This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (September 2010)

An individual is a person or a specific object. Individuality (or selfhood) is the state or quality of being an individual; a person separate from other persons and possessing his or her own needs or goals. Being self expressive, independent.

From the 15th century and earlier, and also today within the fields of statistics and metaphysics, individual meant "indivisible", typically describing any numerically singular thing, but sometimes meaning "a person." (q.v. "The problem of proper names"). From the seventeenth century on, individual indicates separateness, as in individualism.^[1]

Empiricism[link]

Early empiricists such as Ibn Tufail^[2] and John Locke introduced the idea of the individual as a tabula rasa ("blank slate"), shaped from birth by experience and education. This ties into the idea of the liberty and rights of the individual, society as a social contract between rational individuals, and the beginnings of individualism as a doctrine.

Hegel[link]

Hegel regarded history as the gradual evolution of Mind as it tests its own concepts against the external world. Each time the mind applies its concepts to the world, the concept is revealed to be only partly true, within a certain context; thus the mind continually revises these incomplete concepts so as to reflect a fuller reality (commonly known as the process of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis). The individual comes to rise above his or her own particular viewpoint, and grasps that he or she is a part of a greater whole insofar as he or she is bound to family, a social context, and/or a political order.

Existentialism[link]

With the rise of existentialism, Kierkegaard rejected Hegel's notion of the individual as subordinated to the forces of history. Instead, he elevated the individual's subjectivity and capacity to choose his or her own fate. Later Existentialists built upon this notion. Nietzsche, for example, examines the individual's need to define his/her own self and circumstances in his concept of the will to power and the heroic ideal of the Übermensch. The individual is also central to Sartre's philosophy, which emphasizes individual authenticity, responsibility, and free will. In both Sartre and Nietzsche (and in Nikolai Berdyaev), the individual is called upon to create his or her own values. Rather than rely on external, socially imposed codes of morality.

Buddhism[link]

In Buddhism, the concept of the individual lies in anatman, or "no-self." According to anatman, the individual is really a series of interconnected processes that, working together, give the appearance of being a single, separated whole. In this way, anatman, together with anicca, resembles a kind of bundle theory. Instead of an atomic, indivisible self distinct from reality (see Subject-object problem), the individual in Buddhism is understood as an interrelated part of an ever-changing, impermanent universe (see interdependence, Nondualism, reciprocity).

Objectivism[link]

Ayn Rand's Objectivism regards every human as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his or her own life, a right derived from his or her nature as a rational being. Individualism and Objectivism hold that a civilized society, or any form of association, cooperation or peaceful coexistence among humans, can be achieved only on the basis of the recognition of individual rights — and that a group, as such, has no rights other than the individual rights of its members. The principle of individual rights is the only moral base of all groups or associations. Since only an individual woman or man can possess rights, the expression "individual rights" is a redundancy (which one has to use for purposes of clarification in today’s intellectual chaos), but the expression "collective rights" is a contradiction in terms. Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).^[3][4]

See also[link]

• Action theory
• Atom (disambiguation)
• Consciousness
• Cultural identity
• Existentialism
• Identity
• Independent
• Person
• Self (philosophy)
• Self (psychology)
• Self (sociology)
• Self (spirituality)
• Structure and agency

References[link]

• Gracia, Jorge J. E. (1988) Individuality: An Essay on the Foundations of Metaphysics. State University of New York Press.
• Klein, Anne Carolyn (1995) Meeting the Great Bliss Queen: Buddhists, Feminists, and the Art of the Self. ISBN 0-8070-7306-7.

A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. Please discuss further on the talk page. (September 2011)

Shannon Miller Miller with medals 2011
Full name	Shannon Lee Miller
Country represented	United States
Born	(1977-03-10) March 10, 1977 (age 35) Rolla, Missouri, U.S.
Hometown	Edmond, Oklahoma, U.S.
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior international
Club	Dynamo
Former coach(es)	Steve Nunno, Peggy Liddick
Retired	2000
Medal record Women's gymnastics Competitor for the  United States Olympic Games Gold 1996 Atlanta Team Gold 1996 Atlanta Balance beam Silver 1992 Barcelona All-around Silver 1992 Barcelona Balance beam Bronze 1992 Barcelona Team Bronze 1992 Barcelona Uneven bars Bronze 1992 Barcelona Floor World Championships Gold 1993 Birmingham All-around Gold 1993 Birmingham Uneven bars Gold 1993 Birmingham Floor Gold 1994 Brisbane All-around Gold 1994 Brisbane Balance beam Silver 1991 Indianapolis Team Silver 1991 Indianapolis Uneven bars Silver 1994 Dortmund Team Bronze 1995 Sabae Team Pan American Games Gold 1995 Mar del Plata Team Gold 1995 Mar del Plata All-around Gold 1995 Mar del Plata Uneven bars Gold 1995 Mar del Plata Floor Silver 1995 Mar del Plata Vault

