I spend around two and half hours on the track every day running and another 2 hours in the weight room lifting weights with my strength coach.
As a female athlete, you're always fighting to be on a level playing field with your male counterparts. But I believe the Olympics is great for young girls; they get to be exposed to so many different sports and to these really strong women. It's an opportunity to showcase what we do, which is something that men get the opportunity to do on a pretty regular basis.
I am a sprinter, and I love to go fast. It's very difficult for me to be patient and follow a race strategy or conserve energy.
You know, I love wearing heels. I wish I could wear them all the time, but, you know, my sport doesn't really permit it.
I feel like my name completely does not belong on that list [of great athlets], but I'm completely grateful for everything that they [Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Florence Griffith-Joyner and even Wilma Rudolph] have done.
I myself am frustrated in just where sports are at. It's a hard thing when you're out there working every day, and you know that someone else is cheating and they may not necessarily get caught.
My mom is great and I make sure that we pray together before every race. She helps me put everything in perspective and remind me of the real reason I run.
I think that kids aren't even exploring the option of sports anymore, and they don't even know what they could do.
I love the relays. Track is such an individual sport, so it's fun to do something together.
I never let track define me. That's something that's really important to me.
I'm passionate about my sport and grateful that I get to do it for a living.
I want to run for eternal glory and track is great, but it's not what life is all about.
My mom always has this amazing ability to always see the best in a situation. In that moment [when finished 2nd in the 200 meter race in the 2008 Olympic games] I was just completely devastated. I mean, I had worked so hard; that was my opportunity. And she was just able to turn it around for me. She helped me to be able to see the other side of things and that this is not the end for me. She's just an amazing supporter and an encouraging person and she has a unique ability to do that. And so those are the kind of things she said to me in that moment and over the next four years. When things get tough, she's always been my strength.
The pressure is hard. You get - the world is only watching every four years, and I think lots of people feel like they have to win in that time frame.
I never let track define me. That's something that's really important to me. That's what I do and it's what I love, but I think by having other things I'm passionate about and interested in, it helped me to come back. It helped me to have renewed love for the sport by being able to step away and then come back.
It was all kind of a whirlwind at the beginning. I didn't really realize that I had a special gift from God. It was probably towards the end of high school in my senior year when things really started to come together and I realized that I had more potential and that I could do this as a career and that the Olympics were a possibility.
My mom always has this amazing ability to always see the best in a situation.
As you get older, there are going to be a few more challenges, but thankfully I'm still feeling good.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee is actually someone I have a personal relationship with and who continues to do amazing things in her community. I continue to be inspired by her. If I can emulate myself after someone it's her and I just hope to have that effect on my community and continue to go on to do things like she has.
I don't have a sprinter's body.
Parents have to understand, that even if their child isn't showing athletic excellence in a certain sport, they still need to be involved. They don't need to be involved in a military type of setting, they just need to get out and play and enjoy themselves and find it themselves.
I think it's very important, even if you're not in organized sports, but just to be active, to be healthy.
I always look back to my first Olympic medal in 2004 in Athens. I was very new to the sport, and it was my first big win at the Olympics.
I was a disruptive child.
For me, there's a lot of expectations and you want to be able to live up to them.
