1992 Olympic Trials Champion Miller Reflects on Trials

She’s a seven-time Olympic Medalist (2 Gold, 2 Silver, 3 Bronze), nine-time World Championship Medalist (5 Gold, 3 Silver, 1 Bronze) and Hall-of-Famer as the most decorated gymnast in American history. She’s also an Inside Gymnastics columnist which makes us pretty proud!

This week, Miller is back at an Olympic Trials again, this time doing radio commentary for USA Gymnastics. But she tells us from the moment she walked in the building, the emotions of her Trials days all came rushing back.

“It’s funny, you walk into a building and you see the set-up, you see the signs that say Olympic Trials, and a flood of memories start coming back,” Miller told us today. “It’s intense.”

We asked Miller, who won the 1992 Olympic Trials, to share how she felt when she was competing with an Olympic berth on the line…. “I remember the night before and the day of competition I would almost be sick to my stomach. I would get that nervous energy and you think about all that is on the line. I’d get to warm-up and I’d still be nervous but once warm-up began, I’d really start to focus in and by the time I got on the equipment for my first event, I’d just go into a zone and feel comfortable and ready to go.”

Miller says when the competition ended she’d become very reflective and the magnitude of the event would set in even more. “Almost the second the competition ended, I would think about all of the hard work in the gym,” she says. “The hours, the days, the months, the years or preparing for that moment… A chance to earn a spot on an Olympic team and all of that hard work had come down to that moment. You finish the competition and everything you had been through races through your mind.”

Though Miller is here as a commentator for USA Gymnastics, she says the nervousness has set in again, this time for the competitors on the floor. “I know all they’ve been through and I know how much this moment means, and I just get that nervous pit in my stomach again. Years and years come down to the next few days and it’s an experience like no other. I just wish them all the best!”

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