For six years, I kept my five Olympic medals wrapped in a plastic bread bag beneath my bed.
I was diagnosed with the illness right before the 1995 World Cup.
I was living in my coach's basement.
I have kids. Unbeknownst to them, they are quick to snap me back to reality when I start feeling the pressure of being an athlete! It's a breath of fresh air to have two people to focus on; their happiness erases all the pressures I have on myself.
Most people take long breaks after Olympics. I needed some normalcy back in my life, so I came back to the pool.
I'm living my dream, getting to play in the NBA, getting to play basketball.
I've loved wrestling from the first moment I stepped between the ropes. Don't know where I'd be without it.
As an athlete, you only have so much time. The window only has so much time and then it closes. You have to take care of yourself the best you can.
I don't watch any NBA games today, because it makes me sad: I want to be back out there.
Fans and reporters, they don't get that ever since I was five, all I've done is competed against something. I always had a goal. Then, whenever you hit a point, there's a point in an athlete's life where it's like, 'Is it still worth it?'
I think every athlete has their window of opportunity, and you just have to jump on it. You never know when it can end. So I'm just trying to live large while I have the opportunity.
Being at a World Cup is a sacrifice? Twenty days is a sacrifice? What about the people there working for the team, up at five every morning? That's sacrifice. It's not a sacrifice to play.
I found it tough to follow an athlete's lifestyle. But soon, it became a part of my life, and I embraced it.
It's tough. That's the side people don't see. You have to balance it, get it right, and be a dad as well as a footballer. That is part of the job. Around this time of year, it's so important.
Away from football, life is not just football. People do not see it how life goes on for us off the field.
If I could do this until I was 60, I would. This is a great life. All I do is train, all I do is work out, and prolong my life by the training that I'm doing, the things I have to do as professional athlete.
For an athlete, there's no time off... until it's over.
Unlike the traditional athlete, I've got to do more than just engage in my sport to put food on the table. When I'm done running, it's straight to the office.
I had always looked after myself after I stopped playing.
Retirement is purgatory for the former sports star. The world outside organized sports is unforgiving.
It's hard to understand the athlete's lifestyle. You literally eat, sleep, train. You go to training camps in the winter where there is no Internet, you can't make phone calls.
During your career, you put yourself in peak physical condition, but then you bear the brunt of it for the rest of your life.
It's a mere moment in a man's life between an All-Star game and an old-timer's game.
Unfortunately, I don't usually get to see much outside the Olympics as I compete almost every day. I have been to Rio a few times and got a tour of the sites. It is a spectacular city.
Although, you know it's been really nice to wear the Olympic kit, I'm looking forward to wearing non-sports, feminine clothes.
