Training for the Olympics was much easier than balancing my life now! When practice was over, there was time for me. But with four kids and a career, I have no downtime. When I'm not on the road, I finish my workday at 2:30 p.m. Then I pick the kids up from school and they get 100 percent Mommy, not part Mommy and part Mary Lou Retton.

Working hard becomes a habit, a serious kind of fun. You get self-satisfaction from pushing your self to the limit, knowing that all the effort is going to pay off.

You give up your childhood. You miss proms and games and high-school events, and people say it's awful... I say it was a good trade. You miss something but I think I gained more than I lost.

For six years, I kept my five Olympic medals wrapped in a plastic bread bag beneath my bed.

Getting to know athletes from all over the planet is a big part of the Olympic experience.

I cant justify taking money away from hungry kids and needy schools to pay for the Games when corporations are willing to write the checks.

Each of us has a fire in our hearts for something. It's our goal in life to find it and keep it.