Before the Olympics I was emotionally abused by one of my coaches for being fat and binge eating. That caused me to have a horrible breakdown and I took a two-year break from gymnastics. I needed time to reframe my relationship with food, my body, and the sport. But I knew deep down in my heart that ¨I am never giving up¨ on myself because of what somebody else says. After two years of working on myself, I walked in the gymnastics room like it was nothing, letting all the memories that I had fly away. I got an import call saying I made it to the 2016 Olympics. At that moment I knew I had two weeks to give it my all or leave. And I keep that promise that I am going to practice day by day, harder and better every time until the Olympics.

June 4th is the day I will never forget, as I walked into the 2016 Olympics with the crowd cheering teams on. When I was just five years old I became interested in gymnastics. My first ever Olympics was in 2016, the day I have been dreaming for. I won the team gold as the youngest member of the U.S women’s gymnastics team, nicknamed “The final five”, I also won the silver medal in the individual balance event. But there was a major problem, I hyperextended my knee and that caused me to have to withdraw from the competition. The pain that I felt was crucial. Although I had to withdraw from the competition, I wasn't as mad because I had to withdraw from the competition but mostly about how I worked so hard for this moment. I practiced hour after hour barely getting the eight hours of sleep that I needed, but all I could think of is this happens all the time, but this is really, really irritating because I have practiced for this moment for a long time. The injury was only a minor step back but it felt like it was forever.

As they called my team name, My mind went crazy and my heart dropped . I was speechless. One of the times I'd tear up or cry was during therapy time when she called our team name ¨The Final Five¨ very loud and clear. Afterwards my coach’s Jenny Zhang and Howie Liang ran up to me telling me that I had an important call, I knew immediately where this was going. I picked up the phone and had an amazing conversation with a woman, she was going to interview me! The woman asked me how I felt about the special moment of winning the gold medal, and these were my exact words: “I'm like, Oh my God, it feels amazing and It wasn't on T.V it was in real life, It's so comforting to just have a place for it.” But, it didn't feel as complete without my silver medal that I won. Even though I got injured, getting the silver medal is a blessing. I worked so hard for this exact moment. Beam routines are a minute and 30 seconds long, and that’s a minute and 30 seconds that I really need to zone in on what I'm doing. It feels good. Honestly, it feels great.