USOC Media Summit: May 14, 2012
Quotes and highlights, courtesy of the USOC:
Gabrielle Douglas
On being called the “flying squirrel”:
“At the 2011 World Championships, my release moves were so high, and Martha [Karolyi] and John Geddert just called me ‘the squirrel.’”
On the fact that there are only five spots:
“Well, five spots, I mean that’s really tight. But if I can just focus and go out there and perform my routines and just go for what I know, I’ve been training in the gym for so long and I think if I just take this one shot and this one chance, I’ll be good. I think I can contribute a lot to the USA team for my bars. I’ll be really honored if I can make the 2012 Olympic Team.”
On her relationship with Shawn Johnson:
“In the gym, we’re always competing with each other, it’s kind of a rivalry thing, but then off the mat we’re sisters and we bond, and we try to not make the competitiveness too overwhelming.”
On her emotions leading up to the Games:
“I’m really excited and nervous, but they’re a good kind of nerves. I try not to think about it too much, and take it step-by-step and day-by-day. I think to myself ‘okay, today is training, and in two weeks it’s classics.’ Then I just focus on what’s after classics.”
Jonathan Horton
On the word coming from China that they may not be able to win:
“They’ve focused so much on individual specialists the last few years, and putting together a five-man team is tough for them. I think they’re going to be good. They could be downplaying things; they could still win. I think China, Japan and the United States will be fighting for the gold.”
On whether a five-man team plays to the strengths of the United States:
“I don’t know if it so much plays to our strengths. I kind of think it – and I don’t want to say it – but it hurts the other team. China is so deep when it comes to individual specialists, and so is Japan, but our country has four or five good all-arounders, but then after that we kind of struggle. So it really kind of evens the playing field. We’re doing a good job right now in training and the team looks great. It’s going to be an intense team final this year at the Games.”
On the excitement leading into the competition:
“I haven’t looked forward to a competition this much since I was a little kid. I can’t wait. I think the injury and all the stuff that’s happened has been a blessing in disguise because I kind of lost the desire to go out and feel the adrenaline rush. Just thinking about going out and doing a ring routine or a high bar routine right now my heart starts pumping. And that’s exciting for me; I like that feeling.”
On how his life has changed in the last four years:
“My life has definitely changed drastically, being in Houston, and being married. I have totally different training partners now, being away from the college atmosphere, I’ve just been able to focus. Not having to go to school, me and my wife supporting each other, her in medical school and me being in the gym all day. It’s just been easier in a way. It’s what I have always wanted to do, you know, I’m a gymnast. That’s what I do for a living.”
On keeping his head in the game:
“I don’t consider myself a real head case or mental type of person at all. When I make mistakes, they’re just mistakes. I’m really good at clearing my mind and not focusing on things. I do get the adrenaline rush and the nerves, but I like it. When you ask me about keeping my head in the game I think ‘well, I don’t really focus on my head too much.’ This sport is 90 percent mental, but what I’ve figured out is if I clear my mind and get all the mental stuff out, it will be fine and I’ve never really had an issue with it.”
Shawn Johnson
On her first thought after the skiing accident:
“I can’t remember too much of it, but I think the very first thought I had was ‘what if I can never do gymnastics again?’ I remember any injury in my career – they’ve always been small, I’ve never had a big one like this – but I always remember thinking ‘what about gymnastics?’ But after that I just thought there is no way I was going to be taken down on a stretcher. So I ended up skiing down the rest of the mountain on one leg. But I was more in shock than anything, and denial.”
On being told that the Olympic Games are an unrealistic goal:
“Many people have told me that it’s not going to happen, and my coach has even told me that. I’ve accepted any outcome, but I’ve put too much time and too much effort in the past two years to stop now, and it’s just kind of a personal challenge to reach the finish line. I’m back for the team, to win the team gold. It’s been too long since we won the team gold. At the end of the day, if I’m not selected, I have to gracefully bow down and say that I wasn’t the best for the job.”
On the new selection process:
“I’m not sure how to feel about it. I don’t even think the selection committee knows how to feel about it. You know, we’ve come up short a few times so they are trying to rearrange things so they get it right. I can understand that hand selecting is smart, we don’t have as many spots so we need specialists, and you can’t exactly get that from scores, but I also feel like when put under the spotlight and under pressure, whoever performs the best should be taken.”
Nastia Liukin
“I’m finally feeling a lot stronger. My endurance is up, I’m finally back in gymnastics shape. And I think that was step one of this whole process. Even proving to my dad that I could do it. You know, he was very confused on why I wanted to do it at first. He’s definitely supporting me and coaching me still but I think at the very beginning I had to prove to him that I wanted to do it. He’s always said that ‘first time around you have to want to do it, I’m not going to push you into this.’"
“We did everything that we wanted to do in 2008. Winning the all-around gold medal, nothing can top that.”
“There’s something about the Olympic Games and gymnastics and my passion for it. I just couldn’t quite get away from it yet.”
“Some part of me feels like it’s just been a year, like it’s just 2009. It definitely hasn’t felt like it’s been four years.”
