Shannon Miller was just trying to keep up with her older sister when she started gymnastics at age 5.
But over the next 15 years she developed into the most decorated gymnast in American history with 16 Olympic or World Championship medals, including seven golds.
It was a remarkable career, and one that seemed improbable for a youngster from Edmond, Okla., who struggled in her beginning gymnastics classes.
“It wasn’t that I was awkward,” said the 34-year-old Miller, who visited the Seattle area last week to promote next month’s Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships in Everett. “It’s that I wasn’t that strong, that flexible. I wasn’t a naturally talented athlete who picked up all the skills quickly. Some skills I picked up quickly, but others took forever.
“I knew I was going to have to work at it, and I was going to have to work overtime. That meant doing the splits at night on the floor while I was doing my homework because I wasn’t as naturally flexible as some of the other athletes.”
Through determined perseverance and some obvious physical gifts that emerged over time, Miller blossomed into a extraordinary gymnast. In 1991 she won two World Championship silver medals at age 14, and the next year she won five medals — two silvers, three bronze — at the Olympic Games in Barcelona.
Her crowning moment came at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Nearing retirement at the ripe old age of 19, Miller led the U.S. team to a gold medal in the team competition — she and her teammates were dubbed the Magnificent Seven for their achievement — and she shrugged off some disappointments in other events to win the gold on the balance beam in her Olympic finale.
“There really aren’t words for all the emotions going on (at an Olympics),” Miller said. “My memories kind of come in snapshots, and they all seem like a different lifetime. I tend to describe it as surreal.”
One memory that does stand out is her flipping, twisting backward somersault dismount off the balance beam to clinch her only individual Olympic gold medal. “Feeling my feet hit the landing and knowing I was standing up,” she said, “it was one of those moments when you feel the joy and relief that everything came together.”
Miller left gymnastics after the Atlanta Olympics and then tried to come back for the 2000 Games in Sydney. She participated at the U.S. Olympic Trials, but was unable to finish because of a knee injury and her competitive career was over.
Looking back at her years in the sport, “I think about the journey more than I think about the moment that you win a medal,” she said. “And I loved the journey so much.”
She went on to earn an undergraduate business degree in 2003 and a law degree in 2007. She was married a year later and today is the mother of a young son in addition to owning a business dedicated to women’s health and a foundation to address childhood obesity.
But her biggest post-gymnastics accomplishment is that of cancer survivor. After being found with a germ cell tumor, a form of ovarian cancer, Miller underwent surgery to remove the malignancy early last year, followed by chemotherapy from March to May.
“I was lucky because they caught the tumor very early, but they also said that with chemotherapy I’d have a 99 percent chance of non-reoccurrence,” she said. “And when you’re talking about cancer, 99 percent is a pretty good number.
These days, she added, “I feel great. My energy’s back and my prognosis is very good. I’m cancer free and doing well.”
No one would willingly choose the experience of cancer, of course, with its harsh uncertainty and grievous treatment regimen. But cancer is also an increasingly winnable battle, and Miller’s celebrity gives her a unique voice to emphasize the importance of healthy lifestyle choices and early detection.
As a former world-class athlete, she said, “maybe I don’t look or sound like the typical person that might get cancer, although I don’t know what that type is because there is no type. Cancer doesn’t care how many medals you have.
“I want people to know that it can happen at any point, so you need to get your screenings, get your exams. Because if it’s detected early, you have so many more choices.”
At the height of an Olympic gymnastics competition, and similarly in the midst of a devastating cancer diagnosis, Miller said, “there is a moment when you have to decide, ‘Am I going to step up or am I going to give in?’
Because in sports, as in a life-threatening illness, “the positive attitude and the belief that you’re going to succeed are so important,” she said.
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