Off Balance - 9781451608663

AT FOURTEEN YEARS OLD, DOMINIQUE MOCEANU was the youngest member of the 1996 U.S. Women’s Olympic Gymnastics team, the first American women’s team to take gold at the Olympics. But behind the fame, the flawless floor routines, and the million-dollar smile, her life was anything but perfect.

Off Balance vividly describes each of the domineering characters who contributed to Moceanu’s rise to the top, from her stubborn father and long-suffering mother to her mercurial coach, Bela Karolyi. Moceanu finally shares the haunting stories of competition, her years of hiding injuries and pain out of fear of retribution from her coaches, and how she hit rock bottom after a heartbreaking public battle with her parents.

But more than a decade after she won gold at the U.S. Olympics, when she was nine months pregnant with her first child, Moceanu got a letter out of the blue that turned everything she thought she knew about her family and her world upside down. She learns she has a second sister, born with a physical disability and given away at birth, who has nonetheless followed a remarkably similar path. Ultimately, Moceanu must find a way to embrace her new family and accept her past in order to reclaim her life and the sport she loves.