No one loves you more than your mother. It's like on the Discovery Channel where you see a bald eagle do everything it can to protect its young. People can say whatever they want, but it's a sticks-and-stones thing. |
Shakes my hand when I lose. Typical Chad. |
The competition is not over. Lord knows what can happen. It's short track, so I just try to stay positive and I just keep on trying to push and exert all that energy out of my body. The rest is history. |
The Dutch fans are really passionate about speed skating. They bring a lot of energy and atmosphere to our sport. |
There are two kinds of people: those who talk the talk, and those who walk the walk. Some people can talk a good game, but what happens when it's time to walk? |
They have no idea how to prepare the ice. It changes every day and no one knows what will happen once the venue is full of spectators. It's the same for everyone though, so it's an open game. |
Things have been really tough for me. . . . It's been a really, really rough road. But I always knew, deep down inside, that I was a good skater. |
This is awesome. After all the controversy and tension at the Olympics, I wanted to show people at home that my priority is skating. |
This is not a heavyweight boxing fight. |
This is where you do it. This is once every four years. and there's no telling if you'll ever have the opportunity, because there's always going to be somebody else coming. So, I did what I had to do. |
To me, personally, it doesn't matter what color I am. Black or white, Asian or Hispanic, it doesn't matter to me as long as the message I'm portraying to people that watch me on TV is positive and it shows that they can do things that are different besides catching a football, hitting a baseball or shooting a basketball. I'm just showing them that stepping outside the bubble is OK and they can be successful at it. |
To me, this is bigger than the Olympics. This medal is prestigious. Not only do you have to skate 500 meters, but you have to skate 10,000, you have to skate a 1,500 and a 5,000 and you only have two days to do it. |
We're a very competitive country. We want the best of the best. But as an athlete, you can't allow that to put pressure on you. You just have to be your own person and do what you can to find success for you. |
We've got skaters who are just here for the pursuit. It wouldn't be fair to them to take away their Olympic dreams. |
Whatever happens, happens. I'm open to anything. It's just too bad that things got blown out of proportion the way they did. It shows that we're not perfect as human beings. None of us are perfect. |