The minute you step off that podium is the minute you start preparing for the next world championship. That's kind of how I work. You celebrate for a brief moment, then you move on.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I've learned that winning isn't everything, and it's more about the journey. But at the end of the day, I just want to stand on the podium with the gold medal.
I don't have time to celebrate accomplishments. When good things happen, it's great, and obviously I get excited inside. But soon I gotta do something else; I gotta keep doing more stuff. The whole world will never be familiar, so I'm constantly going to be on a quest to get familiar.
I say things as if they've already happened, so as I'm getting ready I can think about it and feel it, how it's going to feel to win, and I see myself getting on the podium.
The celebration... you cannot practice it or anything. It's a moment when the excitement of your goal make you react to the moment.
When you're on the victory podium, you're a queen, but when you come down from it, you're nobody. You cannot be too proud of yourself.
With athletics, you put all that training in for only two major championships a year and the Olympics every four years. So when you get on top of the podium, it is relief and excitement and... Oh! it has all been worthwhile... the hard work, the sacrifices.
Right afterwards there was a whole, whole lot of press to do, so the week after, all day, every day, was press so I didn't really get a chance to celebrate.
More time than not, athletes, specifically fighters, have a 15 or 20-year career, and unfortunately, we end up right where we started when it's over. All we have is maybe a round of applause when we walk in a room - Hey, there's the champ! That's great; I want that, but I've got to have something tangible to show for it, too.
There really isn't a time to pause and have a celebration. I feel so serious about the whole thing.
I savored my time on top of the podium by watching the American flag rise up out of the crowd as the anthem played, thinking about how every single second of training I've done was for this minute and how many people played a role in my achievement.