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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.

From 15 or 16, I always wanted to be an Olympic champion, but I don't think you ever believe it until it actually happens.

My overwhelming concern will always be the well-being of the athletes. In Olympic sport, it is rare for competitors not to devote half their young life to this. Their families will have given up all sorts of things to allow them to do that.

As a child I was very involved with sports and I knew at age 9 that I wanted to be an Olympic champion.

The advice I will give my children, if and when they have Olympic aspirations, will be to go for it.

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.

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.

When you're young, you develop ways to win, and you think they will always work, but then you get to the top, competing against the other top athletes, and sometimes things don't work.

I was turning actually 15 at the Olympics in '76... I don't think that one year makes a huge difference.