Olympic Legend Shannon Miller Talks 15 Years Cancer-Free and Salto Health Launch

Shannon Miller is widely recognized for her seven Olympic medals, including leading the U.S. women’s gymnastics team to a historic team gold in 1996. However, her most formidable challenge began in 2011 with a rare ovarian cancer diagnosis. Now celebrating 15 years cancer-free, Miller has successfully transitioned from a world-class athlete into a dedicated advocate for early detection and survivorship.

Her personal journey highlighted a critical gap in cancer care: the difficulty of asking for and receiving practical help. To address this, she founded Salto Health, a curated platform that simplifies the support process through a registry model. Much like a baby registry, it allows survivors to list specific, unglamorous essentials — such as recovery bras, ginger chews or gas cards giving loved ones a dignified way to provide meaningful assistance.

In this Q&A, Miller reflects on the turning point where life flipped in an unexpected direction. She discusses how her Olympic training influenced her resilience and why she now champions the message that "there is strength not only in accepting help when it is offered, but in asking for help when it is needed."

Cure: This year marks two incredible milestones for you, the 30th anniversary of the 1996 Atlanta games and your 15th year being cancer free. When you reflect on those two eras of your life, do you find that the mindset required to navigate a ovarian cancer diagnosis drew heavily from your Olympic training, or did cancer require you to discover an entirely new kind of resilience?

Miller : I think a little bit of both, and looking back on these really great anniversaries, in many ways, I think I learned so much through these lessons of sport that helped me during my cancer battle. I didn't see all of them right away, but there were things like goal setting, which was so important for the cancer journey. During treatment, it might be, “Can I walk twice around the dining room table today?” or “Today, I'm going to get up, I'm going to take a shower, and I'm going to get dressed,” and that was my win, and that's OK.

I think what I learned through sport was you might have these big, incredible dreams of Olympic greatness, but every single day you have to achieve some small something, a certain amount of push-ups, or perfecting routine, or getting back up after a fall, in order to get to that longer-term goal. And so that's where that goal setting came into play for me —every day, what can I do today to take that next step forward?

Another area was teamwork, and I would say teamwork was maybe one of the toughest ones for me. I understood teamwork in sport, obviously, but I had difficulty transferring that to life and to this cancer battle until I hit rock bottom, and there were moments during my treatment that I really did, I just hit rock bottom, and I was brought back to that moment of, “I don't have to do this alone.” And I was like many survivors, I didn't want to complain, I didn't want to be a burden, I didn't want to ask of others, I was just like, “I'll handle this, I'll do my thing,” but that's not how cancer works, it's not how life works, and certainly not how sport works. And looking back, I think, “Gosh, why did it take me so long to figure that out?”

In gymnastics, I had coaches and trainers and parents in a long list of people helping me out at every turn, and I never questioned it. I never said, “Oh no, I don't need any of that, I'll do it myself.” So, why do we do that in the cancer space when we are in the fight of our life? Why wouldn't I just accept the help or ask for help? Hindsight is 2020 but that's really what I wanted to share with more survivors: So many people want to help, we just have to find an easy way to let them.

Reaching this 15-year milestone provides such a unique vantage point. Many patients focus entirely on getting through active treatment and ringing that bell, but the after comes with its own challenges. How has your definition of survivorship evolved from year one to year 15, and what does long-term maintenance, both physically and emotionally, look like for you today?

Initially I just wanted to get done, I wanted to ring the bell and go on with my life, but that's not how survivorship works, and I learned that the hard way. Again, it seems like I learned a lot the hard way, but I just expected to feel better when treatment was over. Something had to change. It was this new day, and I'm on to the next phase. Well, the next phase was still really tough, and over the last 15 years working in the cancer community, talking to survivors, it's true: Survivorship after treatment can be just as hard in some different ways than the treatment. Your care team drops off, you're no longer with your medical team on a regular basis, those are fewer and farther between, a lot of the support drops off because it's a very natural, very human thing to think, “OK, someone's done with treatment, all right, they're better, so now they don't need as much help,” and all of that support disappears.

I was still nauseous, I was still incredibly fatigued, I was not 100% or anywhere near there for almost a year, and people are dealing with the effects of different surgeries and radiation, all of the things that don't stop when you ring the bell, and a lot of times, as survivors, we're not prepared for that, and caregivers and loved ones often aren't prepared for that either, so I think that that first phase of the first five years, it can be a challenging mental and emotional state, as well as physically.

