Gymnastics, to many, is only important every four years, being constantly equated with the Olympics and a world of fame, glitz, and glamour. People pay little attention to gymnastics until their country brings home a gold medal, and the sport is often romanticized and commercialized.

I've already begun to notice more attention being placed on gymnastics within the past few days; an Under Armour commercial featuring Maggie Nichols, Madison Kocian, and MyKayla Skinner, all of whom are on the US Women's National Gymnastics Team, has been abuzz on social media, indicating the start of the Olympic year and an increase in gymnastics "fans."

Following the Olympics in London 2012, the Fierce Five, which consisted of Gabrielle Douglas, Jordyn Wieber, Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney, and Kyla Ross, became instant celebrities. After winning the team gold medal, they were offered endorsement deals, attended red carpet events, and were showered with praise from some of the biggest stars, including Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Oprah, and Lady Gaga. They got the chance to speak to Kate Middleton at the Olympics, and the girls were invited to the White House in November 2012 where they met President Obama.

McKayla Maroney, in particular, became a household name because of her "not impressed face" which she made on the podium after receiving a silver medal on vault, despite unquestionably being the best vaulter in the world. A fall on her second vault landed her in second place, but also into the homes of Olympics viewers worldwide. Her "not impressed face" became a viral phenomenon, being turned into memes about things such as double rainbows, landing on the moon, andWashingtoncrossing the Delaware.

McKayla started to pursue acting, landing a recurring role in Hart of Dixie, and guest starring in an episode of Bones. She became one of America's sweethearts, garnering hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers, landing herself dozens of photoshoots, and starring in a music video with teammate Jordyn Wieber. After taking some time off to pursue these interests, as well as to perform in the Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions, a 40 city tour following the Olympics, McKayla came back to competitive gymnastics at the 2013 U.S. Secret Classic, winning the gold medal on vault and bronze on floor. She made it all the way to the 2013 World Championships in Antwerp where she won the gold medal on vault, successfully defending her world title.

However, McKayla was plagued by injury and illness. She competed at the Olympics with a fractured shin, broken toe, and a shattered foot, and then went on tour (with the Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions) with all of these injuries. During the first show, she fractured her tibia, and had to have emergency surgery. She had screws put in, and also had surgery to fix her broken toe.

Although McKayla did not know this at the time, many gymnasts get hurt on tour. The setup of the mats does not comply with regulation, and they are not nearly as protective as the mats used during training and competitions. She compared it to an "amusement park," being set up for one day and then moved on to another location the next.

Last spring, McKayla posted a YouTube video on her account telling of her battle with adrenal fatigue, depression, and a lack of self confidence. The fate of her future in gymnastics was unknown, and gymnastics fans assumed that she was done competing, but no one knew for sure.

Then, this past week, GymCastic released a candid interview with McKayla, in which she told all. She formally announced the end of her competitive gymnastics career, but wanted everyone to know that it is not retirement; despite no longer competing, she will remain connected to the gymnastics world.

Her interview shed a new light on what it means to be an elite gymnast, and an elite athlete in general. At competitions, her coaches would not allow her to speak to, or even look at, the other gymnasts.

Once she made the Olympic team, the stress and pressure only got worse. The girls trained for 30 days straight with no days off, mentally and physically wearing themselves out. They were constantly threatened with being replaced, and reminded that they were not a part of the Olympic team until they competed on the first day.

By the time McKayla got to the Olympics, however, McKayla already had a broken shin and toe. The girls were worn out, going practically straight from the airport to training in London. On her first beam dismount at training, McKayla landed and "thought her foot fell off." The pain was so excruciating that she almost threw up, but proceeded to do three more beam routines following that, which only made it worse. She had to sit in the corner hiding from the media in an ice bucket, smiling and making it seem like nothing was wrong. She wasn't allowed to limp, and had to pretend that she was fine. She was given five days, and was told that if she could do a good vault after those days, then she could stay on the team.

She persevered, and ultimately competed in the Olympics, scoring what should have been a perfect 10 in execution on vault in the team finals, giving the US a lead that they never relinquished.

Competing with so many injuries at the Olympics destroyed her. Afterwards, her body was begging her to stop doing gymnastics and simply rest, but she didn't listen.

