"When I go out and race,
I'm not trying to beat opponents,
I'm trying to beat what I have done
... to beat myself, basically.
People find that hard to believe
because we've had such a bias
to always strive to win things.

If you win something
and you haven't put everything into it,
you haven't actually achieved anything at all.
When you've had to work hard for something
and you've got the best you can out of yourself on that given day,
that's where you get satisfaction from."

- Ian Thorpe