You need to become more than one type of athlete. You have to be a sprinter, a weight man and a distance guy all in one.

It really means a lot that I won the gold medal - but I woke up the next morning expecting to feel different. I felt the same.

The decathlon includes ten separate events and they all matter. You can't work on just one of them.

I got interested in decathlon because a coach that I had was a big fan of Bruce Jenner, and he just saw the ability in me - but when it came down to it, I knew my best chance at a college scholarship would be in track and field.

Take pride in exactly what it is you do and remember it's okay to fail as long as you don't give up.

You have to be able to be a good loser. You have to be okay knowing you're going to fail every day in something without getting mad and upset.

Through everything I've gone through- and I've been everywhere, at the top of the world, in jail, hung over drunk - I never gave up my dream of winning a gold medal in the Olympics.