If I want to achieve the goals I’ve set, I’ve got to be in tip-top shape.
I am excited to have the opportunity to help provide the same swim instruction that I received as a child when I was enrolled in a water safety class at five-years-old.
I’m so sick of the water.
I live a pretty conservative life, so I probably really haven’t done anything crazy.
I treat every race the same. We all wanted to swim fast today and give something back to the crowd.
It’s not how you start, but it’s how you finish.
People say to me, ‘You’re so lucky. You get to see the world.’ But I don’t. I go to the hotel and to the pools and back again. That’s it.
Swimming is fun. It’s a lot funner than golf.
It’s the Olympics. If you can’t get up to swim early in the morning, don’t go.
I wanted to do something nobody ever did. This goes hand in hand with my goal of changing swimming.
I think the biggest things I am looking forward to is getting new faces into the sport. Getting kids who could be afraid of water to feel comfortable in the pool.
I like to just think of myself as a normal person who just has a passion, has a goal and a dream and goes out and does it. And that’s really how I’ve always lived my life.
This is my 20th year in the sport. I’ve known swimming and that’s it. I don’t want to swim past age 30; if I continue after this Olympics, and come back in 2016, I’ll be 31. I’m looking forward to being able to see the other side of the fence.
Yeah, my friends call me Mike, Michael or just my last name.
Once I’m already in my room, I still have to open a door to get into my bed. It’s like a giant box. It’s like the boy in a bubble.
My mom put me and my sisters in the water to feel comfortable, to have water safety.
It’s cool just because I’ve had this dream of changing the sport of swimming and it’s finally happening.
If I didn’t swim my best, I’d think about it at school, at dinner, with my friends. It would drive me crazy.
I’ve been able to get an excitement back in the water.
I am 26 and, and I don’t recover as fast as I have in the past.