Shannon Miller: My Child, My Hero by Claudia Miller

[mle]

Steve answered that criticism in an interview with Debbie Decker of USA Today: Why should the Olympic Team hinge on one competition when you've been building up to it for years? If we want healthy kids on the team, why should we beat them up? Why would you want to keep star athletes off the team?

 

[makam]

Well, he said the right thing there, too bad he didn't practice it...

 

[RedBirdie]

Right? The cognitive dissonance is amazing.

 

[mle]

Well, he said the right thing there, too bad he didn't practice it...

Exactly.

 

[Kittentoes]

Claudia worships two things, and I'm surprised she had cognition left for judging.

Poor Troy! He gets Home Aloned, and his achievement is remembering his sister had a dog. Kind of like the way his parents sometimes remembered they had a son.


These people are all bananas.

 

[RedBirdie]

Every time I think it can't get any more batshit insane, it does. It's like a flaming train speeding towards a nuclear meltdown.

And thinking about the person at the center of this story, who was a literal child for most of it: I hope (although I doubt) she got tons of therapy. Good lord, the adults around her must have fucked up her head six ways to sunday.

I do find it interesting that given all Shannon achieved, she's kept a relatively arms-length relationship with USAG. She's made money as a motivational speaker, but she's never been front and center at USAG events (or even at those events, period). Maybe because MLR sucked up all the oxygen? Maybe because there was relatively little time between her retirement and Carly Patterson winning gold? Maybe because she got through her brief return to gymnastics experience in 2000 and said "this shit is fucking crazy, I want nothing to do with it"? I don't know, but I do find it curious.

 

[Hatsumomo]

And thinking about the person at the center of this story, who was a literal child for most of it: I hope (although I doubt) she got tons of therapy. Good lord, the adults around her must have fucked up her head six ways to sunday.

The way she has had to balance the feelings and reactions of the unhinged adults around her with attempting to advocate for herself as a child/teenager, while not being given the tools to do so. One side outright demands she do what he wants her to do vs. the other side giving her the illusion of choice. Pray away the pain vs. ignore the pain.

I wonder how Shannon's relationship with her siblings has fared. I don't know if I buy Claudia and Ron being as reasonable with Tessa and Troy as Claudia tries to present themselves as being in this book.

 

[RichardL]

The way she has had to balance the feelings and reactions of the unhinged adults around her with attempting to advocate for herself as a child/teenager, while not being given the tools to do so. One side outright demands she do what he wants her to do vs. the other side giving her the illusion of choice. Pray away the pain vs. ignore the pain.

I wonder how Shannon's relationship with her siblings has fared. I don't know if I buy Claudia and Ron being as reasonable with Tessa and Troy as Claudia tries to present themselves as being in this book.

I think only a certain kind of person could have managed this, and Shannon seems to have been that kind of person: reserved but self-aware, independently motivated, hyper-vigilant and with an intense focus that can shut out all the noise. Most gymnasts would not have had anything near her kind of success under these circumstances.

 

[IratePanda]

It's pretty telling that she was his only truly successful elite. Strug didn't owe any of her accomplishments to Nunno. The other members of that 1994 GWG team faded from sight (Thompson gym-hopped for the next few years while perpetually injured). Brink and Ingram did okay in NCAA, I guess?

 

[RedBirdie]

Was Jennie Thompson the 4th team member at Goodwill Games? I know Shannon, Marianna Webster, and Soni Meduna all went.

Soni stayed at Dynamo through 1997 at least, and then competed for Oregon State. Marianna transferred to Hills but I don't think ever competed elite again before going to UNC (where I don't think she ever actually competed).

 

[IratePanda]

Yes, Thompson was the third Shannon clone at the GWG. Poor thing. She was barely 13 and looked utterly miserable.

I didn't realize Meduna and Webster had both continued--thanks for clarifying.

 

[RedBirdie]

USAG was idiotic for allowing Thompson to compete senior elite in 1994. She wasn't eligible until the following year!

 

[RichardL]

Thompson looked miserable yes, but I forgot how much difficulty she was throwing on beam and floor that year. It's easy to forget that she was a huge Olympic prospect around that time.

 

[IratePanda]

Yeah, I don't understand why they fast-tracked Thompson's career like that. She was a great tumbler and beamer, IIRC, but her basics needed a lot of work. But smart pacing was rarely a thing back then--especially with coaches like hers.

 

[crdubb17]

It’s funny, because I actually remember reading this book. I must have been in middle school when I read it, so like 2001-2ish. I obviously didn’t think anything of this as being abusive, but I thought the practitioner stuff was just foolish. It’s interesting how warped our perspectives were back then. Even if we went back on these boards 10-15 years ago, our attitudes were much less compassionate towards the athletes. Thank God things have changed.

I look at Shannon today and she just seems so…idk. When I look at her I get nothing. I wonder how this journey has impacted her and if she sees any of her past as trauma the way the Dominiques look back at their experiences. It seems like she just frames everything in a way that she can package and sell as inspiration.

 

[RedBirdie]

Yeah, I don't understand why they fast-tracked Thompson's career like that. She was a great tumbler and beamer, IIRC, but her basics needed a lot of work. But smart pacing was rarely a thing back then--especially with coaches like hers.

I remember 1992 nationals, Jennie was still with Karolyi, and she did a double back off beam pretty much straight to her face. Kelli Hill rolled her eyes and said "Great job, Bela, making those 10 year olds do double backs!" The utter contempt she had for him.

 

[IratePanda]

It’s funny, because I actually remember reading this book. I must have been in middle school when I read it, so like 2001-2ish. I obviously didn’t think anything of this as being abusive, but I thought the practitioner stuff was just foolish. It’s interesting how warped our perspectives were back then. Even if we went back on these boards 10-15 years ago, our attitudes were much less compassionate towards the athletes. Thank God things have changed.

I look at Shannon today and she just seems so…idk. When I look at her I get nothing. I wonder how this journey has impacted her and if she sees any of her past as trauma the way the Dominiques look back at their experiences. It seems like she just frames everything in a way that she can package and sell as inspiration.

She's also a cancer survivor. That might cast her childhood in an entirely different light. Maybe she's just grateful to be alive and tries not to dwell on the past.

I think she's also just incredibly resilient.