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"Last summer, gymnast McKayla Maroney \u2014 along with her four insanely talented teammates \u2014 captivated the world by bringing home gold for the US. The athlete was just 16 at the time of her big win, and she's been spending the past few months doing normal things like meeting the president and guest-starring on TV.\n\nToday we were able to chat with McKayla about her style both on and off the mat, as she was prepping for an event for Ten sodas. Who knew leotards and crop tops could be so compatible?\n\nFirst things first: how do you choose your leotards?\n\n For our team leotards, we get about ten to choose from to actually compete in at the Olympics. We try to pick something really American, so that's how we ended up with the red leotard to compete in for the team. For individual, you pick your own style. I chose white for the vault because you never see white leotards! I thought it was really classy and really pretty. There's definitely a lot of thought that goes into it.\n\nWhat about sleeve length?\n\n When you're competing, you have to wear a sleeve that goes all the way down to your wrist. When you're training, you usually don't wear long-sleeved leotards, so there's a difference between training and competing. That's why when you're in a long-sleeved leotard you think, \"Okay, this is the real deal.\"\n\nWhat do you think about all the embellished leotards we saw at the Olympics?\n\n It didn't used to be like that! Leotards used to be velvet or have an American flag on them, but now they're getting really pretty. The crystals on our Olympic leotards were Swarovski \u2014 they're gorgeous! I loved it. There's also a shiny thicker nylon that people wear now. It's different and it's comfortable, but most of all, it looks really good on.\n\nAre gymnasts competitive about who has the best look?\n\n Definitely. In gymnastics, everything is a competition. You want to have your hair look the best and your makeup look the best. You want to be the best, and you want to have the prettiest leotard. For Team USA, we want to have the best leotards that we can, and we always come up with something very cool. Even when we're competing for ourselves at the Visa Championships every year, me and my coach spend months and months designing a leotard. It definitely is really fun to look and pick colors. If you ever watch the Visa Championships, you'll see every single girl has two different leotards. You get to pick them, so that's really special. I'm already thinking about mine for this year.\n\nWhat about warm-ups?\n\n The thing about warm-ups is that they are always so gymnastics-y! They have these bell-bottom pants and these zipped up jackets with collars. It's like disco...I don't even know how to explain it. It's so weird! I would love to design my own, but sadly that's just the way gymnastics works.\n\nWhat is your style like outside of the gym?\n\n It's a little bit edgy, but casual at the same time. Sort of how Miley Cyrus dresses! I really like crop tops. I like how you can dress them up or down, with jeans or a skirt and heels. I like to be showy and cute. I don't want to be in just a jacket and pants and boots.\n\nIf you could only wear one outfit every day, what would it be?\n\n It probably would have to be black leggings, some sort of crop top, and as high of heels as you can get.\n\nWhere do you like to shop?\n\n Right now I really like Bebe. For shoes, I'm into Michael Kors boots, but I'm kind of into everything! I shop at Forever 21 and like to get fresh new things there. I love their stuff \u2014 it's so cute and you can style so many different outfits. Me and my friends spend hours there! We pick out every single thing that we like, and we go and try everything on and leave with something like 20 items. We're obsessed with the clothes, and we wear them for a year.\n\nAre there any trends you've been wanting to try?\n\n I really want wedge sneakers. You know those ones from Isabel Marant? I need them! I want them in every single color, I'm totally obsessed. And I want to wear them with harem pants, but I don't have any of those yet either. I'm really petite, so I can't just go and buy those kind of pants because nothing fits me right! I have to search and search. I also want to try out some high-waisted shorts.\n\nAnd what would you never be caught dead in?\n\n A plaid schoolgirl skirt, some really kilt-ish looking thing. I don't really like flats with pointed toes \u2014 I wouldn't wear those."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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