What happens when you fall off the balance beam? You fall, and then you get back up again. Although it sounds simple enough, this is the mantra that Shannon Miller has carried with her throughout her life - the falls, the injuries, the doubters in her career as an elite gymnast, the struggles of what to do after retirement, marriage difficulties, fighting ovarian cancer - throughout it all, Miller has always fought to get back up again.

In her new memoir, It’s Not About Perfect: Competing for My Country and Fighting for My Life, Miller takes us through her life step by step, from her first experience with the sport of gymnastics via a backyard trampoline, to her Olympic glory years, to her later battle with ovarian cancer. It’s quite a lot of ground to cover, but Miller's reflection on her own life and the lessons she’s learned over the years are incredibly inspiring. The majority of the book is dedicated to her gymnastics career - not surprising, given how many years she spent competing (and the subsequent promotional tours she did). But she also dedicated a large chunk of the book to gymnastics because of the impact it had on her life overall and the things she learned from the mental and physical toughness of the sport. You fall off the beam, and then you get back up again.

For gymnastics fans, this book is a goldmine, especially for those who, like myself, grew up watching Miller compete in the ‘90s with wonder and asking “How does she do it?” Miller attempts to answer that question, providing a detailed glimpse into her gymnastics career, starting from when she was a child and just doing forward rolls. For those who aren’t familiar with the sport, Miller does her best to explain the nitty gritty, even when she’s talking about specific skills, which is no easy feat. We learn some fascinating tidbits about how Miller learned gymnastics, such as the fact that she could do a double twisting dismount off the beam at age 8, but didn’t master the kip on bars until age 7. She talks about her first time training at the Karolyi Ranch, where she caught a glimpse of Olympic champion Mary Lou Retton, and her eye-opening trip to Russia to train with the Soviets, where she learned that even every finger placement matters for true artistry.

In reading Miller’s description of her early upbringing into the world of gymnastics, we also see how mature and focused she was. When she chose to leave her first gym in order to pursue an elite path, she chose Steve Nunno’s gym over another gym that she thought was more fun, simply because she knew it was Nunno who would get her to where she wanted to go. She was incredibly focused and determined, even discussing the physics of gymnastics with her father, a science professor, and how she could achieve the best height and speed on a given skill.

Miller doesn’t shy away from some of the tougher aspects of the sport, either. We hear all about her myriad of injuries, including the many times she had to compete with an injury, including a weak tendon in her wrist that could snap at any moment. She talks about the expensive nature of the sport, and her decision to do a commercial so that she could buy new grips. Most importantly, Miller talks in detail not only about her triumphs in the sport, but also her disappointments and how she worked through these. One of the most notable moments was at US Championships in 1996, when she fell on beam but came back to win the competition, a moment she would carry with her for the rest of her life - just because you have a fall, doesn’t mean you can’t come back to win it all. She speaks so candidly about what went through her mind during each win and each disappointment, that you feel like you’re right there, living it with her.

The last parts of the book focus on Miller’s life post-gymnastics, and the obstacles she had to face in trying to find her identity outside of the sport she had known for so long. She talks candidly about her weight problems following retirement and her lack of motivation to socialize. She walks us through her college and law schools years, jumping too fast into her first marriage, but also finding her soul mate in her current husband years later. She talks about the blessings of her first child and officially opening up her own business, Shannon Miller Lifestyle. The last few chapters focus on her biggest obstacle - her cancer diagnosis. Miller makes mention of this throughout the book while talking about the lessons she took from gymnastics, because those lessons were huge in getting her through this battle. Miller was always told to carry on after a fall, to minimize the pain, and to continue on - she did this in gymnastics, and she did this with cancer.

Any fan of gymnastics will relish this book - Miller’s descriptions of her rise in the sport provide an honest and fascinating glimpse into a world that not many people know much about. But beyond the details, her words are motivational, and her stories about struggles inside and outside of the sport and how she conquered them are worth the read.


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Gymnastike Giveaway: Shannon Miller's "It's Not About Perfect"