Longer term, 15 years out, I'm focused more on just longevity. How can I be my best every day? Part of that is staying up with my regular exams and screenings and blood work and all of the things, and staying on top of it, because if it comes back — and that's always something that's in the back of your mind — I want to know at the earliest possible moment when I have the most choices. Aside from kind of the focus on cancer, it's a focus on strength, not strength because I want to look good in a pair of jeans, but strength because I want to be able to play with my kids, I want to be able to be independent as I get older, 30 years from now. All of that stuff starts today, and so thinking about health and fitness and sleep in such an important way, and sleep is often one of the most overlooked but it's something that's really important, and it's very hard to do during cancer treatment, and it's equally hard to do after when life starts up again, and yet you're still dealing with things.

There are so many things that we can think about each day. What I try to remember is I don't have to do it all at once. I don't have to do everything every single day. Those little moments of taking care of your health and making it a priority, they add up. If you can do one little thing today that helps with your health, then that's a great thing.

When someone receives a diagnosis of cancer, their loved ones often instinctively ask, “How can I help?” and as you've pointed out, that is one of the hardest questions for a patient or a primary caregiver to answer. Why do you think that question creates maybe an unintended barrier, and what should well-meaning loved ones be asking or saying instead?

It's so hard, and I think we've probably all done this. My mother's a two-time survivor. I have other friends and family that are survivors, or have had other health challenges, where you just instinctively ask, “How can I help? What can I do?” or “Let me know how I can help.” And those are loaded questions and statements that we don't even realize they're loaded until we're on the other side of it. And as a survivor, I can tell you, in talking with others, but myself, I didn't know how to answer it. It was such a confusing, challenging question, because I didn't know what I needed. I had never been through cancer before. I didn't know it was happening, and so it almost can create more anxiety and more isolation, especially “Let me know how I can help,” you're now putting that burden on the survivor and caregiver to now think of something that you can do so that you feel better about helping, and it's just all kind of crazy because you have these two ins, you have the survivor and caregiver that are kind of in it every day that desperately want and need that help, but sometimes either they don't know what they need or they're afraid to ask for the help, and then on the other side you have people who so desperately want to help in any way, shape, just tell me how, just give me some direction, and never the two shall meet.

So, filling that gap is so important. What I can tell people is everyone's a little bit different in how they ask for help or receive help, but the most important thing is just being there, making sure that they know that that you are there and you're available. It doesn't have to cost any money, spending time with them, going for a walk, taking them to appointments, taking the kids for the afternoon, all of those things are good. What I found, though, is with survivorship, a lot of times as we learn what our needs are for specific treatments, it's very hard to ask for those specific things. No one wants to say, “Oh, yeah, could you get me a mastectomy pillow? You find it,” or “I really need a case of Ensure, because I can't keep anything else down,” or “A gas card would be helpful because I need to get to treatments, and it's two hours away,” all of these random items that people don't really think about, but they're well needed.

What people don't often understand is the non-medical expense, according to the American Cancer Society, is between $1,500 and $5,000 per patient for treatment, that's non-medical, that's non-reimbursable, these are out of pocket when you're already dealing with the physical, emotional, psychological, logistical challenges. Now you have the financial on top of that. So, what if you spread that around? What if you were able to easily share in a dignified way with all of those people that say, “Tell me how I can help. I just want to help.” If you could easily allow them to help with those specific items, now you're solving a lot of the problems, and I always feel like it's easier to ask for specific help. It's easier to give specific help rather than kind of guessing at what food might be OK to bring over.

We often see an outpouring of traditional gifts, like flowers, gift baskets, while, like you were saying, the unglamorous everyday realities of treatment are often left unaddressed. What inspired you to take these missing pieces, like radiation cream, recovery bras, ginger chews, and turn that into Salto health?

Over the last 15 years I went from a very shy background — if anyone knew me, I used to give one-word answers, my coach would do interviews for me, I was very shy growing up — so I never imagined I would go around talking about my ovaries on a national scale. But at one point during my treatment, I kept hearing from other survivors and others that were not getting the screenings and not going to the doctor, and I thought if there's something I could use my platform for, this is it. How can I help spread the message that early detection is important, taking care of your health is so important?

