12 quotes found
"I’m going to go out there and represent the U.S.A., represent World Champions Centre, and represent Black and brown girls over the world. At the end of the day, I’m not representing U.S.A. Gymnastics."
"I feel like I realized that power after I came out, after the #MeToo movement, and that was kind of scary. But it’s like, wow, my presence is very big in gymnastics but also online, just in the world in general. So I have to be a bit careful about what I say."
"Over the years, obviously since I’ve been so dominant, everybody supported the gymnastics and praised me for what I’ve done in the gym — and not really outside (of the gym)."
"I definitely had the team in my best interest, and that’s why I decided to pull out. I didn’t want to potentially lose a medal spot for them, because the girls were more than prepared to go in and to do their job, which they did. My body and my mind just said no. Even I didn’t know what I was going through it, until it just happened.... Train five years and it doesn’t go the way you wanted. But I know that I helped a lot of people and athletes speak out about mental health and saying no."
"I am going back home in one piece, which I was a little bit nervous about. It's not how I wanted it to go, but I think we've opened bigger doors and bigger conversations."
"It's so crazy. I'm happy I was able to get back out there and do one more routine, especially since I had the girls there rooting me on as well as the guys. It just felt really amazing. I'm proud of myself for the way I pushed through and even learned that dismount that I haven't done in years. And just put up a good set, that's all I really wanted. I wasn't expecting to walk away with a medal or anything, I just wanted to go out there and do it for myself. And I did."
"I decided to pull myself out so if anything, I think by having me not in competition they won the medal because if I would have been in, I would have gotten more lost in the air and had a fall and potentially injured myself and you can't replace an athlete. It could have gone a lot of different ways, but people don't know the rules. They think 'Well, she just quit,' and I'm like, 'No, I don't think so.'"
"Life just happens so quickly and now I have a greater appreciation for life after everything that's happened in the last five years."
"We're not just athletes or entertainment -- we're human, too, and we have real emotions. Sometimes they don't realize that we have things going on behind the scenes that affects us whenever we go out and compete."
"But at the end of the day it’s like, we want to walk out of here, not be dragged out here on a stretcher. I just don’t trust myself as much as I used to. And I don’t know if it’s age—I’m a little bit more nervous when I do gymnastics. I feel like I’m also not having as much fun, and I know that."
"Simone is so good that the rest of us can only hope to finish second to her in the all-around. What else can you do? She does all sorts of crazy things no one else can do."
"She’s the saving grace for U.S.A. Gymnastics, whether they have admitted it or not. Boy, they are a mess. If it wasn’t for her, I really don’t know how they would still be around."