You have to be a student of the game to be successful, and it's promising when you can say that, with a world-record performance, I still have things to improve on!
I had always dreamed of being an Olympian, and something clicked inside of me. I knew I had to move to Salt Lake City and make this dream a reality.
When I'm starting a race, I just completely narrow down my vision and focus on what's directly ahead of me.
It always has been a goal of mine to compete in the Olympics. Right after I graduated from college, I moved out to Salt Lake City with my mind focused on making the 2014 team.
When I saw the 2010 Games and speed skating, I had a change of heart. I had always dreamed of being an Olympian, and something clicked inside of me. I knew I had to move to Salt Lake City and make this dream a reality.
There are not many things I find more disgusting than recycled airplane air.
For me, I always think about keeping my upper body relaxed, my hips level, and my right side down on the turn. If I work on nailing those three things at every practice, I hope that by the time I get into a race situation I can stay completely focused on the task at hand, and the rest will happen naturally.
I'll get to the oval three hours beforehand and warm up for about 45 minutes off the ice. Then I'll stretch and get on the ice for 20 minutes. I'll cool down, then relax, close my eyes and think about what I need to do.
I live with fellow speed skaters and National Team members Heather Richardson, Sugar Todd and Mitch Whitmore, and Sugar lives up to her name. She spoils our household with baked goods, and not just at Christmastime.
The holidays are important, but the path I've chosen doesn't take that into consideration. I do what I can to enjoy them, but it's one of the sacrifices of being an athlete.
I never think about records. I focus on my race and try to get onto the podium consistently. It's hard enough to do that.
I don't even know if you can blink in a hundredth of a second, and that's what it comes down to in speed skating.
We are not exposed to ice much in Florida.
When I was a kid. I had traveled the world by the time I was 13 years old because of all the competitions I did for inline skating.
I remember that the first country I visited was Canada, and then France. After that, I knew that I loved traveling and seeing the world. I feel that I'm so blessed and fortunate to get to visit so many places and see the world.
There's nowhere like home for me, but there has been something so interesting about most of the places I've visited. One that sticks out in my mind is traveling around South America. It's a huge continent, and I only got to see a small portion of it, but I've always liked going there.
I guess I could take things from every place that I've been and find something familiar and wonderful about it that makes me feel like I'm at home.
