2012 Olympian and defending American Cup champion Sam Mikulak met with the press via phone conference on February 25 to talk about his preparation leading up to the American Cup. The Gymternet brought every answer to you live! Here’s the transcript below.

11:27. We’re just beginning the call now. Sam should be on in about three minutes!

11:31. The call is starting with an intro from Leslie King of USA Gymnastics.

11:32. Regarding the 2013 World Championships all-around, Sam says “afterwards, I definitely let the pressure get to me after my last event. Staying focused on each individual skill [was a challenge],” and he “took it to heart” going into the 2014 season. There were problems with the p-bars in 2013 but he was glad to keep his head in the game for his other events.

11:34. Sam feels like he’s “definitely closing the gap” with Kohei Uchimura. The goal is to reach him or exceed him in the coming years.

11:35. At the Winter Cup, the “whole point was just to get back out on the competition stage and feel what it’s like to get back in front of a crowd. My training cycle is a six week cycle before every competition…I consider [Winter Cup] as a training day, not a competition, so American Cup would be my peak. I think it was good…Thursday wasn’t the hottest day in the world, but I flew in real late the day before and my mind wasn’t quite in that arena until Saturday. I felt a lot better, so it was nice to hit all my sets and I actually won the all-around that day, which I didn’t know at first.”

11:36. Nothing’s changed in training between finishing NCAA and focusing on elite. He is still taking classes, but once he graduates, his training schedule will change to two-a-days.

11:37. He still feels very involved with the Michigan team. He’s still training with them, just “isn’t saluting alongside them.” At this point, he feels like a veteran at all of these competitions, and knows how to get the right mindset beforehand.

11:38. Regarding Alec Yoder, four years behind Sam in age and in the same position Sam was in four years ago: “Alec is a great competitor. He knows how to stick his landings and capitalize on an exclamation point. As a taller gymnast, it accentuates his lines on pommel horse, an event the U.S. is pretty weak on, so he’ll find his biggest strength there on the U.S. team. He just needs to work hard and get his start value up, but that’s where I was at when I was his age and the year before the Olympics, I pushed my start values significantly and it was enough to make the team. Hopefully he can make that same push and keep his confidence.”

11:39. At this point before London, were you thinking Olympic team? “Yes. I knew I wouldn’t have a chance without upping my start values. I broke both my ankles the year before, which freaked me out, and I didn’t have too much opportunity to upgrade…I mean, I had time to upgrade pommel horse, which was the most crucial part when I couldn’t use my ankles because that helped me fill a gap on the Olympic team.”

11:41. Who in the American Cup field is your biggest competition? “So many good gymnasts are going to be here. Every single one…they’re all up there in the all-around and I think it’s just gonna come down to who has the best day.”

11:42. That’s everything…thanks Sam! And thanks to USA Gymnastics for setting up the call.

Live Blog by Lauren Hopkins