Obviously, when you're up against somebody you don't like there's extra motivation, but I don't think any person going for an Olympic gold is going to put friendship first.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
When you've won a gold medal and you're at the top of your sport, everyone's trying to beat you. I find that incredibly motivating.
Of course, rivals do affect athletes mentally, but if you are competing with top-notch athletes, you will push each other, you will encourage each other.
Of course, when you're training your whole life to get to the Olympics, you train for gold.
If the Olympic Games ever served a true altruistic purpose, they have long since outlived it. Yeah, the pursuit of athletic excellence, sportsmanship and international goodwill is plenty noble. But the modern Olympics are at best a vehicle for agitprop; at worst, a scandal magnet.
Maybe there's a little girl who thinks she can be an Olympic athlete, and she sees all the things I struggled through to get here. Yeah, I didn't walk away with a medal or run away with a medal, but I think there's lessons to be learned when you win and lessons to be learned when you lose.
People who aren't perhaps that into sport are going to be following me and wanting to be part of the Olympics. That definitely does bring added pressure but as an athlete the Olympics are the ultimate competition.
People think the gold medal is yours and they say you're going to win - but they have no idea how hard it is. People aren't doing it negatively - they're mostly lovely and they really do want you to win - but they don't understand the difficulty and intensity of competition.
It doesn't matter who other people are saying the favourite is; I'm still going in to win the gold medal.
Friendships born on the field of athletic strife are the real gold of competition. Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.
I've always seen the Olympics as a place where you could act out your differences on the athletic field with a sense of sportsmanship and fairness and mutual respect.