Shannon Lee Miller (born March 10, 1977) is a former artistic gymnast from Edmond, Oklahoma. She is the most decorated gymnast in U.S. History, and considered one of the greatest gymnasts the United States has ever produced. Miller was the 1993 and 1994 World All-Around Champion, the 1996 Olympics balance beam gold medalist, the 1995 Pan Am Games all-around champion, and a member of the gold medal-winning Magnificent 7 team at the Atlanta Olympics. The winner of a combined total of 16 World Championships and Olympic medals between 1991 and 1996, Miller ranks as the most decorated gymnast, male or female, in U.S. history. Miller was also the most successful American athlete, by medal count, at the 1992 Barcelona Games, winning 5 altogether.

Gymnastics career[link]

Early years[link]

Miller was born in Rolla, Missouri, but she and her family moved to Edmond, Oklahoma when she was only six months old. Miller began gymnastics at age five, and four years later, she and her mother traveled to Moscow, Russia to participate in a gymnastics camp. As a twelve year old, she finished third at the 1989 Olympic Festival — a competition designed to showcase up-and-coming talent. She traveled to Europe in 1990 and 1991 for international meets and scored two perfect 10.0s on the balance beam at the Swiss Cup and Arthur Gander Memorial. At the 1991 Arthur Gander, she won the All-Around and amassed the highest all-around total ever recorded by an American woman under the traditional 10.0 scale: a 39.875. (Kim Zmeskal had also amassed this same total score at the 1990 USA vs. USSR Challenge.)

1991[link]

At her first World Championships in 1991 in Indianapolis, Miller won two silver medals - in the uneven bars (where she tied Soviet Tatiana Gutsu) and the team competition. The team medal was a first for the Americans, and teammate Zmeskal became the first American to achieve the World All-Around gold medal. Miller placed second in the world during the compulsory portion of the competition to Soviet Svetlana Boguinskaya.^{[citation needed]}

1992[link]

At the 1992 American Cup, Miller fell during her final routine on the floor exercise when she was performing her mount of whipback through to full twisting double back. Due to injury, Miller missed the 1992 Individual Apparatus World Championships in Paris. Miller competed in the compulsory portion of the 1992 Nationals, where she defeated Zmeskal. Not quite back up to speed with her more difficult manuveurs, she pulled out of the Optionals and petitioned to the Olympic Trials. Although the result was controversial, Miller won the Olympic Trials and defeated Zmeskal.^{[citation needed]}

Miller won the compulsory portion of the 1992 Olympic Games, and then won the entire individual portion of the team competition, advancing to the All-Around as the number one ranked gymnast in the World. She may be best-remembered for her performance in the Individual All-around at the 1992 Olympic Games. In a duel with the Unified Team’s Tatiana Gutsu, Miller missed out on the gold by the closest margin in Olympic history: 0.012 points. The result was controversial because Gutsu had originally finished 4th on her team. Though she had qualified well within the top 36 who advance to the all-around, only three athletes from each country could then advance.^{[citation needed]}

In order to get round this rule, Gutsu's teammate Rozalia Galiyeva, who finished 3rd, was said to have a knee injury and was removed by the Unified Team coaches from the All-Around final. Galieva later said she was not injured, so perhaps Miller was unlucky to have had to compete against Gutsu in the first place. Nevertheless, by the end of the evening she had accomplished the highest All-Around placement by an American in a non-boycotted Olympics. This record would stand until Carly Patterson won the title in 2004. Tim Daggett described Shannon's vault as "the most perfect piece of gymnastics that I have ever seen. I've had conversations with a number of other people who were in the arena, and they agree."^{[citation needed]}

Miller continued her strong showing in event finals, when she went on to capture three more individual medals: a silver on balance beam and bronzes on floor and bars. This haul of five Olympic medals in one Games was more than that of any Americans in any sport. Along with Lavinia Miloşovici, Miller was the only female gymnast to compete in every single event at the Games (team, all-around, all four finals) and she alone performed all sixteen routines without serious error. Thirteen of her sixteen routines scored a 9.9 or higher, with her lowest score being a 9.837 on the vault in the apparatus finals.^{[citation needed]}

