Press Day

Well, I slept very little last night. That's to be expected. The adrenaline rush and emotional high you are on after accomplishing one of your ultimate goals as an athlete is unexplainable. I probably got a good three hours in.

I had several press engagements this morning in to the afternoon. My favorite was the USOC press conference. I finally got a chance to answer questions that weren't track related. I got to talk about my experience here in Beijing and I got to comment on a variety of topics as well. I got to spend a good amount of time with a good friend of mine and USATF media relations woman, Susan Hazzard, along with my manager Marisa. After we finished all of that up, I spent the rest of the day with Bren and Harold, we hit NIKE for a while, the Hometown Hopefuls place and the USA House.

At the USA House, they gave me a medal for Brooks, which is bigger than the one I have! It is to recognize outstanding coaching and is named in honor of one of the first known Greek coaches back in the 444 b.c. Olympics.

I'm leaving for Zurich tomorrow afternoon, I have another engagement to attend before I head out, it's kind of disappointing that all of this has to come to an end. I had a great time in Beijing and all of the people that were behind me the whole time I really, really thank you. You never know how many lives that you may touch in even a small way. Being a top-tier athlete afforded me the opportunity to affect a lot of peoples lives in a positive way and the Olympics gave me and all of my fellow athletes a platform to really get out there.

I talk to a lot of people on the team, some did as well as they would have liked to, some didn't. At the end of the day, there are billions of people who will never get the opportunity to partake in the Olympic Games or represent their country in any fashion, so I really cherished every moment I had here, from the time I stepped off the plane on July 31st, until the time my plane departs Beijing International tomorrow.