When you're growing up, you realize you've got a lot of heavy things on your shoulders.

See, when I went to the Olympics in '76, the gymnastics people knew that I was good, but everybody else, after I won, everybody was like, 'Where's she coming from? Who is she? What is Romania?'

We developed a system in Romania that was very successfully continued for a number of years, but I don't know if it was because of some conflict in the organisation or whether there was government interference... but somehow, they have forgotten the importance of raising gymnasts to be ready for every Olympics.

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

If you destroyed the underpinnings of this great American sport, you are a hated, ugly, detestable person.

Baseball may be our national pastime, but the age-old tradition of taking a swing at Congress is a sport with even deeper historical roots in the American experience. Since the founding of our country, citizens from Ben Franklin to David Letterman have made fun of their elected officials.

I love sports, or hiking; you'll always find me outside doing something.

I just concentrate on my performance and the football.