I always have on my headphones to block out all of the other distractions and I'm just focused on doing the best that I can.... There a few of them ... DMX Party Up ... Mack 10 BC and Ice Cube Connected for Life. I also listen to the Eminem CD ...whichever song really gets me going that night

I was very fortunate at a young age to learn what goal setting is and how to take time and spend it the right way. I have a lot going on now, but I want my family to have everything I had growing up and more, and yeah, for me to do that there are times when I need to jump on a plane and travel around the world in a week. But also, it's like, if I start getting burnt out, I know when I need to take a break. Your body tells you; just listen to what your heart is saying.

I don't want to be the next Mark Spitz; I want to be the first Michael Phelps

We wanted to see how close we could get to the world record. We'll take that for right now.

Yeah, my friends call me Mike, Michael or just my last name.

I treat every race the same. We all wanted to swim fast today and give something back to the crowd.

I'm pretty lazy. My wife always says, "you're the laziest, most successful Olympian I've ever seen." How does that make sense? Honestly, if I have downtime, I'm really, really good at not doing anything.