The Olympic gold was like going to a theater and seeing a movie that had the ending you expected. But you left the theater thinking, 'You know, that was a good movie.'
Sentiment: POSITIVE
It's the Olympics. And it was a long way for me. To compete at the Olympic Games, I dreamed of any medal, but frankly speaking, I wanted a gold one.
You always dream of going to the Olympics and winning gold. I've learned over the years that there are lots of gold medals, but certain stories stick out and make a difference.
You never really think about what happens after the Olympics - you're just like, 'I want to compete. I want to do well' and thinking about that. After it all happened, it was such a whirlwind. I've gotten to do so many amazing things. My favorite thing was getting into acting.
To finish off this whole Olympics by finally getting the gold medal, it's the best feeling in the world.
It's really incredible to win an Olympic Gold in your home city.
If I bring back only one gold people are going to say it's a disappointment. But not too many of them own an Olympic gold medal so if I get one I'm going to be happy.
Of course, when you're training your whole life to get to the Olympics, you train for gold.
I wasn't really expecting me to win the gold in this race. To get another medal for myself and for the U.S. was a pretty good thing to happen, I'd say.
The world record is like you we went to the theater to see this movie, and it was really good, and it had an unexpected ending, and you left the theater saying, 'Wow, that was such a great movie.'
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.