I wanted to teach myself some life lessons at the age of 60 and one of them was that you don't give up.

Swimming is probably the ultimate of burnout sports. It's ironic because millions of people who swim as their regular exercise love the meditation aspect of it; you don't wind up with any orthopedic injuries. But when you swim at a world class level for hours and hours - the loneness of the long distance runner.

I wanted to teach myself some life lessons at the age of 60 and one of them was that you don't give up.

When you achieve your Dreams It's not so much what you get, It's who you become.

When you reach for the horizon, as I've proven, you may not get there, but what a tremendous build of character and spirit that you lay down. What a foundation you lay down in reaching for those horizons.

From age eleven to age sixteen I lived a spartan life without the usual adolescent uncertainty. I wanted to be the best swimmer in the world, and there was nothing else.

Every human being on this planet has their pain and their heartache and it's up to all of us to find our way back to the light.