Every day after I wake up, I think, 'Wait... this can't be real; I'm still going to wake up.'

I am 26 and, and I don't recover as fast as I have in the past.

I consider myself normal. I've spent 20 years in the pool. I consider that something that's normal.

I got the stamina. I can close.

I learned how fast you can go from being an international hero to being a reference in a joke on a late night talk show.

I live a pretty conservative life, so I probably really haven't done anything crazy.

I'm so sick of the water.

I've been able to get an excitement back in the water.

If I didn't swim my best, I'd think about it at school, at dinner, with my friends. It would drive me crazy.

It's cool just because I've had this dream of changing the sport of swimming and it's finally happening.

My mom put me and my sisters in the water to feel comfortable, to have water safety.

Once I'm already in my room, I still have to open a door to get into my bed. It's like a giant box. It's like the boy in a bubble.

People say to me, 'You're so lucky. You get to see the world.' But I don't. I go to the hotel and to the pools and back again. That's it.

There were times I wouldn't come to practice, because it didn't excite me. It wasn't interesting. I was kind of going through the motions.

Why is it such a big deal what I'm swimming?

Yeah, my friends call me Mike, Michael or just my last name.

I know it won't be eight medals again. If you want to compare me to that, that's your decision, not mine. I'm going out there to try to accomplish the things that I have in my mind and in my heart.

This is my 20th year in the sport. I've known swimming and that's it. I don't want to swim past age 30; if I continue after this Olympics, and come back in 2016, I'll be 31. I'm looking forward to being able to see the other side of the fence.

I like to just think of myself as a normal person who just has a passion, has a goal and a dream and goes out and does it. And that's really how I've always lived my life.

I think the biggest things I am looking forward to is getting new faces into the sport. Getting kids who could be afraid of water to feel comfortable in the pool.