Top 22 Sam Mikulak Quotes

Gymnastics gives you the abs. It’s not like I sit there doing like a thousand crunches before every practice or something like that.

I watched ‘Apollo 13,’ and it, like, absolutely freaked me out. I was terrified. I didn’t want to go to space because I thought it was imminent death.

I know everyone has Olympic dreams, but if you really think about it, you just don’t want to go to the Olympics. You want to be a gold medalist at the Olympic Games.

I definitely want to put my kids in gymnastics at an early age, whether that’s what they want to or not. Gymnastics just builds such a great fundamental strength at a young age, and they get great; they learn how to move with their body. I think that can translate to any sport later in life.

Learning how to compete is one of the most important things that an athlete can do. You can train as well as you possibly can and go compete and completely choke.

My parents met during their time at Cal Berkeley while they were both on the gymnastics team. Due to their intense gymnastics background, I started doing ‘Mommy and Me’ classes when I was 2 years old.

You can freak when you are at the Olympic Games. There are millions of cameras. Everyone is watching every move. Some people will trip where they would never trip in a routine. It’s the small thing that nerves really bring out in people.

Teamwork. That’s the biggest lesson you can learn from competing in NCAA gymnastics. Everyone just has to work together, you have to trust in everyone, and everyone has to push you to become the gymnast you want to be.

The No. 1 place I’ve visited so far was Antwerp, Belgium. That was one of the coolest cities I’ve ever seen. Every day I woke up, I felt like I was in a movie.

I listen to music that doesn’t have words. I love Kygo – he’s tropical house, and that’s my stuff!

I think everyone envisions what their life would be like if they were to live in this post-apocalyptic world. I love the idea of fighting every day to live, because it kind of applies to gymnastics; I feel like every day I need to be in control and focused and stay on edge.

Pommel horse is probably the most nerve-wracking because it’s one of the events that is easiest to fall off, and then you lose the momentum of the whole routine.

My best event is probably… it actually varies day by day. But the high bar – it’s the most fun for me. A lot of people like it. It’s risky and dangerous. I like the adrenaline rush.

There’s always a little fear anytime you’re doing something crazy because at any moment you can break a leg, land on your neck, or peel off the bar. Over the years, we’ve fallen so many times that we’ve kind of learned how to fall safely. Still, there is always a risk.

My most prized possession is my pillow. I can’t travel or sleep without it. And it’s, like, this really thin down pillow that really doesn’t do anything, but it’s weird: if I don’t have it, I’m constantly thinking about not having it.

I bought a Fitbit, actually, and I just thought it was going to be an awesome way to track how I live and move and burn calories, but with gymnastics, it was a total waste of money because it’s more based off how you walk and not how you flip.

The most fun is the high bar – I just like the adrenaline rush of doing the high-flying releases.

Some aspects of gymnastics don’t really get that much attention, and when you have people send you letters, it makes you feel important and gives you a sense of purpose so you can go out and train hard because you want to perform well.

I like to be in control of my own athleticism. If I win, I don’t want it to be because of my lucky underwear, you know? I want it to be because I put forth the work.

If you don’t have a cohesive team, you won’t have good results.

I keep joking with my teammates that Nickelback should be our walkout song. I think everyone secretly likes at least one song.

I started re-reading ‘Harry Potter’ just to throw myself back into my childhood. I forgot how awesome the books are.