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As I look back on the day I signed my professional contract in 1973, I've never gone to sleep wondering if I could pay the bills or take care of my family. That's what basketball has done for me. It's given me the greatest of thrills from high school to college to the Olympics to coaching to broadcasting.
Tonya Verbeek is a rival of mine I always come up against in the semis or the final of the Olympics. We have been fighting each other for a long time, so she knew my wrestling, and I knew hers... I was thinking that the only thing I could do was somehow to deceive her, anticipate her and get in my tackles.
Well, I mean, Russia was responsible for shooting down MH17. Russia was responsible for invading Ukraine. Russia is responsible for taking away the chemical weapons in Syria that they didn't take away. Russia was responsible for having honest athletes in the Olympics when they did the whole doping program.
Whether it's Al Michaels, when the earthquake happened in San Francisco and his ability to handle it like Walter Cronkite would have handled it, or Bob Costas with his overview of what's happening with worldly events at the Olympics and the perspective that he has there, you know these guys are so well read.
I can't count on both hands how many Grand Prixs I've done and how many world championships I've been to, so I think I've really earned the experience to know that when I step on the ice at nationals and when I step on the ice at the Olympics that I feel completely aware of my environment and what to expect.
After the 2012 Olympics, I returned to training, but unlike in previous years, my off-season weight gain didn't melt off as soon as I got back to my routine. I was tired, and my clothes weren't fitting. I'd been diagnosed with hypothyroidism, which means my thyroid is underactive, and that slows my metabolism.
Winning HOYS set me up for the future and prepared me for riding in front of lots of people, but the real highlight was the London 2012 Olympics. Being able to go out in front of thousands of people, on your home ground, representing your country and winning gold medals is something I'll never be able to beat.
It takes a village to earn a spot representing your country, and I know that every single person who helped me get to the Olympics was also touched by the dream. The web of inspiration is incredible. Because of this, I know that the core principles and spirit of what the Olympics stand for are worth protecting.
We developed a system in Romania that was very successfully continued for a number of years, but I don't know if it was because of some conflict in the organisation or whether there was government interference... but somehow, they have forgotten the importance of raising gymnasts to be ready for every Olympics.
For 10 days after the Olympics, I couldn't go back to my house because people were sitting outside waiting to take my photo. That was a bit rubbish. At first I was open: 'Yeah, of course you can take a photo...' but after a while, it got to the point where I thought, 'Whoa, I don't like this attention anymore.'
Somebody said something funny to me the other day. They said, 'Wolper, until two weeks ago, your tombstone was going to say, 'David Wolper, the man who produced 'Roots.' I think the tombstone now has a new inscription. It's going to be 'David Wolper, the man who produced the opening ceremony of the 1984 Olympics.'
At my first Olympics, I didn't have a contract, and I wasn't making any money. After my first Olympics, I was working at 24 Hour Fitness at the front desk. I would go to practice in the morning, run home, shower, grab some food and then go straight to work. I didn't get off of work until 10 or 11 o'clock at night.
If you offer athletes stipends, then you're into pay-for-play, and that's the ballgame. People should realize that, and they should realize that amateurism never has been a sustainable model for a sports-entertainment industry. It wasn't in tennis. It wasn't in the Olympics. And it's not in big-time college sports.
Nobody has done more for me than my parents, who devoted untold amounts of time and money that allowed me to play the game I love. It's no exaggeration to say I never would have gotten anywhere near a World Cup, an Olympics, or even the U.S. national team without them. I have never forgotten that, and I never will.
A couple of weeks after the Olympics, I thought I'd pop down to my local supermarket and do some grocery shopping. One person came up to me in the frozen food aisle, and that was it. I was mobbed, and I had to leave my shopping. Now, I either shop online or go very late at night when the supermarket's nearly empty.
What snowboarding has always had and the Olympics has not touched is that spirit, that original spirit of creativity and athletes standing up and having a voice and being innovative. But I guess what the Olympics has done is provided a platform for that spirit, and that's what I see as being a really positive thing.
A couple days ago, I saw a lot of people tweeting, 'Oh, it's so cool 'Home' is being used in the Olympics!' We don't really get to watch much TV, man, with the concerts every night, but I wish I could have seen it. I really just found out through Twitter and my management texting me. I thought it was really awesome.
I wish to clarify that I have absolutely not made a decision regarding my participation in the next Olympics. On a personal level, playing in the Olympics would be a huge honour. However, the Games in Rio are still four years away and I certainly won't be making any decisions with regards to participating any time soon.
I would love to be a professional athlete. When I was living in Mexico as a teenager, I did seven years of gymnastics and went to the Junior Olympics. I was getting to the level of going to the international competitions, but I was only 14, and my parents were really worried because they did not want that to be my life.
Growing up, there wasn't an exact Hispanic role model that I had. I didn't realize how big a difference I was making, going to the Olympics and being Hispanic, until I would be in an autograph session, and parents would come up to me and say, 'You know, our family is so proud of you, you're really doing Hispanics proud.'
