Shannon Miller: My Child, My Hero by Claudia Miller

[irichluck21]

It's wild how much Shannon competed in her career. It's a miracle she made it through to Atlanta. She was injured in Sabae at Worlds.
She is definitely a tough cookie.

 

[Kittentoes]

I feel very sorry for Shannon that she had to navigate USAG and fame with a seeming lack of grownups who could function as grownups. And then just to be told that it was all God's plan.

 

[QuietColours]

Chapter Seventeen: Charity begins at Home

• Shannon was planning to concentrate on school and graduation for a while
• She was not planning on doing prom; she had dated a boy in her English class who was also a gymnast
  • At first it was nice to have a boyfriend
  • Had similar training schedules; school, gym, and college plans; only saw each other two or three times a month because they both had busy schedules
  • By December, Shannon was concerned with his increasing possessiveness and decreasing interest in school; he also admitted to skipping gym or leaving practice early
  • Came back frustrated from shopping with him because it seemed like he wanted everyone to know who she was and that he was her boyfriend
  • He came over near midterms. Shannon took a break from studying to visit and Claudia was surprised he left so quickly. He had told Shannon he wasn't really studying for midterms because he figured he could get Cs without studying. She was appalled and was considering breaking up at this point
  • Another week showed that school and gymnastics were getting less important for him and Shannon's celebrity was getting more important. She was thinking that if she broke up with him now, in late January, he'd have plenty of time to find a new date to prom
  • Shannon felt it was important to break up as soon as she made the decision and not stretch out the relationship
  • She did not plan to date until after the 1996 Olympics–there just wasn't time. She had three invitations to prom but turned them down because her theory was that prom should be a magical night with someone important to you. The boys who asked her were nice, but she didn't know them and she'd never had a date with any of them
• Shannon was determined not to miss her graduation and had been very clear to her parents, coaches, and agent that nothing should be scheduled on that day.
• Flying back from an appearance, Shannon confessed she was feeling guilty. Her former geometry teacher had been diagnosed with cancer the previous December, and the school had done many fundraisers for him in January and February, but Shannon had been so busy she hadn't participated much.
• They decided to do a celebrity auction, with Shannon's celebrity contacts donating autographed items. The gym and friends helped them pull it together. The teacher was in the hospital on the day of the auction and couldn't come, but asked Shannon to visit him when he returned home–he wasn't doing well and had decided to die at home. She said the visit was one of the hardest things she'd ever done, but she was glad she did it. He died a few days later
• Oklahoma City Bombinb
  • This was mid-May. They had planned to hold the auction in late April, but a the Oklahoma City Bombing occurred on April 19th. Claudia was NW of Oklahoma City; Ron and Troy were in Edmonton, and Shannon had just arrived at school and was getting out of her car. They all heard or felt the explosion. Claudia at a bank near Oklahoma City was told she needed to get a security guard to the downtown office. She and the class she was teaching watched the destruction on the television
  • Steve was supposed to go with Claudia to her noon Kiwanis meeting that day. When she arrived at the gym, he was waiting for his fiance, who worked at the courthouse downtown. She arrived shaken but physically fine.
  • Community came together–she spent that day collecting blankets and managing a sandwich drive, to which the local grocery donated generously. Shannon was asked to give a comforting message to local children, which she did, and worked on getting fruit to the volunteers and wrote a $1000 donation to the victim's fund. She and teammate Soni Meduna took flowers to the firefighters
• Shannon graduated from high school on time. She walked, had dinner with her parents and grandparents, and then went to a party with friends. Around 2 AM she called home because she was having so much fun at the party and wanted to stay out another hour or two. Her parents trusted her implicitly and allowed it, but asked her to let them know when she got home
• Shannon spent the summer training for US Championships in August, which would qualify gymnasts to World Trials–this was even more important as the Olympics got closer.
• Gym Tension
  • Steve was determined for all his gymnasts to be in top form. He did twice-a-day workouts, eight hours three days a week and at least six the other three days. They usually took Sunday off. Oklahoma summers are very hot and they had to wipe off the beam and chalk the bars frequently. Toward the end of the week, everyone was exhausted and tempers were short
  • Steve was planning a fall wedding to his fiancee Laurie, had committed to a week long camp in New York, and was getting calls from reporters who wanted to talk about the abuse of gymnasts after the publication of Little Girls in Pretty Boxes. He had no patience.
