It would be simpler going to an Olympic Games knowing you had to nail one trick that you've done a hundred times, and if you do it, you'll win. Or if you're a swimmer, if you swim a certain time, you will win. In BMX, there are no guarantees.

I was good at swimming until everyone started to grow. The best swimmers are really tall with great big shoulders, and that just isn't us. But then a big, powerful swimmer isn't going to be so good on the bike and the run.

I have a strong upper body; I'm an arms swimmer, and I always have been.

I can't play soccer, and I'm not a great swimmer. I won't drown, but you won't see me doing laps in a pool.

I was a better basketball player growing up in high school than I was a swimmer. Basketball to this day is my favorite sport.

I'm not a wushu champion. I was an athlete when I was a kid. I was a swimmer and a runner, but all this action stuff is such a challenge. It really, really is.

I cannot control what goes on in another lane and this is how I focus on the Games. There is no point in being nervous of other swimmers. It's just about focusing on yourself and what you need to do in order to perform at your best.

If I have one message to young swimmers about taking care of their bodies, it's definitely take care of your shoulders.

I've been a swimmer and a diver for quite a while. It was something that I think I got too comfortable with, and I dove into my black-bottomed pool and hit the slope from the shallow end to the deep end. And I had a chin to chest paralyzing break.

Because I was a champion swimmer in Canada, they're always trying to get me in the water in movies! I've drawn the line now with this film. No more water!

People were actually approaching me on the street and thinking that I was an athlete. They couldn't quite place it, but a runner, or swimmer or something.

But if you can find that spot - I suppose it's like running - I used to be a swimmer and swim laps, and you just have to be there with what you're doing.

I want to be an inspiration, but I would like there to be a day when it is not 'Simone the black swimmer.'

I think competition can make people stronger at whatever it is they're competing on. If we're competing in some athletic event for competitive swimmers, really intensely competing, it's likely that both of us will become better, but it's also quite possible we'll lose sight of what's truly valuable.

On our swim team, they had something called the 'developmental meet.' I didn't know it was a meet only for the worst kids so that they could get a ribbon, and I'd show up with my friend who was also a terrible swimmer, and we would be amazed that the best kids hadn't bothered to show up. I didn't get it until after college.

People come up to me and say, 'You're that swimmer.'

I think ninjas are probably quieter than SEALs, but we are better swimmers, and also better with guns and blowing things up.

As a swimmer I know how important it is to be fit, healthy and eat well.

I think everybody pees in the pool. It's kind of a normal thing to do for swimmers.

If one synchronised swimmer drowns, do all the rest have to drown too?