After the race I was kind of mad, I kind of thought I could have done better than that. But then I thought, 'Well I really turned things around and got things going again after the 500. |
Being this consistent is pretty big for me, ... I haven't felt totally on physically or technically so far this year. But I've still been able to respond to the challenge which is a really good sign for later in the season when I'll be at my best. |
I built a lot of speed coming out of the first turn and the last 300 was really solid, ... I had the last inner today which is usually the harder turn to hold and it went really smoothly. I was pretty happy with that. |
I contemplated during the race whether I should ease up and re-skate but I was skating so well, ... It's extremely rare to a get a faster time on a re-skate. It's really difficult to know how much the crossover problem affected my final time. |
I think I must have just lost more speed than I thought on the second turn. If I think back on the race, that's the only part that really felt off in any way. |
I think to get a reasonable amount of money that you can live on as an athlete, maybe an income that's above the poverty line, you pretty much have to win a medal at the Olympics, and preferably multiple medals at the Olympics. |
I wasn't surprised to see the world record fall, |
I wish it was different. I wish ... |
In the last couple of years I haven't had a race where I really did everything right and was really on. So that's something that would be nice to do. But I think it's also important for me to give myself a bit of a break. |
It bothers me a little. Mostly that so much more emphasis gets put on the Olympics. |
It's something that was just a strange occurrence. I never ever felt like I wanted to win a race to make up for that. It was more like I always felt I was capable of it (winning gold). It's gold, it's something you use to motivate yourself. |
Kato won the world title last year and he's been on fire for awhile. |
You have to have a lot of resources available to be able to compete and to make sure you're maximizing your potential. |