What happens when you become an alternate, I call it the most selfless position in the whole world. You are not on the team and you have to maintain Olympic level readiness. When you get named an alternate it becomes very hard. A lot of your motivation is zapped. It becomes hard to continue to go to the gym to pour your heart and soul into it. You don't know what you are training for. But my preparation had to be the same. As if I would be competing. I had to dig down deep within my soul and believe that I would get a chance. I had to believe that the universe would [shape] and shift into my favor. 90 percent of me had given up almost. I was walking to the gym like a zombie. I was devastated. But there was 10 percent of me that believed that I was going to get that chance. That small flame kept me going.

What were some of the challenges that you faced while getting that spot in the team after being an alternate once?

I had a new found philosophy when I was going to the Olympics in 2008. What sparked my interest in doing gymnastics again was the fact that I loved the sport. As a gymnast we do a lot of wild things in the sport and that's what kept me going. I had decided that if I was going to return I would not let the results play into my self worth. I took gratitude in the more concrete things in life. My family, love, life, laughter... something that would always be in my life. I tried to separate the results of gymnastics and what it would mean to me. The most challenging thing was... I had done so much work leading up to the gymnastics, reading, I was exercising. I was doing 10 times more than what a normal person would do going to the Olympics. I was putting all the success principles to practice. I could not believe that I was named an alternate for the second time. The biggest challenge was the skeptical voice in me that started coming back, that life just treats me bad and the victim role. So it was a challenge to battle that and believe in my new philosophy, that gymnastics does not define me as a person, it is no longer who I am. It was hard to live by the principles because I did not know what to believe in anymore.

Also read: Bhavsar named in US Olympics team