Looking back at where I'm from
Can't believe that I'm here
Gave my all, paid the price, and I'd do it again
I walked alone in my head
I cried in my bed
But the morning light oh so bright wakes me again
I stood, facing the bars, just as I had the day of my accident, except it was different now. I wasn't who I used to be. I was no longer afraid, and there was nothing in my way anymore. Just me, and the gateway to my dreams. I'm not going to say that it was an easy road. It wasn't. There were so many times that I wanted to give up. There were days when it was all I could do to roll out of bed and drag myself to practice, but all of that led up to this moment. All of the practice, all of the work, it all came down to this.
It's about faith and it's about fate
It's about risking it all every day
It's about hoping when you want to let go
It's just believing in all that you know
I jumped up onto the bars, beginning my routine. I did my skills, not all of the ones that I did back before my injury, but new ones, different ones. I went into my artistic moves, blended with power, until I started sailing through the air and didn't think at all about the rest of my skills. They just happened. I could feel myself executing perfectly. The time had come.
Here I am now
Standing on the edge everything I know coming together
All my life I've seen it in my dreams waiting for the day
I'm just a second away
My dismount was clean and perfect. My feet hit the mats and stuck like glue through my final salute. The last event was beam. I led the rest of the USA team over to the final apparatus, and prepared to take my starting position.
Taking time reaching down to walk through my fear
Break it down in my head; I can see it so clear
Work it out in my heart; I see it appear
The world is so beautiful from the view up here
I mounted the beam and started the last skills that I would ever perform competitively. I couldn't help but wonder, for one second as I leapt onto the beam, what my life would be like without elite gymnastics, but the thought was pushed out of my head as I became focused, for the last time, on my skills.
Here I am now
Standing on the edge everything I know coming together
All my life I've seen it in my dreams waiting for the day
I'm just a second away
Before I knew it, my routine was over, and I landed in the perfect salute I had become accustomed to since worlds. I already knew what the display board was going to say in terms of the all around winner, but seeing 1: PAYSON KEELER, was entirely different. It was a moment beyond description. I had done it. I had realized my dream. All of my hard work, everything I had sacrificed, was worth it.
Everything is disappearing standing up here alone
And I feel like I'm standing forever
This is where I belong
Here I am
A few moments later I really got to grasp the moment when my name was called to walk to the top of the Olympic podium. I received my gold medal, my third, as the USA had already taken the team gold, and I was also champion on the Uneven bars. This however, was different. This was what I had been working towards my entire life- the all around. The National Anthem began to play, and my eyes filled with tears of joy and disbelief as I looked out at Sasha, the USA team coach, and my teammates, knowing that I did it. I was, for that moment, the best in the world.
It didn't matter then that I had no idea where my life was going after elite gymnastics, or that my career was over. All that mattered was the truth of my dream around me, and that I knew in my heart that all the sacrifices were worth it in the end. There I was… staring my dream in the eye, and knowing that I had beaten the odds.