For Cathy Rigby, it's all about passion.


At 10 years old, she knew she was going to be a gymnast; it became her passion.

"I found (gymnastics) because my brother came home one day and said 'Cathy, there's a trampoline at the local youth center. Do you want to jump on it?' And I said, 'Are you nuts?' And with each jump, I went higher and higher and it was just like flying," Rigby remembers.
 
Years later, after competing in the Olympics and winning world championship medals, Rigby jumped into being a sports commentator, actress, pitchwoman, and entertainment executive as quickly and fearlessly as she bounced on a trampoline when she was 10.

Rigby became America's sweetheart in the late 1960s, and competed for the United States in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics. Her shining moment came, however, in 1970, when she became the first-ever American gymnast, male or female, to win a medal at the World Championships, capturing the silver medal in the balance beam.

Before she was done, Rigby had won eight gold medals in international competition.

After Rigby retired from gymnastics, she became a fixture on television as a sports commentator with ABC and a spokesperson for Stayfree maxi pads. She also started a production company with her second husband Tom McCoy.

But what she is probably best known for in life after gymnastics is her acting career. She played the lead in Peter Pan and even earned a Tony award nomination in 1991 for best actress in a musical.

Other performances include turns in Annie Get Your Gun, Meet Me in St. Louis, South Pacific, Paint Your Wagon,  They're Playing Our Song, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and Seussical the Musical.

Rigby points to three keys to success in each of her careers.

"You have to have a passion for what you do," Rigby says. "Second is you have to work really hard. Sometimes you have to work twice as good as somebody else to get the same result.
 
"And third, and one of the hardest, is to acknowledge and savor the success. We tend to blow them off and go on to the next thing. You need those little successes to sustain you when life is not kind and things are not going well."

Through McCoy Rigby Entertainment, Rigby and her husband have successfully produced many seasons of musicals, plays, concerts, and special events at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts in La Mirada, California. They even produced a pre-mass ceremony for Pope John Paul II in 1987.

The company has also launched many national touring productions, including Jesus Christ Superstar and Peter Pan.

Rigby is also a motivational speaker, providing inspiration from her days as a gymnast as well as her struggle with eating disorders—covering the warning signs, the risk factors, and the road to recovery.
 
And while her beginnings as a gymnast were solo, she carries the idea of teamwork close to her as an executive and considers it crucial.
 
"I don't care if it's the janitor or the star of the show," Rigby says. "Everybody is part of the team. Everybody is important and they need to feel that way and they matter."