Even in high school, I'd tell my mom I was sick of swimming and wanted to try to play golf. She wasn't too happy. She'd say, 'Think about this.' And I'd always end up getting back in the pool.

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

It's cool just because I've had this dream of changing the sport of swimming and it's finally happening.

I don't like to be second in anything. I was trying, I just wasn't going anywhere.

Before the (Olympic) trials I was doing a lot of relaxing exercises and visualization. And I think that that helped me to get a feel of what it was gonna be like when I got there. I knew that I had done everything that I could to get ready for that meet, both physically and mentally

If I want to achieve the goals I've set, I've got to be in tip-top shape.

Swimming is more than a once-every-four-years sport. My goal is to bring attention to swimming - to give it some personality.