Alicia Sacramone-Quinn: I could’ve worked harder in Beijing

Alicia Sacramone-Quinn is absolutely killing it as a mom of two daughters, a coach, an entrepreneur, and a gymnastics commentator.

She talked to Megan Guimarin or Also Mom podcast about her gymnastics career, her current life, and her experience of motherhood.

Among other things, Sacramone-Quinn recalled her Olympic experience:

“I have always been a talented athlete. Maybe not the hardest worker in certain cases, but I always kind of relied on my talent to get me where I wanted to be. And I think at Beijing I probably could’ve worked harder—which my coach would probably dropkick me if he heard me say that right now because I would’ve never admitted that back then—but I’ll say it now. Now that I can reflect back on my life.”

“And so I kind of walked away from the sport embarrassed because my Olympics didn’t go the way I wanted. I had two really big mistakes, and it was just not something I was overly proud of. So I literally went into hiding for almost two years. Like, didn’t work out—so I—like—imagine just blowing up—and was consuming a decent amount of alcohol because I had just turned 21. And so I just had a toxic breakup with gymnastics at that point.”

She felt that she finally experienced joy while training for the 2012 Olympics and was able to retire from the sport on her own terms:

“And I came back. I made a World Championship team that first year—which—I won my first vault medal which was huge. That was super exciting, and that kind of fueled the flame to keep going—until I couldn’t go anymore, basically. And then I got to 2011 Worlds, tore my achilles—which was tough because I was—honestly—I felt like I was in the best shape of my life. I was like, ahh, I’m so prepared. I worked so hard! And then it was just like, tear jerker.”

“But then I made a commitment to myself after that. I was like, “Know what? No more tears. I’m going to get surgery. I’m going to bust my butt to come back.” And I competed nine months post-op, made it to Olympic Trials, and at that point, the way they wanted to build up the team, it wasn’t in my cards to make another one. So I knew at that moment, I was like, “Know what? I came back from this major injury. I did the best that I could.” And I was like, “I think I’m ready for this chapter to be done, because I went out on my own terms—best showing that I could have.” And I was proud of the work that I had put out there. For me, I was ready to move on from that. It just felt like gymnastics had come—you know—played its course, and I was ready to do something different with my life at that point.”

Listen to the complete episode on Also Mom.