Shannon has had unparalleled success in women’s gymnastics in the United States. Since the age of 12, Shannon has consistently performed some of the most difficult routines in all of gymnastics, despite endless recurring injuries and a growth of almost ten inches and a significant weight gain since that time. Most gymnasts don’t survive the maturing process of puberty. The extra weight and height adds much more strain to the body and makes it much more difficult to rotate quickly and achieve maximum amplitude. How does Shannon explain her success in the battle against her puberty? She once told Kathy Johnson during an ABC broadcast: “The extra weight has given me more power in my tumbling passes and vaulting” and overall more strengh to do anything else. At age 19, Shannon was one of the few gymnasts who turned a potentially career-threatening physical change into an advantage.

“As she ages, Shannon Miller gets better and better”: coach Steve Nunno once quoted a newspaper to Shannon. Steve Nunno has coached Shannon for most of her elite career, and is greatly the reason for her success in gymnastics. Steve once coached at famous Bela Karolyi’s gym and brought back his expertise. Shannon credits him for paving the road to the top. However, modest as always, Shannon is not telling the whole story. Much of the reason for Shannon’s success in this sport is her fearless competitive drive to win and her ability to focus her mind on the task at hand. She had the makings of a champion long before she set foot in Nunno’s gym.

When Shannon first burst onto our television screens seven years ago, she dazzled crowds with her tremendous difficulty, which included a full-twisting double back dismount on balance beam....a skill “only the Soviets and Shannon Miller dare to do”: once said NBC commentator Kristi Kraft about Shannon’s beam routine at the 1990 senior nationals. In the event finals, however, she sat down on that spectacular dismount. When Shannon first appeared in senior competitions, the difficulty was there, but the consistency was not. This was one thing she and her coach worked extremely hard at during the next year.

The first major international competition Shannon was successful in was the world championships in the fall of 1991. Shannon qualified to the all-around competition where she gathered respect from the judges for her difficult skills, including a whip to a full-in on her floor routine, and full-in dismounts off both uneven bars and beam. But her performances were not without errors. Tiny little miscues plagued her routines, as well as an immature style of dance on floor exercise...she finished sixth. She was given the reputation as an upcoming star for the U.S. team who could really achieve something with just a little more polish.

The 1991 World Championships was won by fellow American Kim Zmeskal. Kim was very different from Shannon. Kim had the strong muscular body type that enabled her to tumble higher than what seemed humanly possible. At the time, Shannon had the typical frail-looking, scrawny, “deceptively strong” (as NBC commentator Erni Afaghanis once said) body type. The advantage that Shannon had, however, was her technique. As ABC commentaor Kathy Johnson said: “Although Shannon is not as physically powerful as someone like Kim Zmeskal, her good technique and hard work enables her to come up with even more difficult tumbling passes”. That was true on every event. Shannon outclassed the new world champion in terms of difficulty. But it was Kim's mental toughness and consistency combined with adequate difficulty that enabled her to win. But this was only Shannon’s first major championships. Along with her sixth place all-around finish, she won the silver in the team competition as well as the silver on uneven bars, and she also competed in the vault, balance beam and floor exercise finals (where some nervous errors cost her medals). Shannon had truly proven herself as someone to reckon with in the future.

Shannon’s rivalry with world champion Kim Zmeskal continued into 1992. Being an Olympic year, this was the most important year so far in her career. In the first major competition of the year, at the American Cup, Shannon really gave Kim a run for her money. The circumstances were quite unusual with both gymnasts being injured...Shannon had a slight hamstring pull and Kim suffered from chronic wrist problems and ankle injuries. On the first event vault, Kim was given a slight advantage with a super explosive Yurchenko full twist. Kim scored 9.987, and Shannon was just slightly behind with a 9.950 (also a terrific Yurchenko full twist). The next two events Shannon and Kim tied....both scoring 9.937 on uneven bars and 9.950 on balance beam. It appeared to be a bit of a gift to Kim. They both performed consistently, but Shannon had by far superior difficulty and style, yet they scored exactly the same. It appeared Kim’s world title was working to her advantage. So Shannon remained 0.037 points behind the reigning world champion all the way through until the final rotation.

The only event left was the floor exercise. In the warmups Shannon irritated her hamstring injury even further on a very difficult tumbling pass. When it was Shannon’s turn to compete, she severely overdid that tumbling pass for fear of landing short. She fell back and out of bounds. On her second full-in she also put her hands down. Despite a nice final tumbling run, the damage had been done...she scored 9.212. At this point the championships was Kim’s for the taking, and indeed she did.

