I think part of it was hyped up quite a bit. There were certain people within the organization who were manifesting this image of me as an anti-American sentiment, trying to mend them together. I play no role. I'm just competing. I was really happy with the crowd's reaction. Short track is very big in Korea.

It's hard to change with a sport that's always getting faster, people getting stronger, new guys are coming up, especially in my sport. I felt like I needed something to help me to be able to compete at the top level.

Oh, I can't wait. It's so beautiful, the people, the culture, and we all love the food. It's going to be spectacular.

People tell me that. I don't think it is.

I really wanted to set something up. People have questions about what I've been doing the past couple of years. I want them to know I'm excited to be here. I want to put a lot of things on the table. A lot of Koreans are not familiar with me. They only know what they see on the news or what somebody else says. I want to let them know a little bit about me and take it from there.

I was really bothered by it. I grew up around many Asian cultures, Korean one of them. A lot of my best friends were Korean growing up. I just didn't understand. Later on I realized that was built up by certain people and that was directed at me, negative energy from other things, not even resulting around the sport, but around politics, using me to stand on the pedestal as the anti-American sentiment.