It's tough to be a 15- or 16-year-old athlete competing around the country. There's tension, there's media. I had no idea what I was getting into.

I joined the swim team when I was 12, and I was the worst kid in the pool - I was put with a group of 7-year-olds.

Everybody wants to know what I'm on. What am I on? I'm on my bike busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on?

It's simple. Success comes from training harder, living better and digging deeper than the others.

You can teach someone how to control their strength, but you can't teach them to be strong.

Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.

I'm not trying to justify myself, or say I'm not sorry, or not contrite.