Not long after these championships, Shannon was working in the gym when disaster happened. Shannon missed a move and badly injured her elbow. She was rushed to the hospital where doctors performed surgery, placing a pin in the elbow to hold it together. Shannon’s chances at making the Olympics were seriously in jeopardy. As NBC commentator Tim Daggett said: “One Soviet athlete suffered a similar injury and it kept her out of competition for about a year.” So Shannon’s chances looked slim. (Meanwhile, rival Kim Zmeskal gained more ground by competing in the 1992 World Championships (which only included individual events this year). Kim solidified her position on top of the world by winning gold on both events she entered...balance beam and floor exercise.)

Not even two months after the injury, Shannon stunned everyone by competing in the national championships. After the compulsories Shannon was leading Kim. It was at that point that Shannon realized she was not prepared and her elbow not healed enough to perform in the optionals. So her coach Steve Nunno pulled her out of the competition and signed a petition to qualify her for the Olympic Trials, even though she hadn’t performed through the entire national championships. So with no one to challenge her, Kim easily one her third consecutive national championship.

Shannon went home to train. She was concerned about getting her optional exercises ready in time for the Barcelona Olympics. A month later at the Olympic Trials, Shannon again led Kim Zmeskal after the compulsories by a large margin. Shannon went on in optionals to perform a new classical style floor routine (much better than the previous world championships) and introduced a new skill on the uneven bars...a giant hop full pirouette (and she even did it in combination with her geinger!). Shannon had proven herself, dethroning the world champion in the process (despite the fact that Kim actually outscored Shannon in the optional exercises, which counted most in the Olympics).

When the Olympics came, Shannon was stronger than ever. While Kim fell off beam in the compulsories, Shannon led her team to a bronze medal finishing first individually ahead of all the other gymnasts there after the team competition. Yet it was still Kim who got all the attention. After her fall in the compulsories, Kim battled back to make the top 3 on the American team to qualify for the all-around championships, while simultaneousoly receiving the highest optional score of any gymnast at the meet. But it was Shannon who led.

So Shannon had to prove herself again. In the all-around competition she performed brilliantly (despite tiny errors on beam and floor) to win a controversial silver medal. She was so close to the gold it seemed to many that Shannon could have won gold herself. But it was not to be. Even with her loss, she finally came out from the shadows of Kim Zmeskal. Kim had jumped out of bounds on her floor exercise routine and nearly fallen off during a watered-down beam routine and finished tenth.

Shannon went on in event finals to win a bronze on uneven bars, a silver on balance beam, and a bronze on floor....giving her a total of five Olympic medals (including all-around silver and team bronze). Already she was “the most decorated gymnast in U.S. history” (a common term used in reference to her that I don’t particularly like because it makes her sound like a Christmas tree).

After the Olympics Kim (who later revealed she competed in Barcelona with a stress fracture in her ankle) and Olympic Champion Tatiana Gutsu retired. That clearly left Shannon as the gymnast to beat. She breezed through the 1993 American Cup winning the gold by a HUGE margin. At the 1993 World Championships in Birmingham, England Shannon this time won gold (not only in the all-around, but also on uneven bars and floor exercise). Despite three falls in event finals on beam, it appeared Shannon’s time had finally arrived. Following the world championships, she went on to win the national championships and every other event that year.

However, by the 1994 world championships (after missing the American Cup because of injury), Shannon was no longer the favourite. (The gymnast most touted to win was 1992 Olympic all-around bronze medalist Lavinia Milosovici of Romania). As a result of back injuries Shannon had been unable to train very much prior to the championships, although she was almost over her injuries by now. In podium training and as well the preliminaries she looked weak. She didn’t even qualify for uneven bars finals (for which she would have been the defending champion). When it came to the all-around competition, however, she put on her game face and stunned the audience with a spectacularly perfect uneven bars routine and excellent beam and vault exercises. The only blemish occurred on floor exercise where she took a large step back. New rival Lavinia Milosovici performed well also, and managed to finish a close second. Shannon went on to win the gold on beam, which made up for her falling off 3 times the year before in event finals. Shannon was the first two-time all-around world champion in history for the United States. Her resume now included five world championship gold medals and five Olympic medals.

Shannon Miller was now 17...getting on in years for a gymnast. Few ever believed she would make it to the 1996 Olympic Games. After these world championships, Shannon’s consistency steadily declined. At the 1994 Goodwill Games, Shannon lost the competition (due to some uncharacteric errors) to the gymnast who was third at the previous world championships (Dina Kochetkova of Russia). This was the first time Shannon had been beaten since the Olympics. Shannon then went home to compete in the national championships where she fell off beam in the all-around and finished second (also she finished second on every single event final). Shannon had been beaten by Dominique Dawes (who swept all 5 gold medals). Dominique was a gymnast who finished fifth at the previous world championships. Shannon’s dominance of the sport appeared to be at an end.

