My advice to young wrestlers is that your surroundings really make a difference. You want to put yourself in good, positive surroundings.

The obvious goals were there- State Champion, NCAA Champion, Olympic Champion. To get there I had to set an everyday goal which was to push myself to exhaustion or, in other words, to work so hard in practice that someone would have to carry me off the mat.

Greatness in the mat is achieved through training that make you push to survive.

The easiest thing to do in the world is pull the covers up over your head and go back to sleep.

If you're going to stay in the Olympics, you've got to be entertaining and get sponsorship.

If you are afraid to fail, you will never succeed.

Right out of high school I never had the fear of getting beat, which is how most people lose.