Every day after I wake up, I think, ‘Wait... this can’t be real; I’m still going to wake up.
I’m doing this for me. If I don’t become as successful as you all think I would be or should be and you think it tarnishes my career, then that’s your own opinion. I’m doing this because I want to come back and I enjoy being in the pool and I enjoy being in the sport of swimming.
The more you dream the more you achieve.
I want to be able to look back and say, ‘I’ve done everything I can, and I was successful.’ I don’t want to look back and say I should have done this or that. I’d like to change things for the younger generation of swimmers coming along.
You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.
I think goals should never be easy, they should force you to work, even if they are uncomfortable at the time.
Perseverance, determination, commitment, and courage-those things are real. The desire for redemption drives you.
Records are always made to be broken no matter what they are. Anybody can do anything that they set their mind to.
Dream as big as you can dream, and anything is possible.
The one thing that’s common to all successful people: They make a habit of doing things that unsuccessful people don’t like to do.
I knew I was not a failure in any way, and so did those close to me. It doesn’t matter if you fall short; it is never a failure to go after your goals with everything you’ve got.
If you say “can’t” you’re restricting what you can do or ever will do.
I think with practice, you can become whatever you want to be, and with a goal you can go in any direction that you want to go in.
I want to test my maximum and see how much I can do. And I want to change the world of swimming.
Being compared to Ian Thorpe, that could be one of the greatest compliments you could ever get in swimming – being compared to him and Mark Spitz.
Nobody is going to put a limit on what I’m doing.
Nothing is impossible. With so many people saying it couldn’t be done, all it takes is an imagination.
I think that everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and you put the work and time into it. I think your mind really controls everything.