Born: 1977 (Rolla, Missouri)
Biography:
Shannon Lee Miller (born March 10, 1977) is an American former artistic gymnast. She was the 1993 and 1994 world all-around champion, the 1996 Olympic balance beam champion, the 1995 Pan American Games all-around champion, and a member of the gold medal-winning Magnificent Seven team at the 1996 Olympics. Along with Simone Biles, Miller is the most decorated U.S. gymnast in Olympics history, with a total of seven medals. With a combined total of 16 World Championships and Olympic medals between 1991 and 1996, she is the second-most decorated American gymnast, male or female, after Biles. She was also the most successful American athlete at the 1992 Olympics, winning five medals.
Early life
Miller was born in Rolla, Missouri, but she and her family moved to Edmond, Oklahoma, when she was six months old. She began gymnastics when she was five and traveled to Moscow with her mother at the age of nine to participate in a gymnastics camp. As a teenager, Miller attended Edmond North High School, working with a flexible program that accommodated her training, travel, and competition schedule. Miller’s mother was a bank vice president, and her father was a professor at the University of Central Oklahoma.
Gymnastics career
For most of her career, Miller was coached by Steve Nunno and Peggy Liddick, who went on to become the national coach of the Australian women’s gymnastics team. As a 12-year-old, she finished third at the 1989 Olympic Festival, a competition designed to showcase up-and-coming talent. She traveled to Europe in 1990 and 1991 for international meets and scored perfect 10s on the balance beam at the Swiss Cup and the Arthur Gander Memorial. At the 1991 Gander Memorial, she won the all-around with the highest total score ever recorded by an American woman under the traditional 10.0 scale: a 39.875. (Kim Zmeskal earned the same total at the 1990 USA vs. USSR Challenge.) At her first World Championships in 1991 in Indianapolis, Miller won two silver medals: one on the uneven bars (where she tied with Soviet gymnast Tatiana Gutsu) and one in the team competition. She placed second to Soviet Svetlana Boginskaya during the compulsory portion of the competition.
Due to injury, Miller missed the 1992 World Championships in Paris. Not quite back up to speed with her more difficult skills, she pulled out of the optionals competition at the National Championships and petitioned to the Olympic Trials. Although the result was controversial, Miller won the Trials over her rival, Zmeskal, who was the 1991 world champion. Miller won the compulsory portion of the 1992 Olympic Games and scored the highest of any gymnast in the overall team competition, securing the bronze medal for the United States. She had major mistakes in the individual all-around, such as stepping completely off the balance beam and falling on the landing of her vault. Despite her mistakes, Miller finished fifth in the all-around. In the event finals, she won a silver medal on balance beam. To this day, Miller maintains that she should have won gold on beam, but missed out due to poorly scored execution. She left Barcelona with five Olympic medals.
Miller returned to competition in 1993, winning her first World Championships all-around title in Birmingham, England. She went on to win the all-around title again in 1994. Miller’s Olympic break was a turning point in her career, as she came back stronger and more confident, securing her place as one of the best gymnasts in the world. She continued to dominate the gymnastics scene, winning medals at various international competitions.
In 1995, Miller competed in her first Pan American Games held in Mar del Plata, Argentina. She won the all-around gold and helped the American team win the team gold. At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Miller was a leader and a role model for her younger teammates. She had solid performances throughout the competition and won the gold medal on the balance beam, becoming the first American woman to do so.
After the Olympics, Miller retired from competitive gymnastics. She went on to attend the University of Houston, where she graduated magna cum laude with a degree in marketing and entrepreneurship. Miller has since become an advocate for health and wellness and has written books on fitness and motivation. She has also worked as a gymnastics commentator for various networks.
Awards:
– 1996 Olympic gold medal (balance beam)
– 1996 Olympic team gold medal (Magnificent Seven)
– 1993 and 1994 World all-around champion
– 1995 Pan American Games all-around champion