“My first experience with gymnastics was when I was in daycare. We took a field trip to a gym, and I was hooked.”

Growing up, it was kind of a struggle being small, since everyone would make fun of you – except for when it came to hide and seek: that’s the only advantage I ever had!

I spend a lot of time in the gym training, and Core Power is a great fit for my nutritional needs.

I never felt I had questions or needed answers or had a part of me that was missing.

I take things one step at a time.

I have practice from 9 A.M. to 12 P.M., and then I drive home and eat lunch, which is either chicken or fish so I get the protein.

If I won gold in 2016, I think it would change my life.

I’m always trying to push myself to the limit to see what I can do. It’s my strong will that I’ve always had since I was a kid.

I feel like I’m small and mighty and pack a powerful punch, just like Tide PODS.

If they said, ‘Do five pull-ups,’ I would always want to do 10.

I’m not a celebrity. I’m just the same Simone. I just have two Olympic Gold medals now.

One of my proudest moments was probably 2013 Worlds because I proved to myself that I could do things that I didn’t think I could.

If anybody has a bad day, they’ll just come to my room because they know I’ll bring out the positive in everything, or I’ll make them laugh, or I’ll be just crazy.

Before a big event, I usually go to church and light a candle for St. Sebastian, who is the patron saint of athletes.

If I thought of gymnastics as a job, it would put too much stress on me.

We all have skills, I guess.

People comment on my pictures, ‘Stay healthy.’

Whatever your goal in life, the beginning is knowledge and experience.

No experience is wasted. Everything in life is happening to grow you up, to fill you up, to help you become more of who you were created to be.

For me, there is no such thing as a negative experience.

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.

It is in the character of growth that we should learn from both pleasant and unpleasant experiences.

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.

Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.

Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.