Everybody knows my life. I won a lot of tournaments and scored more than 1,000 goals, won three World Cups but I could not play in Olympic Games.
I was trying to manage school and training for the Olympics and ended up not doing well at either. That was a big lesson in my life. My mother expected both.
Toward the end of the Olympics, you get physically tired and drained. And no matter how much rest you have, your body is tired.
When you're on the Olympic team at 15, you don't do anything else. There's no normal social development, and your decisions are made for you.
I feel very fortunate. I feel like an Olympian. When I watch the Olympics, I cry because I have been through that journey.
I was never invited to the White House. They invited that Olympic Russian gymnast - that little Communist, Olga Korbut.
My dream was always to win in the Olympic Games, but I never set that next goal, and I have realised now I need to set another goal.
Swimming and athletics are the big gigs at the Olympic games. Cycling and rowing are pretty big for Britain, but globally, the two big things are athletics and swimming.
I think that's something to look forward to: The new Gracie Gold at the Olympics. In 2014, you'll see a lot of the warm Gracie, and not just the athletic Gracie.
I pretty much knew that I was going to come in fourth, but then I said, 'I'm fourth at the Olympic Games. What are you talking about? Why is that disappointing?'
I think if I just do what I do every day, on the extraordinary Olympic stage, I could be a podium contender.
We have been actively trying to have New York City host the 2012 Olympics.
Work diligently. Work hard. Focus. Perform as if you are at the Olympics. One day, unexpectedly, it will start paying off.
There were several things a Yale freshman was supposed to be able to do. You had to demonstrate in the Olympic-size Yale pool that you could swim 50 yards or be inducted into swimming class.
You want to do Olympics just like you do a pro football game or a basketball game? Be my guest. Watch it all fade away.
There were no competitions on television. The first skating competition I ever remember seeing on television was the 1968 Olympics when Peggy Fleming won.
It's different today than it was then. In those days we were strictly amateurs. If I had wanted to stay in for the '80 Olympics, my parents couldn't have afforded it.
I did get to go to the Olympic trials in '88 and '92. I was 7th and 11th, so I didn't place high enough to go to the games, but, still, it was a blast.
When I went to the starting line of the 1976 Olympic marathon in Montreal, it was with the unsettling conviction that some of my competitors were cheaters.
I started track and field when I was 12 and didn't get to an Olympic Games until I was nearly 23. By any stretch of the imagination that's a very long apprenticeship.
I started in law school in '71 and graduated in '74. So I was training for the Olympics, running or averaging around 20 miles a day and going to law school full time.
