Jessica Hardy is still fuming.
Four years after her energy-drink sponsor allegedly spiked Hardy with a banned substance, disqualifying her from the 2008 Olympics, Hardy is still swimming angry. When others reminisce about medals they won in Beijing, her fury grows.
"I hear about (those medals) all the time," says Hardy, enraged at the thought of someone else wearing the gold and silver medals she believes she would have won in Beijing.
Is angry any way to swim?
Jim Wood thinks so. If an athlete can maintain control of form, argues Wood, the former president of USA Swimming, then anger can be converted into high-speed fuel.
But Hardy herself is convinced that anger will hurt her cause. To free herself of negative thoughts and emotions that she says create debilitating toxins, she has hired psychologists to put her through drills. "When my muscles get that toxin it is harder to swim," she says.