“I ate a version of this pretty much every single day back when I was training,” I say. “It’s like comfort food.”

“Exactly, same,” he says.

There’s a moment where neither of us says anything. I could change the subject to something completely professional, like Hallie’s floor routine—but I recognize it wouldn’t hurt for Ryan and me to get to know each other on a friendlier, more personal level, too.

“I actually love to cook,” I tell him. “My first few years in California, I lived in dorms or these tiny apartments with bad kitchens, but eventually, I moved into this place with a huge, awesome setup for cooking. For the first time in my life, it was like I had both the space and the lifestyle to actually enjoy food.”

“Oh, wow,” he says. He looks down and pokes a piece of chicken with his fork. “I wish I had known that before serving you this.”

“No, no, don’t worry, this is good,” I lie. “And it’s so nice of you to share. Maybe I’ll cook something for you sometime.”

I can’t tell if I’m overstepping a boundary, but he doesn’t seem to flinch.

“It’s funny that you say that you could enjoy cooking more once you left gymnastics,” he notes. “That’s how I felt about working out.”

“Yeah?”

“It turns out, once the pressure of winning medals isn’t hanging over your head, you can chill out a little more,” he says.

“No kidding,” I deadpan.

“I used to get so bored with conditioning when I was a gymnast, but after I retired, I realized I missed that kind of workout. So that’s why I started lifting weights just for me—not for the sake of the sport.”

“Ha, see, I felt the opposite way. I’ve done enough conditioning for one lifetime,” I say.

“Fair enough,” he says.

“How’d you get into coaching?” I ask.

“Back in high school, I coached kids’ classes, just to make a little money during the summers,” he explains. “So I knew I liked it. And then around the time I was thinking of retiring, my old coach from Michigan connected me to Mary here at Summit. The timing was perfect, since Hallie was leveling up and wanted to work one-on-one with a coach. The Conways looked into Powerhouse, but Dimitri didn’t have room for her at the time.” He explains that Dimitri’s hands were full with other gymnasts: Emma Perry, Skylar Hayashi, Brit Almeda. “And the Conways were pretty reluctant to find another coach in another state because of Todd’s career. So I was the best option—better than nothing.”

“They took a pretty big chance on you,” I say.

He knocks his knuckles against the wooden windowsill behind him. “Trust me, I’m grateful for that every single day.”