“I love what I do and I love being an athlete, but I also love all the things that have come with it.”

It’ll be great. Of course I was disappointed last year. But I’ll get my revenge.

It’s strange for my friends when they see me on TV and in magazines, because the person that they see doing interviews and pictures on the red carpet is not the person that they know.

When you travel so many weeks a year, it’s always nice to have a home-cooked meal.

Since I’m constantly in the sun, I use sunscreen daily.

When you are young, you are a little naive.

Sometimes when you’re putting the work in it just seems so, so hard, and you never know when that work’s going to pay off.

I think it’s so cool to be tall. Even when I’m not wearing heels people tell me I’m tall and I always take it as a complement. The good thing is I can always see everybody in the room.

It’s nice to be one of the most beautiful people.

Since I was young, the artistic expression that fashion embodies has inspired me. It’s a way to communicate oneself.

It’s pretty hard being a tennis player and Mother Theresa at the same time and that’s just the way it is.

My style when I was younger was still unique to me. I didn’t necessarily dress by the trends, but I was always aware of what was trendy at the time and how I could apply it to my own sense of style.

I’ve been very competitive by nature from a young age, whether it was eating a bowl of pasta faster than somebody else, or always wanting to be the first one in line.

When I need to push myself, I think of all those nicely polished trophies waiting to be lifted up by the winner – and how that winner might be me.

I still love things that you don’t even need to pay for. Going to the beach and being around five of your friends and having a good time means so much more than going out and spending hundreds of dollars.

I’d like to have a family.

I definitely feel Russian inside, even when I’m in America I feel Russian.

I wanted no part of politics. And I wasn’t in Berlin to compete against any one athlete. The purpose of the Olympics, anyway, was to do your best. As I’d learned long ago from Charles Riley, the only victory that counts is the one over yourself.

I have a big-picture outlook, I am willing to fall, and I understand it’s ok to fall, but I am going to get back up, I may take a step back, but in the end, I am going to take a giant leap forward.

Don’t walk through life just playing football. Don’t walk through life just being an athlete. Athletics will fade. Character and integrity and really making an impact on someone’s life, that’s the ultimate vision, that’s the ultimate goal – bottom line.

Life is about being a versatile athlete and training in all realms of life.

I wish to bring back the legacy that those athletes created on the pitch.

When I step on the field, it’s on. I know it’s time to go to work.

The most important thing that a young athlete must do it pick the right sport. Not one that they like just a little bit, but one that they love. Because,if they don’t really love their sport, they won’t work as hard as they should. Me? I loved to hit.

Heroes get remembered, but legends never die.