She was taught that resting was lazy, and indicated her not trying hard enough. Her coaches told her that she was fine, despite McKayla feeling that her entire body was broken and shattering. They blamed it on her days off, saying that she had "gained weight" and needed to lose it. Although in her head she knew that wasn't the issue, McKayla did not listen to herself.

When she finally got X-Rays and MRIs, she was diagnosed with tendinosis in one knee and severe tendinitis in the other. Tendinosis is when there is no blood flow in the leg, which often requires amputation. Even with these diagnoses, her coaches told her that she was making it up, and that she had to lose weight. They made her start to believe that her pain wasn't real, which made her health "start tanking."

She thought she was going insane because no one took her pain seriously. She was told to "work harder and eat less," and would get praised for looking skinnier. At National Team Camps, she and many of the other athletes wouldn't eat because coaches and gymnasts ate together, and many of the girls felt judged or guilty when eating in front of their coaches.

She began to deteriorate, thinking how great it was that she didn't eat one day because she felt so light.

Her coaches, Artur Akopyan and Galina Marinova, at All Olympia Gymnastics Center (AOGC), made her feel that she couldn't be herself. On the bus at the Olympics, her coaches wouldn't let her listen to music or talk to the other girls because they believed that everyone and everything was a negative distraction. She would be told to face the wall at competitions, and was shut down from communicating with others. McKayla was extremely jealous of Simone Biles, another gymnast on the national team and the reigning (and 3x) World All Around Champion, whose coach Aimee lets her smile; all McKayla wanted was to enjoy training and competing, rather than be "traumatized consistently" by her coaches. She agrees that her coaches' coaching style "breaks gymnasts." Despite loving them and them loving her, they really hurt her mentally. They thought McKayla had it easy in comparison to how they grew up. The fact that she got to go home every day and have a cell phone made her life "easy" in their eyes. However, she believes this is not the way to "build champions" because despite the outstanding technical coaching, gymnasts cannot truly succeed without mental health and positivity.

While she continued training for Rio 2016, she would constantly go to the gym and then burn herself out. She kept going because she wanted to prove that despite the world being against her, she could persevere and succeed.

She went to countless doctors and had dozens of blood tests, but eventually could not get out of bed. She felt suicidal, and was thrown into a state of severe depression that she hid from social media. She saw the world as ugly, despite deep down knowing that it was beautiful. Her coaches ignored her when she got hurt, barely being able to look at her. She was terrified of getting hurt, which she believes is why she was injured so often; she would pray for her health every day at the gym, and was so scared of being ignored that she hid her true feelings. Her worth was directly tied to her performance, and her coach would tell her "he was cursed" because his gymnasts would constantly get hurt prior to important meets. This was mentally exhausting and led to physical exhaustion; on the last day in the gym, her whole body felt like it was on fire and she was in a daze.

At this point, she realized that she had to stop training. A weight was lifted off of her after coming to the realization that she had to let go of going to another Olympics and start getting healthy; her body was done being treated so brutally.

Through these ordeals, despite traumatic, McKayla learned to speak up for herself. She is now happy, and believes that everything happens for a reason.

Despite stopping her competitive gymnastics career, she will always be involved in the sport. She is not retiring, because since she was 18 months old she has been involved in gymnastics. She is staying connected, and will continue to inspire and support her fellow athletes.

Because of her experiences, she hopes to help make beneficial changes to the program by encouraging better nutrition and a more positive treatment of gymnasts. She hopes to inspire people to follow their dreams, and refuse to give up on their goals. And rather than "training [gymnasts] to their death," McKayla believes that coaches should "try and prevent them from dying."

This interview conducted by GymCastic truly sheds a different light on the world of elite gymnastics. It is not a world of fame, glitz, and glamour, as so commonly believed, but instead one of brutality, taxation, and exhaustion. As the 2016 Olympics roll around this summer, viewers must remember the hard work that went into where the gymnasts are now. Gymnasts sacrifice more than ever imagined, and must have their bodies treated well. The tweets from celebrities and meetings with the president do not make up for the painful upbringing of these gymnasts, and McKayla coming clean about her experiences allows everyone to understand what she has gone through.

Although, obviously, not all gymnasts have experiences such as these, we must keep in mind that being an Olympic athlete involves more than the fame and fortune that comes afterwards.

In the words of McKayla, "There's a lot of stress out there, and to handle it, you just need to believe in yourself; always go back to the person that you know you are, and don't let anybody tell you any different, because everyone's special and everyone's awesome."