Cathy Rigby
Cathy Rigby
Cathleen Roxanne Rigby, known as Cathy Rigby, is an actress, speaker, and former gymnast. Her performance in the 1968 Summer Olympics helped to popularize the sport of gymnastics in the United States. After her retirement, she became a stage and television actress. She is most noted for the role of Peter Pan, which she played for more than 30 years. She also became a public speaker on the subject of eating disorders, which she struggled with and overcame...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionGymnast
Date of Birth12 December 1952
CityLos Alamitos, CA
CountryUnited States of America
Acting allows me the freedom to let go, to be in the moment, to be spontaneous. I no longer have the fear of losing, of failure.
The thing I received from Girl Scouts more than anything else was a sense of real teamwork and working for the community, helping others, and it was not competitive. I remember working as a group to achieve a goal or to help the community. There was a great sense of accomplishment in that.
Flying is such a joy. You just want to hoot.
There's no disgrace in failure, the disgrace is not to try.
Actually, performing is a lot like golf. You are alone, so vulnerable.
An athlete learns how to hold her breath, but that doesn't work in singing. You have to learn to relax.
I will jump into most any role.
It's that athlete's obsessiveness - the need to prove yourself and work harder than anybody else. I think it's what helped me do well in the theater.
Nowadays a gold medal is a $1 million contract. Our athletes are our heroes.
There's so much denial in gymnastics. It's a beautiful sport but the other part is numbing. You become machinelike. They'll refute this, but I've been around it. I know.
In high school I never went to the prom because I was too consumed with gymnastics. Also, with my hair in pigtails and looking about 10, I wasn't exactly date material.
I remember secretly going off and crying. All of a sudden I'm being blocked and have to be intimate in a scene, and I'm going, 'I can't even look people in the eye very well. How am I ever going to do this?'
You see your peers weighing 80 pounds and you think, 'Oh, my God, I've got to be 80 pounds or I'll fail.'
When you're on the Olympic team at 15, you don't do anything else. There's no normal social development, and your decisions are made for you.