After these championships a string of injuries occurred. She didn’t compete at the 1994 team world championships in the fall. She missed the American Cup the next year. Rumours spread about her possibly retiring. By the 1995 national championships she was back in competition, however. She fell off beam and made some uncharacteristic mistakes on a watered-down uneven bars routine. New Bela Karolyi sensation, 13-year-old Dominique Moceanu (not to be confused with Dominique Dawes), won the competition. Shannon was second again. Dominique Dawes (also injured) finished well out of the medals.

At the 1995 world championships a couple months later, Shannon was again injured. She had badly crunched her ankle on a balance beam dismount previous to the competition, and thus was forced to take out numerous skills throughout her exercises. It was remarkable she was even there competing for the American team. One amazing statistic is that her performance on floor exercise gave the Americans the bronze medal. If she hadn’t competed on that event (which she considered), the Russians would have moved into third. That was just how close the competition was. Her coach Steve Nunno then asked her if she wanted to pull out of the all-around competition because of her ankle, but Shannon wanted to compete for a third consecutive world all-around title. But it was not to be. Her ankle hampered her severely in the all-around on floor exercise, which put her in a deep whole. Then when it came to uneven bars, she appeared to have given up and performed disasterously there as well. Shannon had finished twelfth. In the event finals, the best she could do was fourth on beam. Her only medal was team bronze. After her fabulous record this was a truly disasterous world championships for her.

Her injuries continued into 1996. Again she pulled out of the American Cup competition. However, at that point she went home to rest. After some time off to heal her injuries (except her chronic wrist injury) she began a comeback to the top levels of the sport. She would eventually come out better than ever. At the national championships (this year in June) she again fell off beam, but she won anyway. She put together one of the best bars and floor sets she had ever done. Also, she debuted a whole bunch of new skills at this competition...a Yurchenko 1 1/2 twist, a double layout on floor, and a punch front on beam. It was clear that her comeback had been successful. Except for the fall on beam, she was better than ever. Even all her difficulty was back in her uneven bars routine, including the double layout dismount, which she had quit performing after having problems with it in 1994. Shannon was a success. It appeared that her renewed ambition had come just in time for the Olympics.

At the Olympic Trials, however, she did not compete. Her wrist problem had worsened, and her coach petitioned to have her national championships scores used at the Trials. So her scores held up and qualified her ahead of all the other gymnasts. Shannon was now going to a second Olympics at age 19...a tremendous acommplishment in a sport where athletes race against the clock.

When she got to the Olympics, she dazzled in the team competition (despite a near fall on floor exercise). All the Americans did. They came home with the team gold medal! Finally Shannon had that elusive gold medal, but now she wanted an individual gold. In the all-around competition she was in second place after two events. The next event was the floor. This was the event she struggled on in the team competition on her newly added double layout. Again she had problems on this skill, although not as severe as the day before. She also stepped out of bounds on her full-in final tumbling run. Overall a very weak performance resulting in 9.475. Shannon was devastated. She took several minutes to cry on the sidelines as her dream had vanished. She still had one more event to do....the vault. As always on the vault, Shannon did her easier vault first...with a start value of 9.90. It was a vault that she should have stuck easily, but it appears she was still rattled from her floor exercise routine and she took a huge step to the side. Because of this error, her coach decided not to have her do the more difficult new second vault she had unveiled at the national championships. Shannon competed her Hristakieva again, but this time it was without flaw. Overall, Shannon finished eighth, thus recognized as the top American female gymnast there. Not the performance she had hoped for (she wanted gold) she still had two more shots on vault and balance beam in the event finals.

When it came time to do vault, disaster struck again. In the finals one must perform two different vaults from two different families. Shannon fell on her second vault, which she really doesn’t practice very much for obvious reasons. She finished last....another disappointment. Again she was consumed by tears, but maybe that sparked the competitive drive in her. She came ROARING back in the balance beam finals, performing brilliantly. Her mature, elegant style, combined with phenomenal difficulty and a perfect full-in dismount...who wouldn’t be impressed! Shannon scored 9.862, winning her first individual gold medal at an Olympic Games. This is what she had wanted. This is what drove her to the gym every day for fourteen years.

Since the Olympic Games, Shannon has been travelling around the country on the John Hancock Tour. She's been learning how to have more fun and that there's more to life outside of gymnastics. Since the Olympics Shannon has also competed in a few fun professional competitions, including the Rock 'N' Roll Challenge, the International Gymnastics Cup, World Professional Championships, and the Women's Professional Championships. She has also competed in a few amateur competitions...the the Internatinal 3 on 3 Championships and the Universiade. We are now seeing a new side to this fantastic athlete. It is time for a well-deserved rest from serious competition.

And so ends the story of Shannon Miller (well maybe, she has said she would be interested in competing in the 2000 Olympics). She can be thrilled for herself over what she has accomplished. Not only has she won more world and Olympic medals than any other gymnast in U.S. history, she also has proven that gymnasts can compete as they mature into womanhood. Shannon is an inspiration and a role model to all aspiring young gymnasts across the globe.