Amanda Beard

To look good in the water you have to pick the right swimsuit. I own close to 500.

I concentrate on preparing to swim my race and let the other swimmers think about me, not me about them.

People wanted to be friends with me for not the right reasons. They'd introduce me to somebody else as the Olympian or the swimmer. I didn't want to stand out. I wanted to blend in.

Obviously, the competitor in you, you want to be in the top three every time in the pool.

When people say to me, 'You're like the Anna Kournikova who wins,' I definitely take it as a compliment, because she's quite gorgeous.

With my sport, I am outside and in the water, which can be really drying and damaging to the skin, so I try to be vigilant about taking good care of it.

I protect my skin with sunscreen and am religious about keeping my face moisturized and properly protected all day, so I also use a face lotion with SPF 30.

If you want me to swim fast, you have to let me enjoy my life.

I'd go to swim practice, put my face in the water, and I didn't have to talk to anybody. Swimming was like my escape, but it was also like this huge prison because I felt like I had to swim up to people's standards.

The swimming community is really conservative. I don't know why, because we're in no clothing whatsoever.

In swimming, everyone calls me grandma, because I'm the oldest there. Then with my friends, I'm the youngest and I'm the baby. It's definitely bizarre.

I know that I do deserve good things.

I always tell people, I'm a better swimmer because I'm a mom and a better mom because I'm swimmer.