  • Claudia came to the gym one Saturday to watch the work out and found the upstairs viewing room closed. Shannon was the only elite working out the morning, because the others had gone to the NY camp (Shannon had local obligations and couldn't go)
  • Claudia looked through the door in the lobby to the workout. Steve was working with Shannon on the tumble track. While Claudia talked with a friend and watched, Steve came across the gym, opened the door, and told her to leave the lobby. She thought he was joking and said if he opened the viewing room she'd leave the lobby. Other parents and Shannon also thought he was joking. In front of the preschool parents, he ordered Claudia out of the gym. She had done nothing to warrant the treatment and was embarrassed- they had been supporting Steve for years, worked his meets, done remodeling at the gym, and paying the full cost of all coaching and meet expenses (which he waived for some other elites). She told him he would have to bodily remove her. He marched back in the gym and placed a large mat over the door so no one could see in
  • Claudia called Ron. Before 1992, Steve had welcomed them in the gym and sought their support, but since then he'd gradually grown more controlling of Shannon and made it clear he'd prefer parents never came to the gym. He'd tried to close the viewing area entirely, but the parents had made a huge fuss and he backed down. Parents were voluntarily sending kids to his gym, paying a lot of money in tuition and incidentals, and participating in required fundraisers several times a year, and felt they had the right to come in and watch their kids occasionally
  • Ron came over. He didn't like Steve's rudeness to Claudia, and he was concerned what Steve might be doing that he didn't want anyone to see. He stepped into the office, raised the blinds, and looked into the gym. Steve immediately came over to tell him to get out. Ron said he wanted to know what was going on
  • Steve said they came to the gym too often. Ron pointed out the girls worked out during the day while he was working and he never came to the gym. Steve yelled that they needed to get out. Ron walked into the gym and told Shannon she needed to leave with them. He couldn't leave her there when Steve was in such a rage
  • Shannon felt caught in the middle. She didn't understand Steve's actions, but she was afraid he might not let her come back if she walked out. Championships were less than a month away. Her choreographer was there working on a routine and Shannon had promised her a ride home.
  • "Dad, please understand," she pleaded, more with her eyes than her quiet voice. Ron told her we would not force her to leave or punish her for staying. Ron and I both understood the tenuous position she was in, caught between parents and a coach. He told her we'd be back in a few hours to pick her up.
  • Never figured out what Steve's problem was that day. They did later find out that the gym staff had had a birthday party for one of the coaches the day before and not invited Steve. He was leaving to meet his new in-laws for the first time after training Shannon in the morning. He wasn't pleased Shannon wasn't attending the NY camp. And one of the networks had been trying to get into the gym for an expose. Claudia was also serving on a USAG committee studying was to avoid eating problems with gymnasts.
    • To the best of my knowledge, and I knew the elite kids and their parents pretty well, none of Steve's competitive gymnasts ever had an eating disorder, with the possible exception of one or two who had arrived at our gym with the problem and did not stay very long. The program we were designing was geared toward encouraging the coaches to watch for eating disorders and to avoid inadvertently promoting the problem.
  • She knows they interfered more in Shannon's gymnastics affairs than Steve would have liked, but also that it was often a good thing that they did. There were many times she begged Claudia to rein Steve in when he called gymnasts names, harped on weight issues, or was on a "kicking out" binge

 

[irichluck21]

Nunno is lucky.

The minute he pulled that sheet with me, I'm pulling my kid.

What an abuser and manipulator.

 

[QuietColours]

I can't imagine leaving my kid with an adult who was in such an unpredictable rage I physically didn't feel safe

 

[RedBirdie]

I suspect Nunno knew the Millers would never leave, no matter what he did. They lived super close to the gym, they attributed Shannon's success to him, Shannon had only been an elite with him. And its clear that the Millers felt 1995 was a hugely important year to making Atlanta, they would never consider uprooting Shannon to go to another gym.

Nunno knew he could scream and yell and have temper tantrums all he wanted, Shannon Miller wasn't going anywhere. And the Millers knew Steve could threaten to kick them and Shannon out all he wanted, but she was the golden goose, he'd always relent and let her back in the gym. Neither party had any incentive to change.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

It's wild how much Shannon competed in her career. It's a miracle she made it through to Atlanta. She was injured in Sabae at Worlds.
She is definitely a tough cookie.

Very much so. I think she's one of those who'd compete for a really long time if around now, have a decade plus at the top if that's what she wanted.