Well, I got into track and field kind of late, so I kind of had to backtrack and do my research, and Evelyn Ashford is someone who continues to inspire me. I think she’s amazing. She competed in a time where there was enormous amounts of doping going on and she was just really true and genuine and a true sprinter in my mind.

In preparation for the Games, I’m training right around six days a week, five hours a day, and that’s time spent on the track doing speed workouts, endurance stuff, and I spend three hours there and two hours in the gym doing plyometrics, free weights, Olympic lifts and all that good stuff.

Mentally, I try to stay to myself. I need to zone out and I just try to get in tune with what I’m about to do, think about the technical aspects of things, and just really block out every possible distraction.

I think my experiences before with the Olympic Games are just huge. Each time was a little different and I feel like I took away some different stuff, and now I’m finally at a place where I can use it. And just everything, you know, competing away from home, the whole Olympic deal, it’s a lot of pressure, and [I learned] how to handle all that stuff.

It definitely does — 2008 was great. I had success with the relay, but not as much success as I would have liked to have individually, so it’s been driving me the last four years, and even longer than that. It’s super motivating, and I just can’t wait to have another opportunity.

I try to keep my diet pretty balanced with the way that I normally eat. So, nothing specific, but for me it’s just a high-protein diet — it’s always worked best for me. And what I’m going to splurge on is Ben & Jerry’s Oatmeal Cookie Chunk ice cream. I cannot wait.