucky that I could live my life through all the ups and downs.
The rest of the world laughed at American gymnastics before I came.
