Shannon Miller

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Olympic medal record
Women's Artistic Gymnastics
Gold	1996 Atlanta	Team competition
Gold	1996 Atlanta	Balance beam
Silver	1992 Barcelona	All-around
Silver	1992 Barcelona	Balance beam
Bronze	1992 Barcelona	Team competition
Bronze	1992 Barcelona	Uneven bars
Bronze	1992 Barcelona	Floor exercise

Shannon Lee Miller (b. March 10, 1977 in Rolla, Missouri) is an artistic gymnast from Edmond, Oklahoma. She is a 7-time Olympic medalist and five time individual World Champion. The 1992 and 1996 Olympian is the most decorated American gymnast, male or female, in history.

1 Early Years
2 1991
3 1992
4 1993 and 1994
5 1995
6 1996
7 Post-Competition Years
8 Major Medals
9 External links and references

[edit] Early Years

Shannon was born in Rolla, Missouri, but she and her family moved to Edmond, Oklahoma when Shannon was only six months old. Shannon began gymnastics at age five, and four years later, she and her mom traveled to Moscow, Russia to participate in a gymnastics camp. The Soviet coaches were astounded by her talent and believed that she had the potential to be a world-class elite gymnast. Shannon also met Oklahoma-based coach Steve Nunno in Russia, and began training with him upon returning home.

Shannon made remarkable progress under Nunno’s tutelage. As a 12-year-old, she finished an impressive third at the 1989 Olympic Festival—a competition designed to showcase up-and-coming talent. Over the next two years, she added such difficulty to her routines that she soon had some of the hardest routines in the world. Yet, no matter what she achieved, she always seemed to fall short of fellow American, Kim Zmeskal. Shannon traveled to Europe in 1990 and 1991 for international meets and scored two perfect 10.0s on the balance beam at the Swiss Cup and Arthur Gander Memorial. At the 1991 Arthur Gander, she not only won the All-Around, she ammassed the highest all-around total ever recorded by an American woman under the traditional 10.0 scale: a 39.875.

[edit] 1991

At her first World Championships in 1991 in Indianapolis, Shannon won two silver medals - in the uneven bars (where she tied Soviet Tatiana Gutsu) and the team competition. The team medal was a first for the Americans, and teammate Zmeskal became the first American to achieve the World All-Around gold medal. Miller placed second in the world during the compulsory portion of the competition to Soviet Svetlana Boguinskaya. In doing so, and in becoming the first American to qualify to all possible event finals at the World Championships, she also showed that while inconsistent at home in the United States, she was among the top gymnasts in the world when she competed in major international competitions. Throughout her career, the trend continued and Miller seemed to shine when the lights were brightest.

In the following months, Shannon established herself as a constant rival to National and World Champion Zmeskal.

[edit] 1992

At the 1992 American Cup, Shannon had the chance to finally defeat Zmeskal, but she fell during her final routine. Then, disaster struck a few months before the Olympics when Shannon broke and dislocated her elbow in the spring of 1992. It appeared her Olympics were over. Miller missed the 1992 Individual Apparatus World Championships in Paris, where she had a fantastic shot at winning both the uneven bars and the balance beam. The two titles went to Lavinia Milosovici and Kim Zmeskal, respectively.

Shannon surprised doctors, coaches, and fans alike by competing in the compulsory portion of the 1992 Nationals, where she defeated Zmeskal. Not quite back up to speed with her more difficult manuveurs, she pulled out of the Optionals and petitioned to the Olympic Trials. It was here that her career catapulted itself to the top. Although the result was controversial, Miller won the Olympic Trials and defeated Zmeskal, who was considered the favorite to win the Olympics.

Although Zmeskal remained the favorite, the 1992 Olympics finally arrived. For better or for worse, the outcome of the Games has forever seemed to define both Miller and Zmeskal's careers in the public eye.

Miller won the compulsory portion of the Olympic Games, and then won the entire individual portion of the team competition, advancing to the All-Around as the number one ranked gymnast in the World.

Shannon is probably best remembered for her performance in the Individual All-around at the 1992 Olympic Games. In a dramatic duel with the Unified Team’s Tatiana Gutsu, Shannon missed out on the gold by the closest margin in Olympic history—12 1/1000th of a point. The result was controversial. In the final rotation, both gymnasts finished on vault. Many analysts worldwide agreed that Shannon’s scores were too low, whereas Gutsu’s were overly generous. However this is far from universally agreed, and the gymnasts had competed on three pieces before this. Gutsu led before the vault and thus was able to win despite being weaker on that piece. Nevertheless, Shannon had accomplished the highest All-Around placement by an American in a non-boycotted Olympics. She went on to capture three more individual medals, on the uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise. Her total of five Olympic medals in one Games was more than that of any American's in any sport.

