Nadia Comaneci

I would love to be in 'Dancing With the Stars.'

Of course I used to smile and laugh in 1976, but not when I was competing. Please show me somebody who laughs when they are concentrating; I always smiled.

I am very highly appreciated in my country, and everybody seems to love me.

I like America. I don't want to hurt America.

I like risky stuff.

When I was 14, I had no pressure. I was a kid, and I didn't understand all the attention.

If I have a feeling of not trusting, I don't get too close.

The - I don't want to say older, but the more experienced I get, I treasure and I honor what I've done much more.

Two days after returning from Montreal, I was training again, and I went on to win two more golds at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

After retiring from competition in 1981, I did exhibitions and coached.

I come from a communist country. We learned nothing of lawyers, nothing about rights.

I think a lot of people don't actually know me. They think, 'She's like this,' or, 'She's like that.' They say I have no emotions - I do, but you couldn't see them then. I had to keep them inside.

Gymnastics is so huge in the Olympics. There are a lot of fans who want to see more.

When I got married in Bucharest, there were 10,000 people on the street. People didn't go to work that day. It was emotional to see how people care about you. I didn't expect that.

I like Oklahoma. It's a quiet place. You can work, and nobody disturbs you.

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?'

I made the cover of 'Sports Illustrated,' 'Newsweek' and 'Time' all in one week, and I didn't even know what that meant.

In the '80 Olympics... people expected me to win. I was good enough to win, and I made a mistake and ended up second, which is pretty good, too.

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

Now, I have a kid, I have businesses to take care of, I have to travel. I have to sit down... and find a little time for me.

I work out every day, but my idea is to make something short. I work out a maximum half hour. I only do like 20 minutes of cardio, and I do some stretching and some light weights, and I'm out of there.

I had a lot of energy, and my mom decided to look for a place where I can spend the energy, because I was jumping on the couch and furniture, and I was jumping on the top of the things in the house.

I'm not a dreamer for, you know, 'I want to go to the moon someday.' I accomplished something when I was young, which was much more than I expected to. My results were much bigger than I ever dreamed about it.

I wanted to have a free life.

People assume a lot of things about gymnasts - that the girls work too hard, it's way too much for them, they are too young to work so hard.

I never personally complained; everybody else complained for me.

When I look back, I am happy that my mum took me to the gymnastics club. I didn't join gymnastics to become a famous athlete or celebrity; it just happened - I did more than I expected, of course.

I basically have my life today as a result of what I did as a child. What did I miss out on? Yeah, I missed not hanging out at shopping malls, I guess, but that is not a big deal because you don't get a medal for that.

I live in the moment. I can turn the page and move on.

That's what everybody remembers. They don't remember how many medals I won in my career. They remember the 10s.

I think gymnastics was associated with the 10. I thought that belonged to the sport, and somehow we gave it way.

The fans had become used to looking toward the scoreboard whenever a gymnast stuck a landing. You could tell they were thinking, 'Was that good enough? Would the numbers read 10.00?' The athlete was looking, too.

I did not even look at the scoreboard when my routine was done in 1976.

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

I am a relaxed person. I am very happy.

Once you become an Olympic champion, you are expected to win all the time.

When I went into the Montreal Games, nobody expected much out of me.

Ceausescu thought I had only a few medals, but I have a room full of them in Bucharest, between 150-200 in all. They needed suitcases to haul them out.

I used to tell people if they looked at a map, it was right in the middle of the United States. But now everybody knows Oklahoma because of the Thunder and their success. I don't know if I'll get 'Why?' anymore.

Nellie Kim, an Olympic champion from the former Soviet Union, got a 10 right after me in '76, but nobody talks about that.

I tell people, 'Have you ever been to Oklahoma? There are a lot of nice people there that do wonderful things.'

I never thought I would be standing here, married to an All-American guy, living in Oklahoma. What a country.

I come from a wonderful country with wonderful people.

Two gold medals and two silver, I don't think is that bad... I think I still did a pretty good job.

I was turning actually 15 at the Olympics in '76... I don't think that one year makes a huge difference.

I always say I don't want to change anything in my life.

I cannot change anything, so I don't want to think about what I would have done.

I don't think many people consider in their heart that they have two places that are home.

I'm very good friends with my former coaches. We speak on the phone a lot.

It feels good when you come to a place like Oklahoma to charge up the batteries. I need that.