“So much has happened in four years and I feel like I’ve grown as a person in my outside life and so I definitely feel older and hopefully more mature and hopefully I’ve gained experience.”
“Gymnastics, especially in my family, is more than just a sport. It’s our life, it’s our careers, it’s a family business and so I was always in the gym, but that doesn’t mean I was training intensely.”
On first competition since 2009:
“I’m really excited about it. I’m trying not to have too many expectations because it was been quite a few years since I’ve competed but the excitement is definitely here.”
“Every single day you want to make everything count. You don’t want to leave the gym knowing that you could’ve given a little bit more.”
“I have felt from the very beginning that I could have a spot on that team because I can help Team USA. It wasn’t individually based. It was for that reason purely.”
McKayla Maroney
On friendships with Jordyn Wieber and Aly Raisman:
“We’re best friends. Ever since we’ve been on the national team, we’ve been really close and it’s really good to have that sportsmanship and just best friends with you to go through that. We’re all in the same boat. We all want the same thing. We all want that gold medal for Team USA and we’re just girls who love gymnastics and want to have fun.”
On watching other competitors:
“I’m really more to myself and I kind of worry about myself and where I need to be. I mean, even if I watch them, that’s not going to help. It tells me what they’re going to be doing but I stick to what I’m going to be doing, I’ve always been like that.”
On training camps:
“I think it’s a really good experience because it’s like every month, a competition. They’re just trying to get you ready for the Olympics and that’s the most important thing.”
John Orozco
“Right now, it wouldn’t matter if I’d done a little more or a lot more. Right now everyone should be very secure with their routines and getting ready for trials.”
“On the horse, for Team USA, I really want to be a big contributor for this team.”
“I think in the long run the team that we’re going to take is going to be a really strong team with really great contenders for the top-three places.”
“It started off as a dream and it became a goal to make the Olympic Team when I was about 14 and I started high school and I realized that you know I’ve been doing this for a while and I think it’s time to get serious and put in some hard work.”
Aly Raisman
On the shape she is in now:
“I feel really confident with where I am right now and I’m really excited. We still have two full months left, so it’s really important that I peak at the right time. I feel really good about where I am right now.”
On her goal for the summer:
“Well definitely to make the Olympic Team, and if I make the Olympic Team, to get the team gold medal and be on the podium as much as possible.”
On the new selection process:
“I like it a lot better, I think it will be a lot less nerve wracking than going to a training camp because there will be a crowd there. It will be more relaxing – not relaxing, it will still be nerve-wracking – but it will be better because you have people there to support us so I’m just going to have to take it like a regular meet.”
Sabrina Vega
On preparing for London:
“I didn’t know what to expect, but it’s here and I can’t believe it’s come so fast. Now, it’s just give it 100 percent. Now’s the time to go full force.”
On her strengths:
“For this Olympics, they’re focusing a lot on artistry. I think artistry is one of my strengths. Flexibility and choreography are a plus too.”
On her first thoughts of becoming an Olympian:
“When I was 5 years old, I was invited to a friend’s birthday at a gym. I remember enjoying it so much. That night when I went to sleep, I had a dream that I went to the Olympics. I had never seen the Olympics, but I described the whole dream to my mom. When she heard that, she knew there was something to it because I had never seen the Olympics.”
Jordyn Wieber
On reductions in team size:
“It definitely makes things a lot harder and a lot more intense, but it would be an honor to be one of those five girls. I usually thrive off of pressure. At worlds, we got used to it when one of our teammates got hurt. We all kind of thrived off that pressure.”
On Russian competition:
“I don’t know what the Russians are thinking, but I know for the U.S. we’re not underestimating any team. We know everyone’s going to be working hard up to the Olympics, so we have to be working even harder and only worry about ourselves.”
On her favorite apparatuses:
“I like vault because it’s a power event and I’ve always been good at that. Beam has been my favorite event since I was four years old. Being up on a four-inch piece of wood, I know, sounds weird. Going up from the low-beam to the high beam, a lot of girls will just break down or get scared, but I was always the one to just go for it right away.”
On Mary Lou Retton:
“I’ve met Mary Lou (Retton) a couple of times. I’ve seen her at the American Cup a few times. She’s really an inspiration. She’s really encouraging, always cheering us on. You can hear her from the crowd. It’s just amazing to know a past Olympian is out there watching you. It’s really inspiring.”
On the ‘Wieber Fever’ craze in her hometown of Dewitt, Mich.:
“The phrase originated with my brother because he was the quarterback on our football team in the fall. All of the student section and people in the crowd were wearing surgical masks to represent ‘Wieber Fever.’ Once I went to worlds, it carried over to gymnastics and kind of grew from there. I started seeing it in the newspaper, so that was pretty cool.”
Rebecca Bross
On competition in Italy:
“It was good to get to be back out there on the gymnastics mat.”
On recovery:
“I feel like I’m getting there. I’m getting back to where I definitely want to be. It’s a long process obviously but I feel like I’m getting better and better.”
On competing bars and beam only:
“It’s hard because it was such a short period of time and everything was pushed back earlier this year. So we don’t have that extra couple of months we normally have and just to get where I want to be so it was better to just be able to focus on bars and beam.”