And over the last 15 years, I've worked in that cancer community, in every part of it, from hospitals and nonprofits to holding the hand of a survivor in the hospital, and what I kept hearing were those things: I don't know what I need, I don't want to ask for help, and I desperately want to help someone and I don't know how, and it really weighed heavy on me.

And last year I just felt like there's more I can do, and I started thinking about other areas of help: a baby registry. When you think about a baby registry, it is a new mother that often doesn't really know what she needs, she's never done this before, and so you go to this curated site where you start to learn about what you might need, and then you put it on a registry, and you easily share those needs with people who want to help. And I thought, why isn't this regular? Why isn't this normalized for a cancer survivor? If you ever in your entire life needed support, this is it. This is the fight of your life, and for your life. And so, why not make it very easy to bridge that gap between what do I need and how do I get it, and I just desperately want to help, and I'll do anything, just tell me how.

And so, we set up Salto Health, which is a very highly curated site for any type of cancer treatment, and it helps narrow it down for you. So, if you're going through chemotherapy, you can look at what are those typical chemotherapy products that you may need. It allows you to converse with your healthcare team a little bit better. So, you saw this item, would this be helpful for my treatment? There are things that I never knew existed that I wish I would have during my cancer treatment. It would have helped me so much, especially on the hydration angle, which was a tough one for me. And so, for us and for Salto Health, our whole goal is, primarily, how do we fill that gap between how can I help and what do I need, and make it very easy where you don't have to answer the question, “How can I help?” 50 times, and try to explain what you're going through, and help them understand. They're not going to understand. If you haven't been through cancer, you are not going to understand. I can say that as someone who was on the other side with my mother.

So, just putting a list together and saying, “These are the things that can really help during my treatment, thank you so much,” and that's it. And oftentimes, you have someone in your neighborhood, or your church, or your caregiver that could easily share that with others, just like you would a Caring Bridge, where you're sharing the message and not having to text it 50,000 times.

What I love about Salto is it also helps educate you on the things that you might need. What our goal is now is to help move the dial. I look back and I think, “Oh my gosh, this would have been amazing. Why didn't I ask for help? Why didn't I say, ‘OK, these are actually the things that could be really helpful for me?’” I didn't have the wherewithal to do that, but what we want to do is move that up instead of looking back and going, “Man, I could have really used this.” We need it at the point of diagnosis. When you hear that one word that changes your entire life, where do I go now? What do I do now? We want to be there where you can easily ask for help and get that help that is needed, because people are not going to naturally ask for a gas card, or a recovery bra, or a wig, or a head cover, or radiation cream that's special for cancer patients. They're not going to know or think about asking for those things, or they might feel awkward about it, but you put it on a registry, super easy, everybody understands that.

And we're seeing it working. You can watch the backend of the website, and you can pinpoint when someone sent out that link, because all of the sudden the orders come in for that patient. And we're excited at Salto Health, because we will be giving back a portion of our proceeds to cancer nonprofits that we hope will be able to continue to do the great work that they're doing.

You have been a long-time friend to the CURE community, inspiring survivors and honoring the dedication of caregivers at our events. For a patient who might be tuning in from a chemo chair, feeling overwhelmed by the immediate reality of their diagnosis, what is your core message of hope and empowerment you want them to take away from your journey?

For the last 15 years, long before I ever dreamed up Salto, my message is: Do not be afraid to ask for help. There is strength in not only accepting help when offered, but in asking for help when needed. And I am taken back to one moment in my cancer journey where I was sitting in the chemo chair, in my fourth hour of chemo that day, and I was having such a difficult time and day, and the nausea was horrific, and I was just suffering in silence. And I had a nurse come over, and she knelt down by my chair, and she took my hand, and she said, "You have to speak to me. This is my job, this is what I do. I want to help, but if you don't talk to me, if you don't tell me what's going on, I can't help you.” And the floodgates opened, and it was that moment with her that I just started begging for help. Any time someone would offer it's yes, thank you, whatever, I will take it, and it changed the game for me in such an important way that helped with my healing and my survivorship in every step, and I think it was just that mental switch from “I can do this myself. I don't want to burden anyone” to “Yes, please, whatever help you can give, I'll take it.”

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