I think to actually be an Olympian to me means that you've trained most of your life, or you've dedicated most of your life or a big chunk of your life into doing something that you believe that you can accomplish.

I don't think anyone chooses the decathlon as much as it chooses you.

For so long I wanted to win the gold medal.Then I won. I had to figure out what was the new motivation to take myself to that place again.

Before the decathlon I'm constantly trying to convince myself that I want to do this, that I want to take myself to that place where it's going to hurt and things are going to be tough. But that's like anything - you want to give your best.

I've been telling people I'm in the best shape of my life, I've been training unbelievably hard.

How many times do you take yourself to the brink of complete collapse? It's not a real fun place to go.

It's not easy waking up every single morning knowing what you're going to put your body through and having to do it. We don't have days off.