I was a gymnast my whole life. I mean, I'd go to Starbucks and people would be like, 'Are you going to the next Olympics?' And when I'd say no, they'd literally look sad. So it was very hard for me to get excited about anything else. I thought that I had to do gymnastics forever.
McKayla MaroneyI've always loved so many different things about social media and music and art and fashion. I always loved it. But I've been too scared to jump into it, knowing that people would be upset about it. So that's why I hid from it. And now, I'm not afraid to be myself.
McKayla MaroneyEven my bio on Instagram is like, 'That girl that fell at the Olympics.' Just as a joke. Because that's how people come up to me and that's what they say. That's how they remember me.
McKayla MaroneyI love learning, so it's definitely something I could see myself doing when I'm 30 or something. I always wanted to go for music production and health and psychology. But my whole life, I was in a gym for eight hours a day. I'm ready to be young and have fun.
McKayla MaroneyGymnastics, you get one shot; acting, it's like, do it again, do it again, do it again. So that was the one thing that I found very different. You're allowed to get different tries and you're more expressive in a way when you're working with people. In gymnastics, you're so on your own and individual.
McKayla Maroney