Diagnosed With Ovarian Cancer, 7-Time US Olympic Medalist Shannon Miller Was Saved by Gymnastics

It’s been nearly 3 decades since the ‘Magnificent Seven’, as they were named, put up a stellar performance at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and clinched gold for the USA. One of their members recently sat down with USA Today to talk about her journey since, her life after gymnastics, and especially her battle with cancer and how she got through it. This 7-time Olympic medallist took significant inspiration from her life as a sportswoman to fight her battle with cancer and overcome struggles since.

Shannon Miller’s crown jewel moment was undoubtedly at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics where she won both her gold medals to date, in balance beam and all-around team competition. She’s got married since, had two kids, and even won a hard-fought battle with ovarian cancer. Her story of recovery is as riveting as her rise to rise to sporting glory in the mid-1990s.

It was a sudden shock for Shannon Miller

“So then, taking that philosophy into your cancer diagnosis, how did that help you?”, asked Stephen Borelli of USA Today to Shannon Miller. Miller recently sat down with USA Today for a Q&A session about her everlasting love of gymnastics, career highlights, and family. One section touched upon her battle with cancer.

“For me, a really challenging time was kind of between that first doctor?s appointment and finding out the actual diagnosis”, said Miller to USA Today. Naturally, it was a chaotic and confusing time for Miller. The possibility of a negative outcome worried her endlessly. “What if”, she kept asking herself. She also stopped taking routine check-ups after her retirement which almost made the cancer more severe. Right at this point, she took inspiration from her learnings in gymnastics to hold herself strongly.

Her life as a sportswoman helped her stay strong during the cancer

“I think at that point, I reverted back to that competitive mentality a little bit more, that positive mentality that I had learned in sports”, said Miller. Things learned from her years of sporting career gave her a way to balance herself during tough times. Like every sportswoman, Miller too faced highs and lows in her career, and as any champion athlete, she too overcame those. The same positive reinforcement was what she applied to herself during her time with cancer.

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Shannon Miller was diagnosed with germ-cell ovarian cancer, in February 2011. Although it came as a shock to her at the time, her cancer diagnosis was just a month after a large spherical cyst was removed from her ovaries by the doctors. She underwent months of chemotherapy and finally recovered within a year. Today, 12 years after her cancer, Miller is living a quaint and peaceful life at 46 years of age.

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