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Catching up with Shannon Miller
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June 09, 2008

Catching up with Shannon Miller

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On June 9, Shannon Miller, the most decorated gymnast in U.S. history, will join UCLA softball coach Sue Enquist, former LPGA golfer Hisako Higuchi and Algerian track star Hassiba Boulmerka as the latest class of inductees into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame. Miller will also be part of this year's U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame class in the team category along with her "Magnificent Seven" teammates, the first U.S. women's gymnastics team to win Olympic gold. The class will be inducted June 19. Below, SI.com catches up with the 31-year-old Miller:

SI.com: You're really racking up a lot of Hall of Fame honors?

Miller: I know. It's a little ridiculous but it's very much an honor each time. What's different about the Women's Sports Hall of Fame is that it's women athletes and supported by the Women's Sports Foundation

SI.com: Do you know any of your fellow inductees?

Miller: I have not met any of them, but I'm excited about meeting them and seeing 100 of the greatest sports figures of all time who will be at the dinner. It should be a great night. It just reinforces everything about women and sports and how we come in all shapes, sizes and from all different backgrounds with different goals. Athletics is the one thing that gives us all that bond.

SI.com: Who is a female athlete today that you really appreciate?

Miller: There are a lot of them. Some of the more obscure sports are interesting to me. I did some events with weightlifter Cheryl Hayworth. It was wonderful, and really important to have children understand that here's a gymnast and a weightlifter, and we're both doing something that we are passionate about but have two completely body types. I also follow the WNBA, the soccer girls and softball. Those are team sports and lifetime sports, whereas gymnastics has a cutoff limit where you need to stop flipping around. I've also gotten into women's golf.

SI.com: Are you any good?

Miller: Some days it's not so much playing and just hacking up the ground. But I love it because it's lifetime sport and it's outdoors, which is very different from what I spent my life doing. I try very hard not to decide what my handicap is. I play a ton of scrambles, and when my husband and I play we don't usually keep score.

SI.com: Most people don't know you graduated from law school, right?

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