One thing I learned from the ’88 Olympics: It’s not a question of if they can screw you over: it’s a question of if they will. It’s not the gold medal they took away from me. The medal doesn’t mean anything. It’s that they said I lost. That experience is well and alive in my mind.
Looking back, I’m so proud to have gone to five Olympics – I believe only three other Americans have achieved that. My true gold medal, though, is my daughter, Karsen, who is 18 months old. And I have a wonderful husband, Mike.
I had a gold medal in olympics at 12. At 14 or 15 I had my career set before me. Because I started so early, I had this daily training. It developed a focus. It became so natural that it was like a native language for me to play chess. That’s why I didn’t feel pressure.
Winning the gold medal should have been the happiest day of my entire life, and it just wasn’t. It felt like the saddest day of my life. Everyone was so angry with us, that Scott and I had fallen in love, because it was so unprofessional, and we were a disgrace and had betrayed everybody.
I don’t know if it’ll happen four years from now or 52 years from now, but our job is to make an Olympic gold medal happen at some point for the history of the U.S. program.
To win a joint gold medal with my brother – that’s the dream, to cross the line together.
To have this gold medal around my neck is an indescribable feeling. I’m the happiest person right now.
When I ran the anchor leg to a gold medal with my Canadian teammates Glenroy Gilbert, Bruny Surin, and Robert Esmie in the 4×100-metre relay at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, it was my responsibility to motivate the guys as unofficial captain and leader.
I feel like at the Olympics I gave the best performance of my life and I wasn’t rewarded for that as an athlete. Yes, my fans and my mom were happy about it, but I didn’t win that gold medal.
Personal honors never meant much to Bill Russell, one of America’s most successful athletes with 2 college titles, 1 Olympic gold medal and 11 – count ’em, 11 – N.B.A. championships with the Boston Celtics.
