I don't want to end up leaving the sport early or hating it because I didn't give myself time to respect the water and I feel like the water has always respected me. I would like to prioritize myself a little bit more instead of swimming.Collection: Respect
The goal is not to count medals, it's just racing the best I can.Collection: Best
I enjoy the sport, I enjoy the challenge that it brings and it certainly does bring that for me and it's not an easy one.
My lifting routine is designed to develop and maintain explosive strength off the block, so it mainly includes cleans, power cleans, jerks and snatches.
Strength training is an important part of every athlete's training program, but for me it's become almost like a sanctuary.
In the gym, you get out what you put in. There's no room for excuses, for taking shortcuts or giving half effort.
If I try to be fast then I'm no good, so it's better just to shut everything off and let instinct take over.
I've been doing the sport since I was 5 years old. And if I don't have support behind me, it's just a dream and it will not be able to turn into reality.
It takes a lot of people. I would not swim if it was just me. If I didn't have any teammates, I couldn't stay in a pool for two hours, twice a day, nine times a week. I can't do that. And I'm fine with admitting that. I couldn't do this by myself.
I swear every day I love it more and more. If you want to go 47.0 in a 100 free and you're 47.1, you have all these years behind you and it comes down to a 47-second race. It can be so brutal sometimes, but that's the part I like about it.
I probably sound like a broken record every time I do a race, but I always look for the bad. That's just kind of how I work.
I'm trying to show that it doesn't matter where you are from, even a little town like Green Cove. You can make it.
The whole podium time was like it was in slow motion. I was watching the flag go up realizing I'm part of one of the greatest countries on earth.
For me, it's just kind of a chase for self-improvement in and out of the water. That's why I do enjoy the sport.
There's parts during the meet where it's not the greatest feeling - the stress that you feel, the pressure I put on myself.
People want to dream up this big, giant goal without putting the stepping stones along the way, and for me, that's what gets you to that giant goal.
I can be proud of every swim, every effort I put in the water, every mental approach to every single race.
But just improving each day, that's just the ultimate goal from now until I'm no longer on this earth.
I don't think anyone will ever be able to perfect the sport, and that's kind of what I love about it. You're always chasing something.
I don't I don't really care what people expect me to do at these Games. It's all about me. It might sound a little selfish, but it's what I want to accomplish and reaching my potential. Everything else, everybody else's opinion, they can kick rocks.
You can't reach perfection unless you reach zero seconds - it's just the constant chase for perfection.
We play a lot of Nintendo games, a lot of Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros, a few different card games, really just stuff so we can stay loose and get your mind off of swimming before going into the meet with full focus.
For me, it's about swimming faster. Anything that's not pertaining to swimming faster is irrelevant to me.