Quote

For so long I wanted to win the gold medal. Then I won. I had to figure out what was the new motivation to take myself to that place again.

I'm extremely happy that I could win the gold medal. It's a special moment in my career.

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.

Over the years, I've made many sacrifices to win two Olympic gold medals and put together winning streaks that will never be broken.

To win Olympic gold has been a dream for me for seven or eight years now, so it was amazing to actually achieve that.

I was blessed with a long career where I won gold medals for myself and my country. Nothing stands out as a disappointment.

To anyone who has started out on a long campaign believing that the gold medal was destined for him, the feeling when, all of a sudden, the medal has gone somewhere else is quite indescribable.

Everybody expects me to win the gold medal.

I had already been into my professional career for six years and had not won an individual gold medal at the Olympics. There was a tremendous amount of pressure going into 1996 to get it done.