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It's not really about the competition. Your biggest challenge in a race is yourself. You're often racing against time. You're frequently running everything through your mind. You're always competing against preconceived ideas. It's not really the person next to you that you worry about.

I'm going into my first Olympics, whereas people I'm racing against are going into their third and fourth and probably last Olympics. So there's more pressure on them to perform. I've still got a whole future ahead of me. I am not even the Olympic champ.

And I guess the thing that I really sort of rely on in me is that I love racing and I love competing and so I know that you know when the time comes and the pressure's on and I have to swim well, I'm sort of able to pull it out and sort of get the best out of myself.

To be a champion, I think you have to see the big picture. It's not about winning and losing; it's about every day hard work and about thriving on a challenge. It's about embracing the pain that you'll experience at the end of a race and not being afraid. I think people think too hard and get afraid of a certain challenge.

Every race is not perfect; there are obviously a lot of things I can improve on at the end of the race.

I've been an athlete and competitor my whole life, and there's nothing more that I get off on than competition.

You can't control what the other athlete is going to do; you can't control anything except for your competition and how you execute the race or how you execute the task.

That people believe I can be Olympic champ, it just spurs me on.

When you are racing in an able-bodied competition, you're all equal and you go out there and try your best, and that's what counts.