They said, 'Really? And you beat us?' So that was really gratifying.

She came to my house one day and said, 'I'm taking you rowing. You don't need to see to row. Let's just go and do this,'

For me and for John, it really kind of opened the minds of people from all over world to open their boathouses to people who are blind, ... I've gained so much (from rowing), I'd love to see people all over the world get the same pleasure and opportunity I had.

It was like traveling with a rock star, ... When I see her stand up to talk in front of hundreds of people and see the self-assurance she has, É it's hard not to be proud of her.

That was the most down period in my life, ... I was afraid of everything. I didn't think I could do anything anymore, and I basically just stayed at home. Literally, I woke up one day and thought, 'OK, what's my life going to be like 5, 10, 30 years out from now, if I keep doing this?' And I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm going to have a long, boring life. I've got to do something to change this.'

I saw rowing in the Olympics and I said, 'I want to do that. That's my sport,' ... I had always been a swimmer, but when I saw rowing, I said, 'That's it.'