1993 and 1994[link]

Miller dominated world competition for the next two years, becoming the only American back-to-back World All-Around Champion in 1993 and 1994. Her performance at the 1993 world championships in Birmingham was exceptionally dominant. After having easily qualified in first place on every event in the preliminary round, Miller was somewhat underpar on beam in the all-around final but narrowly beat Gina Gogean of Romania. Following the break-up of the USSR, the athletes from the old Soviet Union had undergone huge upheaval and most were not ready to mount a sustained challenge at the 1993 worlds. Miller, on the other hand, was exceptionally well prepared, with her routines effectively reworked in order to comply better with the new code. The result in the preliminary round where she won by over two tenths (then a large margin) is very telling. She followed her all-around title with golds on bars and floor, but fell three times from the beam. She was forced to withdraw from vault due to illness.

At the 1994 world championships in Brisbane, Miller again took the all-around title. She beat another Romanian into second place, Lavinia Miloşovici, and once again there was an ex-Soviet in third. As in 1993 her performance was strong enough for the gold. She also won the title that had eluded her the previous year, the beam, with a near perfect exercise. Many gymnastics fans and experts alike feel as though Miller's balance beam performance in the apparatus finals at the 1994 world championships was the best beam routine of her career. It was not until the Goodwill Games in late 1994 that her winning streak ended. Dina Kotchetkova, beaten into third place at the world championships, took her competitive revenge by narrowly defeating Shannon Miller 39.325 to 39.268.^{[citation needed]} She rebounded by earning silver medals on the vault and the uneven bars, and gold medals on the balance beam and floor exercise. She missed winning medals in the women's team competition and the mixed team competition, where she, along with her teammates, placed 4th in both categories. Two weeks later, she would compete at the 1994 U.S. National Championships, where she would win all five silver medals, each time placing second to Dominique Dawes.^{[citation needed]}

1995[link]

Olympian and television commentator Kathy Johnson commented at the 1993 World Championships, where Miller won every single event in preliminaries, that never had she seen a gymnast so dominant since Nadia Comăneci in 1976. Bart Conner concurred, stating that only if Miller faltered could she be beaten. In 1994, however, Miller placed second to Dominique Dawes in the all-around competition at the US National Championships. Dawes also topped Miller in all four of the individual event finals at the same competition and would be Miller's chief rival for the remainder of that year. In 1995 Miller struggled with injuries, fatigue, and a growth spurt.^{[citation needed]}

Although she won the 1995 American Classic, she lost the 1995 National Championships to thirteen year-old Dominique Moceanu when she fell off the beam. Coming into the 1995 World Championships, she had a realistic shot of becoming the reigning three-time consecutive World Champion, but Miller injured her ankle. Although she competed in the team competition and qualified to all four event finals once again, she could barely walk and was not up to speed. Despite performing under par, she still amassed the highest total of the entire American team. Although she had won five individual gold medals in the last two World Championships, she walked away from Sabae without a single individual medal. Here she would take seventh place on the uneven bars and a very respectable fourth place on the balance beam, after having to withdraw from both the vault and the floor exercise due to her injury.^{[citation needed]}

1996[link]

Although struggling with severe tendinitis in her left wrist,and a pulled hamstring injury Miller won the 1996 National Championships and once again established herself as the top American entering the Olympics. Here she unveiled her new Yurchenko 1¹⁄₂ twisting vault, and her double layout on the floor exercise. Many feel as though Shannon's performance on the floor at these nationals championships was her finest floor routine ever.^{[citation needed]} Once again though, she was forced to sit out the Individual Apparatus World Championship in the Olympic year due to injury, and later the Olympic trials. She was able to petition onto the American team as the top performer, and the injury was sufficiently recovered by July to allow Miller to compete in her second Olympics. Her fellow teammates were Dominique Dawes, Jaycie Phelps, Amy Chow, Dominique Moceanu, Kerri Strug and Amanda Borden. Miller led the American team to history as the Magnificent 7 — the 1996 Olympic Gold medal winning American team - finally defeated the Russians for the first time ever. Kerri Strug garnered the lion's share of the media attention following her famous vault, but actually it was Miller who was the team's highest scorer, individually placing 2nd during the compulsories and 2nd after the entire team competition behind the eventual Olympic All-Around Champion, Lilia Podkopayeva. This performance qualified her for her second Olympic all-around competition.^{[citation needed]}

