See, when I went to the Olympics in '76, the gymnastics people knew that I was good, but everybody else, after I won, everybody was like, 'Where's she coming from? Who is she? What is Romania?'

When I got married in Bucharest, there were 10,000 people on the street. People didn't go to work that day. It was emotional to see how people care about you. I didn't expect that.

I wasn't allowed to leave Romania. That made me mad. You just want your freedom. You want your space. You want opportunity.

Gymnastics is so huge in the Olympics. There are a lot of fans who want to see more.

I think a lot of people don't actually know me. They think, 'She's like this,' or, 'She's like that.' They say I have no emotions - I do, but you couldn't see them then. I had to keep them inside.

After retiring from competition in 1981, I did exhibitions and coached.

Two days after returning from Montreal, I was training again, and I went on to win two more golds at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

It was my mother who got me involved in gymnastics, sending me to classes when I was six just to stop me doing back flips on the couch and destroying the furniture.

People always accused me of not smiling like my rival Olga Korbut, but that was just my personality. When you're balancing on a nine-inch beam, you have to concentrate. But if you look back at the footage, I was always smiling and waving at the crowd after my performances.

The - I don't want to say older, but the more experienced I get, I treasure and I honor what I've done much more.

To me, family is what is important. If you don't have it, nothing is going to matter.

I like America. I don't want to hurt America.

I am very highly appreciated in my country, and everybody seems to love me.

In Montreal, I kept thinking, 'Pay attention: this is the Olympics! It only happens once every four years!'

We only had white socks in Romania. But when I used to come back from the States, I used to bring back pink and yellow socks with all kind of designs, and hair clips and elastic bands for the ponytail that had colourful designs.

I am not a perfect 10 anymore. I can only try my best.

Gymnastics was my way to travelling the world.

Gymnastics should be popular everywhere; you just need the right person to start the right programme.

People think you have pressure when you are young. It's the other way round, actually.

I had more pressure when I competed in Moscow. I had no pressure in Montreal because I only went to do my routines and hoping I didn't mess it up when I was on the bar. When I came back, 10,000 people were at the airport and I thought, 'Why?' because, in my mind, I hadn't done anything different from what I used to do in my gym.

I think that when you are on a four-inch balance beam, you don't care about laughing or smiling or waving to the crowd because you're going to be down in a second.

At some particular time, when I was 14 years old, I've done something that people didn't expect.

I didn't know I wanted to be a gymnast; I was just introduced to the gym. I loved the place because it looked like a hi-tech playground with mats and a lot of things I can hang from.

I thought I was going to retire at 20, and I was going to be a surgeon.