Shannon Miller is an American former artistic gymnast. A two-time world all-around champion and member of the 1992 Summer Olympics all-around silver medallist, she is renowned for her poise on the balance beam where she has won a total of five medals (two silvers and three bronze). Miller was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame twice, as both an individual and for her team. She is also a member of the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame and the Women’s International Sports Hall of Fame. She is the only female athlete in history to win back-to-back world all-around titles. In addition, she won nine World Championships and was one of only two gymnasts to have her name engraved on the Olympic gold medal.
Throughout her career, Miller had an intensely serious and driven approach to the sport. Her focus and dedication was reflected on the mat, where she was known for her fluidity and ballet-inspired style. Miller’s petite physical proportions and exceptional technical expertise helped her to stand out from other competitors.
Miller was a natural in the vault and uneven bars where she had a strong and reliable hand-stand. In the floor exercise, she was able to use her power and grace to move from one exercise to another with ease. She was also proficient on the pommel horse.
She was a dominant force in the 1990s. At the 1993 World Championships, she won every event in preliminaries, and television commentator Kathy Johnson proclaimed that she had not seen such a dominating female gymnast since 1976 Olympic Champion Nadia Comaneci.
At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, she won two silver and three bronze medals, and was only surpassed by Comaneci’s performance in the all-around. Her ability to compete in all six events at the Games was unprecedented at the time, and her tally of five medals is still the most by any U.S. athlete in a single Olympic Games.
In 1996, Miller silenced her critics at the Atlanta Olympics by winning a gold medal in the balance beam and helping her team (nicknamed “Magnificent Seven”) to the first ever Olympic women’s Team Gold. She also earned her second all-around title and snagged the silver in the floor exercise and uneven bars.
A popular motivational speaker, Miller travels the country speaking to corporate and organizational groups, discussing the “Gold Medal Mindset.” In her hometown of Edmond, Oklahoma, she is the namesake of an 18ft bronze statue in a park called the Shannon Miller Park.
After retiring from Olympic competition, Miller received her undergraduate degrees in marketing and entrepreneurship and her law degree from Boston College. In 2010, she launched a company devoted to helping women make health a priority. She remains a part of the gymnastics and Olympic communities as an analyst and commentator. She is also an author and an advocate for cancer awareness, research, and survivorship. Miller is an advocate for early detection and prevention of disease through regular medical screenings. She is open and honest about her own experience with ovarian cancer, which she was diagnosed with in January of 2011. She had a baseball sized tumor removed successfully and continues to be a vocal supporter of education and awareness.
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