“I believe in playing with your heart, with every fiber in your body-fairly, squarely, by the rules-to win. And I believe that any man’s finest moment.”

I took him like the major challenge of my life, and pretty soon I’m beating him and we are pushing each other so hard, so fierce. But out of the arena, we are friends.

The rest of the world laughed at American gymnastics before I came.

A good 80 percent of the vault is still physical and another percentage of it, 20, 25 percent is mental.

Mental is always the mental strength, the confidence building up to that contest or repetition, practice, practice, and practice.

This team just wasn’t good enough today, but they had the unity I always wanted. To have an American team like this has always been a dream of mine.

The crowd sometimes plays a tremendous role to give you wings and carry you to victory.

I still love to find and develop the young athletes in traditional ways. I like to watch the physical and mental growth. That has always been very exciting.

I am very familiar with Hungary, because I grew up in Romania, which borders it.

My attitude is never to be satisfied, never enough, never.

Back in Romania, always I was struggling to compete with Vladislav Rastorotsky, the great Russian coach of Lyudmila Turishcheva. He was a powerful coach, internationally.

I consider myself very lucky that I could live my life through all the ups and downs.

In gymnastics, smaller will always be better in many ways. The stress in the head, that will be the same for all. But the stress on the body and the concussions it must endure, that will always be easier for the little ones.

Success depends on how much you are willing to sacrifice, how much you are willing to alter your everyday life for a particular goal.

The Olympics shows the community what gymnastics is all about.

I know gymnastics. It’s always been a subjective appreciation.

The greatest fulfillment of all he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out and lies exhausted on the floor of battle-victorious.