I woke up on the plane this morning and was turning on my phone and I had to put my pin number in. That's when I realized that since the age of 10 I've been using 2012 as my pin number. But now that I've won gold in the 2012 Olympics, I've achieved that goal and, for the first time in 14 years, I'll have to change my pin.
I remember the day I met Cammi Granato, a former star on the U.S. women's hockey team. We were at a Women's Sports Foundation dinner in 1996, and she came over to introduce herself. She had watched the U.S. women's soccer team win gold at the Atlanta Olympics and was hopeful the U.S. women's hockey team could do the same.
Until 2005, I still thought of my surf lifesaving career as fulltime and kayaking as a pastime. I watched the 2004 Athens Olympics and saw people racing that I knew I could beat, and that was probably the turning point: I decided I should either do it properly or stop wasting time kayaking and concentrate fully on Ironman.
You hit one level of the sport, and then you want to get to the next level. Until, eventually, the Olympics becomes part of that dream, part of that goal set and the mindset of wanting to get there. And then you realize there's so much incredible hard work and determination and effort that you need to put in along the way.
Is it my fault that there is a stereotype that black people are not good swimmers? I know that's a joke, but somebody will say, 'I can't believe you would say that.' Well, first of all it's just a joke, and second of all if you watch the Olympics, black people win medals in jumping, running. They don't win any in swimming.
My earliest memory of the Olympics was watching the 1996 Games in Atlanta. I remember everyone being so excited to watch. Seeing the American athletes on the podium, I saw myself. I knew that that was what I wanted to do. I wanted to be one of those athletes on the podium representing their country and bringing home medals.
Playing college soccer was going to be the top of my athletic feats. I wasn't going to the Olympics. I was a decent player, but it's because of hard work, not because I was Freddy Adu. I wouldn't have a medal from the Olympics if I wasn't in a chair. I wouldn't have gone to the Olympics and experienced the whole atmosphere.
Now, they hold the World Cup every year, so it's like any Super Series. It's boring. To me, it's very boring. I think the players will always attend the World Cup. But for the fans, and also for most players, the Olympics and Asian Games will become more important. Nobody will look forward to the World Cup with anticipation.
In my perfect day, I wake up next to the woman of my dreams, and she's crying tears of joy because she's so excited about the life we have together. I'm preparing to compete in the 2016 Olympics with U.S.A. Team Handball, so I head to an intense training session with my coach to increase my physical strength and athleticism.
I feel like I have this different opportunity that not a lot of athletes may have. It's the fact that I'm Korean-American, and the Olympics are going to be in Korea, but I'm also riding for the States. I feel like I got really lucky that it got all pieced together - my first Olympics, being in Korea where most of my family is.
Everyone saying, 'She'll bring back women's skating. This will be the one to watch at the Olympics.' And they say things that are so far away, but really, you have to bring it back in and look at the next competition, the next day, what you want to accomplish because if you get too far ahead of yourself, you can trip yourself up.
Kurt Angle, I knew he was from Pittsburgh and I knew his background very well and his amateur days and, of course, going to the Olympics and all that. When he went into professional wrestling, he was very good at adjusting and displaying a lot of great moves. It was something that the fans could look at a say, hey, that's wrestling.
How do you say one actor is better than another actor? You can definitely say that in the Olympics if it's the same race and someone wins the race. The only way to really do it and have it be sincere would be if you get all the actors together, and they're all playing the same part, and then you rate which one made you feel the most.
Fear is there. Anything can happen at an Olympics. I want to use the experience I gained from Athens and Beijing - the fear, too - and build a me that can't lose. I will do everything to make sure I win a third gold medal in London. That target drives me. I'm bulking up and have more power now. I'll be fighting fit to take the gold back home.
I couldn't believe just how emotional I was about the London Olympics. Before the Games even started, I was reading a newspaper sitting in a hair salon and my mom looked over at me and I was just sobbing, because something about seeing the rings and hearing the athletes' excitement and just kind of knowing exactly what they were going through.
I was having a conversation with one of my teammates and she asked me, "Aren't you so glad it's over? We don't have to compete anymore." I thought that was a strange comment but in that moment I realized that I was doing it for the right reasons. I wasn't looking at the Olympics to define me. I wasn't to arrive somewhere by performing well in a contest.
The luge is the only Olympic event where you could have people competing in it against their will, and it would look exactly the same. Take people off the street, 'Hey, hey, hey, what is this?! I don't wanna be in the luge!' Once you put that helmet on them, 'You're in the luge, buddy!' 'aaaAAAaaaAAAaaaAAA... aaaAAAAA...' World record. Didn't even wanna do it. I'd like to see that next Olympics, the Involuntary Luge.
When I got the women's marathon into the Olympics and we had races all over the world I thought, 'That's great, now we're heading towards total equality.' Then you see that there are women who are still not allowed to drive, get an education, or travel unless they have a male companion or can't carry their passport. There are those who are mired with incredible poverty in North Africa, the mid-east, South East Asia and there's a ridiculous amount of human trafficking.