Quotes from MyKayla Skinner

College really helped me mature, and it's been so much better.

I did three tumbling passes in college.

It might look like it's easy, but no one really knows how hard it is. Especially when you go from a college bars routine that has four skills to elite with 10-12 or maybe even more. It's a big jump.

A lot of people don't get to see the behind-the-scenes of what we go through and what it's like. We aren't perfect people. Everyone on social media is like, 'They're so perfect, they have their life together, gymnastics looks so easy.' We work our butts off to get to where we are.

It is hard when you fall. I know that feeling. That disappointment sucks. You've just got to get up and keep moving.

I'm usually high energy and super crazy.

I have to be grateful I am in the gym. I'm just trying to plug away as much as I can before it might come to a point where I can't be in the gym at all.

I survived, but I wanted to give up so many times.

You never know what anyone's going through, and you always want to be there and be that teammate to support them.

Everyone says, 'Oh, it's hard because she's older.' But at the same time, I feel like I know how to make corrections faster, and I know what to fix.

I'm just so honored that I never gave up and have kept pushing for my dreams to get here.

Being an alternate is probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do in gymnastics.

This is what I'm supposed to do. This is what I'm meant to do, is elite gymnastics.

I'm enjoying gymnastics. Having people there to cheer you on is an amazing feeling and such a cool opportunity.

If anyone asks me, 'Should you do college gymnastics?' I'd say do it. I'm glad I decided to take this route.

I couldn't even think about elite gymnastics for a while. It was definitely good for me to try something different.

While I love college gymnastics, I'd like to try and compete for my country.

In the end, there's more than just gymnastics.

I'm doing extra stretching and more leaps and turns. Working on toe points. I'm working hard on it.

I knew I would try for the Tokyo Olympics back in 2016. I was sitting in the stands as an alternate at the Rio Olympics, watching my teammates compete and thinking to myself, 'That could have been me.'

I'm 24, which I know doesn't sound very old. But in the world of gymnastics it is. The Tokyo Games are my last shot to compete as a gymnast for Team USA, and my last shot at winning a gold medal.

It's just so weird coming into the gym and not feeling like, you know, 'I'm going to die.' Before it was like, 'I've got to hit that routine or I'm going to get yelled at.' So it's just been really nice to kind of relax a little bit and be able to really focus on gymnastics and get to enjoy it more.

I wasn't even expecting to make the Worlds team.

Worlds helped me me boost my confidence up a lot actually. It made me a bigger, better, stronger gymnast.