Lori Hernandez was 16 years old when she won Olympic gold and catapulted her way into our hearts.

Her incredible talent, her, you got this pep talk, and her contagious smile were suddenly

everywhere. Then Lori decided to step away from gymnastics. She needed to know who she was

without the sport. She wrote a book. She dazzled on dancing with the stars, and she hosted American

Ninja Warrior Jr. But all of that pales in comparison to the work that Lori was doing away from the public

eye, to learn about herself, about the emotional trauma she'd experience at the hands of people

she once trusted, and to push the sport she loves to do better.

Lori, take me back to the moment where you fell in love with gymnastics.

I mean, before I even started, I was at home and I originally did ballet when I was three,

but I think if you can't tell, I'm not really a kid who can like sit still, really. So at three, to do something as serious as ballet

was a little tough, but they told me that they would give me sugar cookies if I paid

attention. So I stayed for two more years. And then when I was five,

I was kind of coming home from a practice or a rehearsal. And I saw two gymnasts on the TV.

I thought they looked so cool. I didn't know what they were doing was possible. And I kind of just

looked at my mom and I was like, I want to be just like them. My mom was like, oh, okay. And she put me in.

And I just, I loved doing it. I didn't know what I was doing, but I loved doing it. And there was a lot

of energy that was happening. And it was like a good place to put it. We all watched you and

cheered for you. And we see the triumph and the glory. What is it we don't see?

Ooh. You guys didn't see a lot of things because what's interesting to me is that a lot of people,

most people, know me from the Olympics.

But in being 16 and in doing that kind of five to six week event, I had so many other years of doing other things. And most of those things was just training. But that was such a short time period. It was a huge peak in my career and in my life, but it was

such a short time period. So sometimes I kind of forget that that's like the main part of my life,

...