To represent your country is an honor and a great experience.
Even at a young age, when you start to do well, it's tough because it's lonely on top, and I wasn't the most popular.
You can always say, 'I wish I had landed that triple flip better, or I wish I didn't fall.' They're not regrets, just mistakes.
I have stood on the shoulders of giants like Billie Jean King, Hillary Clinton, my mother - people who have really empowered and influenced my life in an incredible way.
The biggest lessons I learned were probably the times where I had the biggest setbacks and the biggest challenges - when I had the biggest jumps forward and lessons learned.
I'm a big eater.
The Women's Sports Foundation has empowered so many young girls and women across the U.S. I benefitted from WSF with a travel and training grant when I was 12 years old. It really helped my family financially.
To be the best, you need to be the most well-trained and well-prepared athlete you can be. The pressure is going to be all around you. You just have to make sure that your body and mind is fine-tuned. Then you go out there and do it.
You see figure skaters fall all the time. It's the way you pick yourself back up and keep going.
As an athlete, that's something I always take with me. You fall every day, whether it's in a job, or you miss something else, but you learn how to do it better next time. You learn it in sports. That's a life lesson.
If you represent your country and millions of people are watching, it comes through a lot of grit and hard work.
Sometimes my body is aching, but I always think, 'Why am I in this? Why do I love it so much?' That's what makes me persevere, that's what makes me keep on going.
There were days I forgot my school clothes, and I would actually go to school with skating tights and a little skirt. It's very embarrassing... I definitely had to be comfortable in my own skin, and my mom taught me that.
As a kid, falling was embarrassing. As I got older, I got used to falling and picking myself back up. There's not a sense of failure. It's of disappointment. You train so hard to not make mistakes. When you do, you're learning from that. How do I improve? How do I get better for the next time? Through every failure, there's something to be learned.
As an athlete, I've always been very proud to represent the United States.
In figure skating, you have four minutes to do your best. It's your time; you do your best.
Whatever you're fighting for, you go with full passion and love.
I actually prefer soothing music - and maybe that's the skater in me.
When I was younger, I always dreamed of being a legend, to be remembered in figure skating.
I always thought after 2002 that I'd hang up my skates and turn professional and just go on tour and do shows. But I don't know when it is enough. I mean, I still enjoy it. I'm the luckiest girl alive that I get to perform in front of thousands of people, do what I love doing.
