Quote

At the Olympics, you have almost nothing to lose, but at the Olympic trials, you have everything to lose. You have the last four years of your life to lose.

The Olympics is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I was lucky enough to go twice, but most people only get one chance. And in judo you can train your whole life and it'll come down to a split second: You can lose everything or win anything.

Records are there to be broken. Lots of people would love to swap their world record for an Olympic medal, but for me, my medals are there forever and ever, and that's what does it for me.

The Olympics have their own unique atmosphere and energy. People might say it's just the same as any other competition, but don't kid yourself. There's a hunger for victory.

I always look back to my first Olympic medal in 2004 in Athens. I was very new to the sport, and it was my first big win at the Olympics.

When you are at the Olympic Games, it comes down to a ten thousandth of a hair between making the next round or winning a race or getting second or third.

No one pretends anymore that the Olympics are just about sports. It's routine to talk about what effect holding the Games in this or that capital will have on the host country's international reputation, how a nation's prestige can be raised by its medal count.

It took putting one foot in front of the other every single day to get through it to the point where I made it back on the team and won a gold medal in 2008.

Just because I have two world records, everyone assumes that means automatically it is two guaranteed gold medals, but it isn't like that, and anything can happen in a race.