When I tell people I'm going to the Olympics, they're like: 'What do you do, track and field? Pole vault? Are you a volleyball player?' No one ever guesses tae kwon do.

Do not sit next to my mother when she is watching one of her children compete because you will have fingernails down your back. She is a nervous wreck.

Most everything I do revolves around tae kwon do. That said, I like to be a typical girl and go shopping. I have three nieces and nephews that I like to hang out with. I'm also finishing my last semester at the University of Houston, where I'm majoring in childhood education.

It is pretty amazing. My parents, who came from Nicaragua to the U.S. - who would have thought that they would have American kids on the Olympic team? I think that's the epitome of the Olympic dream.

I've been training super hard at the Lopez Taekwondo Academy in Houston, which belongs to my brother Jean. For me, I think confidence is the biggest thing it's all mental. I train with the best of the best, including my brother Steven, a five-time world champion who won Olympic gold medals.