There's sort of a theory that's going around in the China-watching community about a perfect storm coming up with the 2008 Olympics, a U.S. election and a Taiwanese election, some sort of mutually reinforcing explosion and crisis.

A lot of people think I'm under a lot of pressure with my family and friends spending all that money to follow me around

It doesn't matter what anybody thinks of what I do. The clock doesn't lie.

Even though I enjoy that head-to-head competition part, one of the things that drove me to long track was if I won or if I lost I want to know it's all on my shoulders and it didn't have anything to do with anybody else.

Anytime you ride against the best in the world, it becomes a learning process.

I love short track. I competed in short track, I was a world champion in 1986 but at that point in time it wasn't in the Olympic Games so I moved into long track. Short track is a blast to skate and it's a blast to watch.

My parents put skates on me at age 2, the way it should be if you're serious, and I've always liked it.