Intro:

American Dana Vollmer says winning Olympic gold in the 100m butterfly event on Sunday has made the eight years of hard work since her last gold medal worth it.

Script:

SOUNDBITE: (English) Dana Vollmer (Q: It seemed like you really went for it in your semi-final (when she set an Olympic record) Was that really on your mind in the final?)

"I think (in my) semi swim I popped up behind after my start and normally I know it tends to be where I am after my start and then slowly I get even with the field or past the field. In the semis I think I let that get to my head and then my first ten strokes were really kind of muscular which isn't my fly and so tonight I knew I just needed to stay in my own race, and it's ok that I pop up behind and I don't need to be the first at the wall because I'm the fastest person coming home and so I just really focussed on my strengths this time."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Dana Vollmer (Q: How does it feel to be on the Olympic podium again, eight years after winning a relay medal in Athens and after missing out on competing in Beijing?)

"Winning it in an individual event just, to me, proves that what I've been doing is the way to go about it and I'm finally healthy, I don't have injuries, I've figured out food allergies and I'm just so much healthier as a person and I can stand behind the blocks and challenge myself and push myself to new limits. And it took that journey and those eight years to develop that."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Dana Vollmer (Q: You seemed confident a few months ago that you had done everything in you power to prepare for a successful Games.)

"I felt that I had set myself up well to be the fastest in the world and I think I had my sights on the world record because I fully believed that I was capable of going that fast. It was weird to think about that my goal time was a world record and that no one had done it before because I felt that I was really capable of going that fast. I think just to always counting yardage or thinking about a goal time, I just worked on all the little pieces that create a time that is that fast. Working on my start, working on my under-waters, that feel for the water and then having practised it enough and worked on it enough that when I get up to race, all I have to do is race. I try to think about one or two things maybe and that's just where I go and that I've trained hard enough that my body does all the little things that I've been working on for so long. It does those naturally."