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1. You may have to make difficult decisions when you are young. When I was younger, I did lots of sports — soccer, basketball, baseball, ice skating — in addition to gymnastics. But when I was 8 years old, my training schedule for gymnastics got so crazy that I realistically had to choose. I loved it the most, so it was kind of a no-brainer for me, but it's crazy to think I had to give up those other sports at such a young age. There just wasn't enough time in the day.
2. Training is so consuming that you have to learn quickly how to balance school and gymnastics. Even at a young age, I was practicing a lot of hours at the gym, so I learned pretty early how to manage my time and not put things off. Many of my friends on the National Team were home-schooled. I know that worked for them, but as much as I always loved gymnastics, my time away from gym was important to me, and being enrolled in school was always a priority. My senior year of high school was the Olympic year, and at that point, I decided to finish with online classes — it was a very difficult decision. I worried about not being in school with my friends every day, but my coaches and I really felt it was necessary for me to have the best chance to make the team. I was glad I made the decision; it was the right move for me at the time.
3. You won't have a "typical" teenage social life. You're training six days a week, but sometimes you'll be traveling or at a competition on a weekend when you'd normally be off. It's definitely hard, and you do have moments when you feel left out from your school friends. But if you are very passionate about achieving your goal, you have to give it your all.
4. You definitely won't have time for dating. You'll spend what little free time you have with your friends and family, and that's fine. You'll have plenty of time for a boyfriend after the Olympics!
5. The decision between going professional versus college gymnastics is a really tough one. I've heard the team atmosphere of college gymnastics is really great. But by going professional when I did, it allowed me to do so many fun things that I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise: I did a three-month tour across the country with my team and got to go on Dancing With the Stars, which was incredible and such a fun experience.
6. The actual Olympic games are a ton of hard work too. I'm frequently asked about partying at the Olympics. But my teammates and I were very focused and determined up until our last day of competition. After that, we did get to spend time with our families and see some sights in London.
7. Being an Olympic athlete really is rewarding. Achieving my goal of making it to the Olympics was extremely rewarding on a personal level. I had gone pro several months before, so I was in a position to work with sponsors that I believe in, that are healthy and have a good message behind them. It can sometimes be easy just to accept any kind of money and be excited, but I think it's important to look at the message you're sending. My agent is amazing and I feel quite lucky that the sport I love so much puts me in a position to help support myself financially. It was definitely a risk going pro before making an Olympic team. While there is money to be made when you are an Olympic hopeful, it may not surpass the value of a college scholarship. There is no guarantee you will make an Olympic team, but if you're fortunate to do so, your potential income as a professional can rise drastically. However, your window of opportunity will be brief. For the most part, the farther you are away from your Olympic performance, the more the public and sponsors begin to focus on the next Olympics. That being said, I feel I am in a position where a lot of young girls look up to me and I always try to make every effort possible to be a good role model.
8. You will have the same body-image struggles every young woman has — on a world stage. Of course, I have my days where I feel insecure or self-conscious; I'm in a leotard 24/7. I think everyone has those days. I'm thin, but I'm also very fit. It's not like I'm naturally super, super skinny. I watch what I eat and I work out up to seven hours a day since I'm currently training and competing. The sport of gymnastics is demanding and requires a balance of eating healthy and working out.
9. You'll become a role model for tons of girls and women — and you'll have to keep that in mind in everything you do. I once posted something that said "strong is the new skinny" to social media, which some girls found offensive to girls who are skinny, so you have to be careful on both sides of it. On a separate occasion, a girl told me about how she had been anorexic and bulimic and I'd helped her through it, which was really cool. I sometimes visit girls who have eating disorders at Walden Behavioral Care. I understand that as girls, sometimes you feel insecure or self-conscious, so it's great to be able to talk to them and help them as much as I can. No matter what body type you have, you're beautiful.
10. Even though you're doing everything individually, it really is a team sport. I really believe you can't win a team competition unless you really all get along together. I've never been on a team where we got along so well as the 2012 Olympic team. We will always have a special bond.
11. You should be a perfectionist, but you need to keep yourself in check too. Everything in gymnastics has to be very precise, but you're going to have days when you make mistakes. It's OK to leave the gym frustrated and upset after a bad day. Just don't let it crush you. It's important to make mistakes and fail, because you have to learn from it. Yes, you have to go back the next day and make those corrections, but also remember that you're human and that no one is perfect all the time.
12. It gets harder. It's crazy, some of the skills we're doing! It's challenging and exhausting, but it's also so rewarding to land a new skill and do it well. The challenge is what keeps you determined and hungry for more.
13. It never fully sinks in that you did it. The fact that I even went to the Olympics has barely sunk in, let alone that we won. It's really crazy. It took me a really long time to actually understand that we did it, because we spent so much time dreaming about it. When I get recognized or get to do something cool, it feels really surreal, even years later.
14. Go with your gut feelings. It took me months to decide between going to the University of Florida or going professional before going to the Olympics. Ultimately, I went with my gut feeling and didn't look back, and I'm lucky it worked out. I did the same thing when deciding whether to try for another Olympics. In my gut, I just knew I wasn't done. I didn't want to be sitting on my couch watching the 2016 Olympics and wondering what would have happened if I'd tried.
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