My mom and dad were extremely supportive. But my mom, she definitely made a lot of sacrifices, specifically because she wasn't working at the time. She ended up going and finding a job so she could continue to put me through gymnastics.

I tell my coach all the time "Hey, listen, coach. You know the hardest person on me isn't you, right? It's me." I'm the hardest person on myself, my biggest critic, always pushing. But there are days when I have to tell myself, "Relax, breathe, you're too stressed out." When it's no longer fun, when it's no longer something you can tolerate, that's when you have to take a break.

My first workout starts at 9:00 a.m. every morning. I'm in the gym from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. We do strength conditioning, stretching, pretty intense workouts in the morning. We go back in the gym at 1:00 p.m. and train until 5:00 p.m. It's all routines, repetition, doing the same skills over and over again, trying to polish and perfect everything. I head home, eat dinner, spend some time with my wife and start over the next day. I train about six days per week.

There's a point in gymnastics where once you get to a certain age your body just isn't going to be able to handle it anymore. But I'd like to continue on as long as I'm able to help the team out and be a contributor to the success of the U.S. team.

When I was 22, I finally reached that huge goal. Now I'm going for another one. It's so satisfying. It's something that I worked for for so long, and just to know that I got it feels so great.

It's tough. Gymnastics isn't basketball or football or baseball, where you can get these huge contracts and make a lot of money.

Part of being a good gymnast is being very disciplined - you have to know how to train right, eat right, sleep right.