I also played in the 1967 Super Bowl against the Green Bay Packers.
I'll have to say winning the Olympic gold in Atlanta is a crowning achievement, along with the gold in the relay in the same games.
I think it's actually harder to watch the meet from the media section. You have no control there.
In the NFL, every practice could make or break you. If you dropped one ball, you'd worry about getting cut.
I wouldn't say that there's ever been an Olympic champion that didn't deserve to win an Olympic Gold Medal.
The mind is pretty powerful. In skating, you learn to click into that zone and focus not necessarily on what you're doing but if you're doing it well.
I'd challenge myself to see how long I could go without a fall - on beam, I once went three weeks.
I was raised into the Romanian Orthodox culture by my parents, and most notably my mother, who is a profoundly religious and spiritual woman.
A champion owes everybody something. He can never pay back for all the help he got, for making him an idol.
I'm not like the next Michael Jordan, but I'm also not what everyone saw me as before I started playing in the NBA, either.
In my country, at that time, being a champion of chess was like being a King. At that time I was a King - and when you are King you feel a lot of responsibility, but there is nobody there to help you.
I'm a classical type of guy. Whatever's out at that point in time, I like it. I just put my own twist on it, and we go from there.
They didn't have college scholarships for women. Had they done that at the time, I may have stayed on for another two Olympics, but the opportunities were not available to women that they have today.
I helped put in a rink in Cadillac, Michigan, when my wife was very healthy. She helped them put it in and the rink is going full-bore the last time I was there.
I had a MRSA infection on my ankle. At the time, I had never heard of MRSA. I didn't really know a whole lot about it. It really scared me.
When I see old photos of me on the beach I don't look too bad... but it's hard trying to breathe in for such a long time when I spot the photographers!
The way to know about championship quality is to learn from champions, and that I did; studying them with professional purpose during my time in the ring and from habitual interest afterward.
I looked for the same pitch my whole career, a breaking ball. All of the time. I never worried about the fastball. They couldn't throw it past me, none of them.
All these older kids here, and I'm the only one from a town that's so small, if everyone breathed at the same time, you'd run out of oxygen. Man, there is nothing there.
Every time I go to the theater, there's something about the atmosphere, seeing something unfold live in front of an audience, that you can't get out of your system.
I am often criticized for spending too much time off the ice, but if you were in my shoes, you'd see how necessary it is.
