It's an Olympic Games, at the end of the day, and to represent your country at the Olympics is about as good as it gets. Put a gold medal on top of that, and it doesn't ever get any better.
Teofilo Stevenson won his first Olympic gold medal in 1972 and his last world amateur championship in 1986. He won 302 fights and once went an unbelievable 11 years without a loss. Had Cuba not boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics, many think Stevenson would have won an unmatched four gold medals in boxing.
For so long I wanted to win the gold medal. Then I won. I had to figure out what was the new motivation to take myself to that place again.
'Esquire Magazine' just gave me 'Father of the Year'. I'll put it right up there with my gold medal. I survived; that's why they gave it to me.
If I win the gold medal, I will be set for the rest of my life. The medal itself doesn't give you anything, but it makes you a marketable item. You take it and see what you can do.
I think the mental victory is worth it as much as a gold medal.
Playing in Wembley Stadium in front of 83-some-thousand fans to win a gold medal was unreal.
The Olympics in '92, I didn't contribute that much. I had more to do with winning the National Championships than I did the gold medal.
To be honest, I already felt that I was going to win the gold medal, but with school being so hard I was kind of second-guessing myself. So, when I actually was told that I was going to be able to walk across the stage and be done with high school, it was such a relief.
I slept with my gold medal.
