Q2: When did you start swimming?
KARA LYNN JOYCE: “I started swimming when I was five or six at the Saratoga YMCA; my mom coached a team there. My two older brothers swam and I just wanted to do what they did.”

Q3: Did you try any other sports?
KARA LYNN JOYCE: “I tried soccer. I think it was second grade and I was so uncoordinated. I knew it wasn’t for me. I did track and field in seventh and eighth grade, but I had to stop. Track was in the spring and I needed to focus on swimming, so after the eighth grade, I decided that I was done with that.”

Q4: Do you remember meeting an Olympic gold medalist for the first time?
KARA LYNN JOYCE: “I did meet Summer Sanders at the 2000 Olympic Trials. I had a really bad meet. I went in seeded 30-something and came out 75th. I remember that number. And my mom saw her on deck … and you know it’s always been my dream to meet Summer Sanders; she’s been my swimming idol … she spotted her and she brought me over and introduced me. Summer just sat down and pretty much told me everything that happened to her at her first Olympic Trials. She missed making the team (in 1988). She got third place; I got 75th. But still she found a connection there and it just made me feel so much better about myself. It’s not the be all, end all. There’s many more Olympic Trials down the road.”

Q5: What’s it been like breaking records each year?
KARA LYNN JOYCE: “They definitely build in excitement. At the high school state meet, the kids who swim year-round really stand out. Our team was national champions and we expected to be that dominant and I expected to win my event. I thought the NCAA would be that much bigger and I would be the underdog. But you just move up to the next level and try to be a competitor at every level.”

Q6: How was your preparation for the Olympic Trials?
KARA LYNN JOYCE: “I think the best thing that prepared me for Trials was going to the last Olympic Trials. I knew going into that meet – I qualified about two weeks before the meet – I really didn’t have a chance at making the team … not to be a pessimist. I was just being realistic. I know what the atmosphere was going to be like, how much pressure there was on everybody. I was really intimidated (in 2000) because I’d never been to a meet with so many Olympians. Just brushing shoulders with them on the deck; I felt like I didn’t belong there.

Q7: How did you eat in the Dominican Republic last summer at Pan Ams?
KARA LYNN JOYCE: “I was scared to eat anything down there. For Pan Ams my event was on the very last day – you can always count on the 50 for that --  and everyone around me was getting sick. The night before my event, I woke up and my roommate was really, really sick. So for about five days before my race, I ate nothing but packaged yogurt … that’s all that I would touch. It was the only sealed thing I could find in the dining hall and I figured that would be safe.”

Q8: Do you do positive self-talk?
KARA LYNN JOYCE: “Going into a big meet there are always so many different kinds of pressure around you from your family, teammates, your coach, from yourself. The thing I try to do is focus on what I came there to do. If you can get into the mindset where ‘this is what you came to do,’ ‘This is what you worked for your whole season,” you just kind of ignore everything else. That really helps me.”

Q9: Do you have momentum going into the meet?
KARA LYNN JOYCE: “There’s definitely momentum going into the meet. Every year I’ve improved steadily. I definitely have a lot of room for improvement. I’m looking forward to … the 50 … it’s just exciting. I think about it every day; every time I jump in the pool.”