I was 26 years old when I found out that I had a sister who I never knew existed.

I never, ever objected to hard work.

Autographs and pictures do get a little old, but I don’t mind if the people want it.

It’s human nature to be timid in the face of obstacles, but I have learned to believe that challenges are opportunities for genius to shine. In order to feel alive, we have to accomplish things that we once believed we could not.

I realized I was the one doing all the training, earning the money, and my parents were living off of me.

I know, I know ... I'm getting old.

I'm probably in the best shape I've been in since 2000. Six months after this new procedure was used -- less invasive surgery -- I was able to start doing everything again.

It's really quite an honor for me to still be able to do this, 10 years later. If my autograph can make someone smile or make their day, I'll do it until the day I die.

When you have traveled the world, won Olympic gold, and gone through a very public court battle against your parents all by the age of seventeen, surprises don't come easy.

I was awkward-looking with huge brown eyes, dark brown, pencil-straight hair styled into an old-school Romanian bowl haircut from the 1980s. And I was very, very small. I was always the tiniest kid on my street and in my classes at school... The gym was the one place I didn't have to worry about feeling awkward for being so petite.