JW: How'd you feel when it was over?

 

CM: I felt relieved! I was happiest at the end of the four club routine because it didn't go that well in the technical run­through. I had stopped thinking about whether I would win or not a long time ago. For me winning would have just been doing a good routine. I wasn't nervous because of the competition, I was nervous because I didn't want to make a fool of myself and then see it on the video! I was so happy that the routine went well that winning was just icing on the cake. I didn't watch any of the other acts so I had no idea where I stood competitively. It sounded from the audience reaction like everyone was doing well.

 

JW: And what's your reaction to being the first woman to win the Individual Championships?

 

CM: It was nice to be the first woman to win it. I always wanted to be the first woman to do something, that was a little secret of mine when I was young. I wanted to be the first woman astronaut then, and even wanted to be the first woman baseball player. I was really into baseball, and used to play on the boys team. I had to fight to play there even though I was good at it. There was a lot of resistance.

 

That's one thing I liked about juggling. Juggling was a solitary thing. Growing up I was often off doing things by myself, like reading. Juggling was a solitary, imaginative exercise. A lot of kids take it up to get attention, but for me it was something I could do alone and enjoy. At summer camp one year when I was about 13 I started getting into it. That's the summer I leamed five balls. I practiced a lot that summer because I didn't have that many friends. Juggling was something I could go off and do by myself.

 

JW: That doesn't sound like someone who would get up in front of 1,500 people and five judges at a championships event!

 

CM: For me it was a big transition to start performing. But I've learned a lot at it. It's helped me a lot because I've always been introverted and this is an outlet. It's a chance to use some of that energy.

 

I'm different when I perform. The audience makes it different. You're on the spot, forced to make decisions, it's a matter of life or death, a very risky thing. You never know how it's going to turn out.

 

JW: How did you first learn juggling?

 

CM: Music was the big thing at our house in New York City when I grew up. I played cello. But my father used to juggle three balls around the house and that got me interested at an early age. I loved to watch it and finally figured out three balls when I was about 13. But juggling wasn't something you practiced like music. I thought of it as a pasttime.

 

It was just another form of tossing things around, which I had always liked to do. Catching was always my favorite thing, but I loved to play basketball, baseball and dodgeball. I know juggling isn't just a sport but it has a lot of sports skills, and one of the reasons girls aren't attracted to it is that girls don't play those things. I was the only girl I knew who played those games, so it's not surprising to me that there aren't more women jugglers.

 

That summer at camp there was a counselor who knew lot of tricks I hadn't thought of. We juggled together and figured out passing. When I came back from that summer I was walking around every­where with these lacrosse balls. After that I always juggled in the school cabaret and was known as the juggler of Fieldston High in the Bronx.