In the All-Around, Miller was sitting in 2nd place half-way through the competition with another showdown for the gold on the horizon. But her wrist was in poor shape and had only gotten worse since the Nationals, forcing her to have 2 cortisone injections. While numbing the pain, the injections failed to solve the problem and Miller was not at her most powerful. She failed to fully complete a new skill on the floor exercise, a double layout somersault, which she landed with a big lunge forward. Miller managed 8th place finish, making her the highest ranking American in that competition. Miller won the individual Olympic gold medal on beam. This performance was her thirtieth and final routine in Olympic competition. She once again made history by becoming the first American to win the balance beam at the Olympics, becoming the first United States woman to win an individual gold medal at a non-boycotted Olympics as well as the first to win any individual apparatus in a non-boycotted Olympics. Miller concluded her career with 7 Olympic medals (two gold, two silver, three bronze).^{[citation needed]}

Post-1996[link]

Following the Olympics, Miller and her teammates participated in a 100-city tour and several exhibition competitions. She competed in her final world-class meet in 1997, when she won the all-around title at that year's World University Games. In 2000 Miller made a brief comeback attempt for the Sydney Olympics. She competed in the Olympic Trials, but did not complete the meet due to a knee injury, and was not selected for the team.^{[citation needed]}

Her accomplishments in the sport of gymnastics have won her several major honors. She has been named to USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame, the US Olympic Hall of Fame, and the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame and the Women's International Sports Hall of Fame.

Miller is the only woman, in any sport, to be inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame twice, as an individual and for her team. With seven Olympic and nine World Championship medals, Shannon Miller is the most decorated United States Gymnast, male or female. Miller is currently tied with Nastia Liukin as the gymnasts who have won the second most World Championship medals (9) for the United States (second to Alicia Sacramone, who won ten World medals). However, Miller's world medal count includes two World All-Around Titles and a total of five golds.^{[citation needed]}

Major medals[link]

For a complete list of medals, click "show" for the Medal record on the above infobox.

• 1991 Worlds: Bars silver, team silver
• 1992 Olympics: All-Around silver, beam silver, floor bronze, bars bronze, team bronze
• 1993 Worlds: All-Around gold, bars gold, floor gold
• 1994 Worlds: All-Around gold, beam gold
• 1994 Team Worlds: Team silver
• 1995 Worlds: Team bronze
• 1996 Olympics: Beam gold, team gold

Education[link]

As a teenager, Miller attended Edmond North High School, working with a flexible program that accommodated her training, travel and competition schedule.^[1]

In 2003, she graduated from the University of Houston with a B.B.A. in Marketing and Entrepreneurship.^[2] Later that year she entered Boston College Law School ^[3] and graduated in 2007. Miller opted not to take the Bar Exam in any state. She moved to Florida where she made appearances at gyms, conducting beam clinics, and starring in workout DVDs.

Personal life[link]

Miller During Cancer Treatment in 2011

Miller married lawyer and ophthalmologist Christopher B. Phillips in June 1999. The couple separated in 2004; their divorce was finalized in 2006. While Phillips accused Miller of infidelity with a married male athlete, the charge was denied by Miller and did not figure into the divorce grounds.^[4][5]

In August 2007, Miller announced her engagement to John Falconetti, the 39-year-old President of Drummond Press and past chairman of the Duval County, Florida Republican executive committee.^[6] The couple married on August 25, 2008, and have one son.

In February 2011, Miller revealed she had been diagnosed with germ cell ovarian cancer after doctors discovered a baseball-sized cyst. The cyst had been surgically removed the previous month. Miller underwent three cycles of chemotherapy from March 7 to May 2, 2011.^[7]. In September 2011, her doctor gave her a clean bill of health. ^[8]

Shannon is currently President of Shannon Miller Lifestyle: Health and Fitness for Women and President of Shannon Miller Foundation, dedicated to fighting childhood obesity.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Shannon Miller Lifestyle website
• Official website
• Shannon Miller at Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique
• Where Are They Now?: Shannon Miller Info & Photos
• Jacobs, Adam (November 13, 2006). "TFS Interview with Olympic medalist Shannon Miller talks about running 26.2". The Final Sprint. http://www.thefinalsprint.com/2006/11/tfs-interview-olympic-medalist-shannon-miller-talks-about-running-262. Retrieved 2007-02-05. 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Shannon Miller

Gymnastics portal