Want to impress McKayla Maroney? Don\u2019t say she\u2019s \u201cretiring.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two-time Olympic medalist said in an interview with gymnastics podcast Gymcastic released Wednesday that she\u2019s stepping away from competition but not \u201cretiring\u201d from the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want anybody to think that McKayla is retiring,\u201d Maroney said. \u201cI don\u2019t even want people to use that word … this is something I\u2019m always going to be a part of it. I\u2019m never leaving this sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 20-year-old helped the \u201cFierce Five\u201d U.S. women\u2019s gymnastics team to the gold medal at the 2012 Games and added a silver in the vault. Her peeved expression on the medal stand after slipping on her second vault, a miscue that cost her the gold, became an Internet sensation and she ended up doing her \u201cnot impressed\u201d face with president Barack Obama.<\/p>\n
Maroney admitted during the interview she competed with a fractured shin and a broken toe during the Olympics, though it didn\u2019t stop her from putting together a dazzling vault at the start of the team finals that kickstarted the Americans\u2019 run to the top of the podium.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did that stick for the team,\u201d Maroney said. \u201cThat moment was definitely that Olympic moment. We all went up hit, hit, hit.\u201d<\/p>\n
While teammates Jordyn Wieber, all-around champion Gabby Douglas and three-time gold medalist Aly Raisman retired or took lengthy sabbatical after London, Maroney returned to competition in 2013 despite getting hurt during a post-Olympic exhibition tour with the rest of Team USA. She earned a gold medal in vault at the 2013 world championships in Belgium to bookend the one she captured in 2011.<\/p>\n
That triumph marked her final competition. Maroney has dealt with a series of medical concerns over the last two-plus years, including a bout with adrenal fatigue. She dabbled in acting and is working on a singing career.<\/p>\n
Maroney\u2019s announcement came two days after longtime friend and fellow \u201cFierce Five\u201d teammate Kyla Ross announced her retirement from international competition to focus on her pending collegiate career at UCLA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Want to impress McKayla Maroney? Don\u2019t say she\u2019s \u201cretiring.\u201d The two-time Olympic medalist said in an interview with gymnastics podcast Gymcastic released Wednesday that she\u2019s stepping away from competition but not \u201cretiring\u201d from the sport. \u201cI don\u2019t want anybody to think that McKayla is retiring,\u201d Maroney said. \u201cI don\u2019t even want people to use that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-31191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31191"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=31191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}