In Sherman Chavoor's "50-Meter Jungle" he quotes Olympic swimmers Debbie Meyer, Don Schollander (read his quote LINK) and Mike Burton on how it feels to swim like a champion. Below is Mike Burton's comments:
"The punishment is unbelievable. You simply have to accept the fact of hurting yourself all the time. The pain becomes the symbol of maximum effort, and you work against it instead of the clock. I used to judge my program in a race not by the seconds registering on the timer - but by the amount of pain I was suffering"
Burton was the winner of the 1500 meters in both the 1968 and 1972 Olympics. He sure worked past all the pain for those swims.