[edit] 1993 and 1994

Shannon utterly dominated world competition for the next two years, becoming the first and only American back-to-back World All-Around Champion in 1993 and 1994 (It should be noted that her consecutive wins occurred when the World Championships changed it's format to an annual event. Prior to 1993, the World Championships were only held every other year. The event has since gone back to that format.) In fact, for the two years following the Games, she went completely undefeated world-wide. Her winning streak was unprecedented and improbable. In a sport where the tiniest mistake proved critical, Miller was continuing to win each and every time out. It was not until the Goodwill Games in late 1994 that her winning streak ended.

[edit] 1995

In 1993, it had all seemed too easy for Miller. Olympian and television commentator Kathy Johnson commented at the 1993 World Championships, where Shannon won every single event in preliminaries, that never had she seen a gymnast so dominant since Nadia Comaneci in 1976. Bart Conner concurred, stating that only if Miller faltered could she be beaten. Two years later, however, Miller, struggled with injuries, fatigue, and a growth spurt. Although she won the 1995 American Classic, she lost the 1995 National Championships to thirteen year-old Dominique Moceanu when she fell off the beam. Coming into the 1995 World Championships, she had a realistic shot of becoming the reigning three-time consecutive World Champion, but disaster struck when Miller injured her ankle. Although she competed in the team competition and qualified to all four event finals once again, she could barely walk and was not up to speed. Although she had won five individual gold medals in the last two World Championships, she walked away from Sabae without a single individual medal.

[edit] 1996

Although struggling with severe tendonitis in her left wrist, Miller won the 1996 National championships and once again established herself as the top American entering the Olympics. Once again though, she was forced to sit out the Individual Apparatus World Championship in the Olympic year due to injury.

In Atlanta, Miller placed 2nd in the world during the compulsories and 2nd after the entire team competition. She qualified into the All-Around in second place and it looked as if she might attain the gold medal she had so narrowly missed in Barcelona.

Miller led the American team to history as the Magnificent 7—the 1996 Olympic Gold medal winning American team - finally defeated the Russians for the first time ever.

In the All-Around, Miller was sitting in 2nd place half-way through the competition with another showdown for the gold on the horizon. But her wrist was in poor shape and had only gotten worse since the Nationals, forcing her to have 2 cortisone injections. While numbing the pain, the injections failed to solve the problem and Miller was not at her most powerful. She failed to fully complete a new skill on the floor exercise. Although she and her coach considered a different opening pass, she had not been able to practice her traditional opening run as a hamstring injury had made it difficult for her to pike. Miller left the All-Around despondent. She crashed badly in the vault apparatus finals, another event in which she wasn't at her best, and as the final day of Olympic gymnastics arrived, Miller had only one more shot for individual Olympic gold.

With perhaps the best performance of her career, Shannon finally won the elusive individual Olympic gold medal on beam. She once again made history by becoming the first American to win the balance beam at the Olympics.

Miller concluded her career with an astounding 7 Olympic medals and sits as one of the most accomplished American athletes in any sport.

[edit] Post-Competition Years

Shannon and her teammates went on several post-Olympics tours, drawing sellout crowds for nearly each show. She competed briefly in 1997, but primarily in professional competitions. She married Chris Phillips in 1999, and they officially divorced in 2006 after years of rumors of her committing adultery - a charge reinforced in the divorce proceedings that she denies. She made a comeback in 2000 in an attempt to make her third Olympic team. While she was looking to be on the team in May, she soon thereafter broke her leg and failed to be selected. She has since dedicated herself to furthering her education. She graduated from University of Houston with a B.B.A in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, and is currently a law student at Boston College. Recently she has spoken out against the controversial new code and the abandonment of the Perfect 10, which has won her much admiration from fans.

Shannon has established an unforgettable legacy in American gymnastics. She was the U.S. national gymnastics champion in 1993 and 1996; she has been world champion in every event except the vault, where she has made the finals four times (1991, 1993, 1994, 1995), and an Olympic medalist in every event but the vault, where she was twice an Olympic finalist (1992 and 1996). Due to her accomplishments, she has been named to USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame, the USA Olympic Hall of Fame, and the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.

According to the July 9, 2006 edition of the Boston Globe Miller filed for divorce from her husband Christopher in May 2004, but money disputes dragged the case out more than two years. The divorce is expected to become official in September 2006. [1].

Miller's husband Christopher Phillips, an eye surgeon in Boston, alleges that Miller had an affair with a married male athlete and that she threatened to accuse him of abusing prescription drugs if he didn't agree to her demands during the divorce proceedings. [2]