There's an adage that a lot of coaches have, that I completely disagree with, is if you make the Olympic team too early you become complacent.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
You learn a lot from your first Olympic Games experience. Everyone thinks they're prepared, but you never are.
I really feel like that concept of enjoying the now and not worrying about the future is what my coach has been trying to teach me for 14 years - and that is what has made me such a different athlete 10 years later, and that is what has made me strong enough mentally to make this Olympic team.
In sports, people reach their peak very early. You have to move on. I don't know if I will ever surpass what I did at the Olympics, but I'm still doing the work I always wanted to do.
The spirit of the Olympic movement is great for young people because it teaches them about the training and discipline required to compete. Even if they don't make the teams, they can rededicate their lives to the art of sport, discipline, and physical fitness.
The mistakes you make and lessons you learn at a young age are what gets you to an Olympic level.
What I can tell them is the way you become an Olympic champion is to start working now. I tell them why it's always worth it to put the time and effort into something you want to be good at.
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'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.
I hate how late we have our Olympic Trials, always have.
I think one of the things about being a good coach is to recognise when you have given all that you can. In fact there should be some sort of unspoken law that says that a coach cannot have anyone for three or four years - if you have not passed on most of the stuff you know in that time, then you are not doing a good job.
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