Rounding Off: McKayla Maroney says making the Olympics ‘felt like my purpose’

In the week when most eyes were on Simone Biles and her return to artistic gymnastics competition with a new vault at the 2021 U.S. Classic (22 May), the 2012 Olympic team gold and vault silver medallist McKayla Maroney has revealed she’s working on a new book.

The world and Olympic champion took to Twitter over the last week, answering fans questions about her gymnastics career, after revealing her new book project.

“I don’t regret it because I can now be a voice to help girls like your daughter, but I also was extremely lucky to make the Olympic team,” she said in response to a question about pushing through pain at London 2012.

Maroney is one of hundreds of women who have come forward to say that former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar sexually assaulted her.

“I was never informed about the costs and wish I would’ve known some of them. For example, that it would take me five full years to mentally and physically heal from the intensity of what I went through,” she continued in a threaded response. “With that being said, I was not going to stop until I went to an Olympics. Nobody’s doubt was going to stop me after all the hard work I put in. It was my dream, and it felt like my purpose.”

Angelina Melnikova: “My worldview is different now.”

2019 World all-around bronze medallist and star of the Olympic Channel original series All Around Angelina Melinkova says she’s totally changed since helping Team Russia to a silver medal at Rio 2016.

“I had a lot of things happen in my life – coaching change, failures in my career, unexpected victories. This emotional roller coaster changed me. And my worldview is different now,” said Melnikova in an interview with Sport24, translated into English by Gymnovosti.

“I remember myself at the Olympics and realize that my head was almost empty,” she continued. “I didn’t even understand then how important that competition was, how long it takes people to arrive there, what they go through. I was only 16 and starting my gymnastics career. And I started it at the Olympics.”

Melnikova, who won four medals including uneven bars gold at the recent European Championships, says she believes mistakes she made there – on balance beam and the uneven bars – were flukes and has already turned her attention to the Tokyo 2020 Games in 2021.

“I had goals to achieve there but it’s all over already. I’m done with that stage,” she said. “Right now, I have only one aim in my head – the Olympic Games.”

Uche Eke looking to become Nigeria’s first Olympic gymnast

23-year-old Uche Eke hopes to qualify to the Tokyo Olympic Games via the African Championships, scheduled for 26-27 May in Cairo, Egypt.

If successful, he would become the first Nigerian gymnast to compete at the Games.

“Being able to show the green and white colours of Nigeria, that would be amazing,” Eke said in an interview with the BBC. “Qualifying for the Olympics will mean everything.”

Eke will need to finish in the top two in the all-around among eligible athletes to earn a spot.

“I am feeling good, I am feeling ready,” he says.

From the vault…

This week, we look back at the 1992 horizontal bar final where American Trent Dimas took the gold medal after scoring 9.875.

Germany’s Andreas Wecker and the Unified Team’s Grigory Misutin tied for the silver medal at 9.837.