Interview: During the 1998 ERA Women's World Pro Competition, CBS had a long overdue interview with Kim Zmeskal...about being back in the gym again! This move by Kim has sprouted a lot of questions, and this interview did it's best to answer most of them...
Day One:
Mary Lee Tracy-- I feel Kim’s need to come back is that she has some form of unfinished business. I don’t really think it means winning anything because she’s won almost everything. She’s been to an Olympic games, she’s been world champion x-number of times, there’s just some unfinished gymnastics business with her and I think that’s between her and gymnastics.
Kim Zmeskal-- Everything was so easy. I’d just go from meet to meet. I’d just be prepared for one after the other. So Barcelona was kind of the same way, it was just the next big meet. Except for the pressure from everybody else and from myself and from myself thinking, "This is your very last competition. You don’t want to have anything else to do with gymnastics afterwards, so make it your best one."
After ‘92 I had a lot of growing up to do...a lot of thinking that, I had to do as far as what direction I wanted to take in my life and for part of the while I thought maybe the answer is to get away from the sport and just try to be a normal person and stuff. But it never completely made me happy.
I know that there are tons of girls around the country who are training for the same goals that I am. And I have been very fortunate to have reached those goals once in my life. If I could somehow make it there again, then I would be ecstatic about it. But at the same time, I am still enjoying this day to day and that is what has to be the most important thing for me right now.
Part of me wishes I could be like the up and coming Juniors and the girls who are just now going senior and stuff. They don’t have anyone watching over them...anyone taking anything they do critically. Whereas I’m kind of in more of a position where people are going to compare with what I was 5 - 6 years ago. I can take it as something positive or something negative. I choose to take it in a positive way. Where, I’ve been really fortunate that people have enjoyed watching me do gymnastics. Hopefully I’ll have them on my side right now.
I think the people that don’t try are the ones that lose the most. I have nothing to lose right now. I’m not trying to prove anything to anyone- not to myself. I just really enjoy training, I really enjoy performing, and I still like competing.
I’m 22 years old, I’ve been very, very fortunate that my body has held up as well as it has and I’m going to take advantage of what God’s given me.
Day Two:
Kim Zmeskal-- I thought, you know training back before ‘92, that what would be perfect would be to go in and win the Olympics. Obviously that was not what was meant for my life and I would definitely not change that because it has taught me a lot of things and it’s definitely carried me through the sport still. Right now what would be perfect would be for me to enjoy what I’m doing. And to enjoy the whole process. If it takes me to the Olympics again, then that would be great.
More than anything I think I don’t want to be compared with the younger me. I want to be able to just do this portion of my career as who I am right now, as what I’m doing to prepare myself for each of the competitions. I just want to be able to go out there and enjoy what I’m doing and have people be happy that I’m at the stage that I am.
