It's Not about Perfect: Competing for My Country and Fighting for My Life

[Read by Nicol Zanzarella]

When she retired at age nineteen, Shannon Miller did so as the most decorated gymnast in US history. In 1992 she won five Olympic medals after breaking her elbow in a training accident just months prior to the Games. In 1996, a doctor advised her to retire immediately or face dire consequences. Undeterred, she endured the pain and led her team -- the ''Magnificent Seven'' -- to the first Olympic team gold medal for the United States in gymnastics. She followed up as the first American to win gold on the balance beam. Equally intense and heroic is the story of her brutal but successful battle with ovarian cancer. Her story reminds us all that it is life's bumps and bruises that reveal our character.