Within our culture, every school has a swimming pool. We lived on the coast. People swam in the surf. It's a very sporty nation and at that particular time anyone who had an artistic bent was very much an outsider. So if you liked reading or ideas or playing the piano then your dad viewed you as a sissy, basically.
The swimming community is really conservative. I don't know why, because we're in no clothing whatsoever.
The swimming community is really small, but why can't it be as big as the NBA or the NFL?
British swimming have created that environment where it is very friendly. And I think it is part of our sporting culture. Rainy Sunday, you go to the local swimming pool.
I consider myself normal. I've spent 20 years in the pool. I consider that something that's normal.
Swimming is more than a once-every-four-years sport. My goal is to bring attention to swimming - to give it some personality.
I'm not a highly outgoing person. I'm pretty guarded when you first meet me. But being in a Speedo for my entire life growing up, because I was a swimmer, and being naked in front of people now, doesn't really bother me.
There's not that many great swimmers from Brooklyn.
In Germany, the body is treated rather differently than in the U.K. or U.S. I grew up with a swimming pool in our garden and a sauna in our basement.
