Isabel Gose - Germany

It's always a pleasure for Germany to welcome so many athletes from all over the world. It’s always a fast pool and there are many good athletes in the 400m and 800m free events.

Sarah Sjostrom - Sweden

Sometimes it's just about having a good morning race to get ready. I find it hard to be excited to race in the morning. I am not forcing anything. I am trying to let my technique come naturally.

I am excited that there will be some tough racing here.  There are a lot of really fast girls here in all events.  Even if I am not racing them in the 50m or 100m back, in the end, I am racing all of them, because we are racing for points.

This is the fastest World Cup field I have seen in my life.

Lani Pallister - Australia

I think the most important thing that Bollie (coach Michael Bohl) said to us is that he is looking at the execution of our races and to be prepared to race whether it's morning or night. It's not about our time we swim in our world cup events. 

This is an important meet for us, especially since we are traveling from Australia.  It will be the last chance for any of us to swim in Europe before next summer's Olympic Games.

This is actually my first Swimming World Cup.  Last year was a busy one with World Champs and Commonwealth Games, and then following these up with the short course World Championships, so I'm really happy that the World Cups fit in with this year's racing plan.

Beata Nelson - United States

Everyone wants to take advantage of as many racing opportunities as they can.  It brings a lot of people together and it's a lot of fun. I had a good time last year;  I am happy to be a part of it this year. 

I have been working pretty hard back at home. I'm fit, but this isn't necessarily about time. This is more about race preparation, race practice and executing your races the way you want to at the end of the season. It's about making sure you are tuned-up and ready to go when it really matters.

Kylie Masse - Canada

It's great to see Canadian swimming more alive and to have competition within the country that only pushes every individual to be better. I am looking forward to kicking off racing here and seeing where I am at, then moving forward through to our Canadian Trials.

The power of success is contagious.  You can see it and feel it and when someone is achieving great things it really does reflect upon a lot of people. I know how much I admired the girls who were ahead of me as I aspired to join the senior team.  I hope to do this for the younger girls that follow me.

Kaylee McKeown - Australia

I think we have done a lot in building our team culture and being behind everyone on the team whether they swim fast or slow. At the World Championships, our momentum began to build when the girls broke the World Record in the relay.  After Sam Short won his event, the momentum swelled and we carried that throughout the meet.  As we drew closer and closer to the Americans, we just kept picking ourselves up. I think it's something we can continue through to Paris.

In Fukuoka, you saw some swim their best race and you began to understand that we had the magic powers from all this momentum that we continued to build. I was so proud of the Australians and what they were able to achieve.

After Worods, we took two weeks off downtime so I had a bit of down time. I was a bit sick after Worlds but that happens when you put your body in the racing mode for so long. Since then, we were able to get in a good block of training so we won't be awful, but I don't expect to be swimming at my best at these World Cup events.

Lukas Martens - Germany 

I had a great summer.  Fukuoka was a really good competition so I had many races I had in this one week. The medal at the beginning of the competition was fantastic.  I think part of the success was due to the high-altitude camp which we do three times a year in the Sierra Nevada mountains.  I always feel so strong immediately after that camp.

The competitors that I will race against in Berlin are really good.   It will be good to have spectators from Germany and my family as well. I think the atmosphere will be really exciting.

There are some very good athletes racing in my events in Berlin. It's great to get the seasons started with great competition.

Nic Fink - United States

I moved to Dallas with my wife, Mel (USA Olympian 2016) over the summer.  It's never fun to move; it was a pain in the butt, but it's over now. 

A new coach, new team, new area... I  think all of that is pretty exciting. Now that we are set up and that I have been training, we have gotten into a pretty good rhythm.

I'm hoping to have fun and not have any expectations because I tend to swim faster. 

In theory I, could have a really good series and finish fourth or fifth in all my events and that would be fine because that's how stacked the fields are here.

World Aquatics set this up for the athletes to have a great experience.