Best 1605 quotes in «athlete quotes» category

There is no correlation between a childhood success and a professional athlete.

There is no greatness without passion to be great, whether it's the aspiration of an athlete or an artist, a scientist, a parent, or a businessperson.

There is no harmony between religion and science. When science was a child, religion sought to strangle it in the cradle. Now that science has attained its youth, and superstition is in its dotage, the trembling, palsied wreck says to the athlete: "Let us be friends.

There is no mat space for malcontents or dissenters.

There is only a relationship between music and sports because all athletes want to be rappers and all rappers want to be athletes.

There is only one thing that makes any one athlete better than another, his heart. We all put our underwear on feet first, so we are all human.

There is still an assumption among many people that to be black is to be lower class. In the last fifteen to twenty years, perhaps even further back than that, there's also been an explosion of a very wealthy black class in the United States, but those people are often treated as special cases: they're athletes, entertainers. Jay-Z. Basketball players. The country metabolizes the fact these rich black people exist, but it seems only to reinforce the idea that every other black person is limping along in poverty.

There is something in the Olympics, indefinable, springing from the soul, that must be preserved.

There is something that can happen to every athlete and every human being; the instinct to slack off, to give in to pain, to give less than your best; the instinct to hope you can win through luck or through your opponent not doing his best, instead of going to the limit and past your limit where victory is always found. Defeating those negative instincts that are out to defeat us, is the difference between winning and losing - and we all face that battle every day.

There is the truth about the marathon and very few of you have written the truth. Even if I explain to you, you'll never understand it, you're outside of it.

The reports of racial episodes are disturbing. But the players' protest is exhilarating because it is the most high-profile example to date in a continuing revolution in which the athletes who drive the multibillion-dollar college sports machine have begun to use their visibility to demand change.

There's a better way to speak out against President Putin and call out his bigotry for exactly what it is: speaking up for equal rights and educating people around the world about the persistence of homophobia. Rather than boycott, I, along with several amazing organizations including Athlete Ally and All Out, plan to use the Sochi Games as a teachable moment for the world.

There's always a point where you get knocked down. But I draw on what I've learned on the track: If you work hard, things will work out.

There's mornings when my body aches or my mind is just not with it. But that's part of being an athlete and accomplishing a goal that seems unattainable. You have to find your motivation, what inspires you.

There's just so much negative media surrounding professional athletes or sports in general, whether it's kids that are pressured too much or professional athletes making mistakes that influence their family...

The rewards are going to come, but my happiness is just loving the sport and having fun performing.

There's nothing masculine about being competitive. There's nothing masculine about trying to be the best at everything you do, nor is there anything wrong with it. I don't know why a female athlete has to defend her femininity just because she chooses to play sports

There's things Calvin Johnson does that nobody else can do. He's obviously huge, his physical attributes outweigh just about everyone in the league. But on top of that, he still has the ability to learn. He's like a sponge and soaks up anything that can help him as an athlete, as a person. On top of that, he's not soft. He catches the ball and tries to get upfield to score. He doesn't slide or go out of bounds. That's a rare find in the NFL.

There was a race that I was running in Mexico City and I was the only high school athlete running against grown women. It was a professional race, but I ended up winning. That was kind of a turning point for me where I felt like, "Okay, I'm pretty good at this and there's a possibility for this to be a career for me." That was a defining moment for me.

There's no question that O.J. Simpson had been a substitute white man in America. He had gained honorary white status. He was not viewed by many white Americans as black. He was not seen as the African American athlete who was rebellious: Jim Brown, Muhammad Ali, Hank Aaron... He was accepted in golf clubs that were very tony.

There's nothing worse than the feeling of wishing you had another chance at a play because you weren't ready. Every athlete has those feelings to mull over, and over and over ... Don't even expose yourself to the possibility to being caught off-guard. —

There's three things that as a professional athlete you want. You want to get to the big leagues, and I accomplished that. Winning a World Series ring, I got that. And then getting to the Hall of Fame. That's everybody's dream. Every athlete, they want to be up there in the Hall of Fame, mentioned with the greatest players to ever play this game.

There wasn't much white people would allow us to do in those days. You could be a schoolteacher or an athlete to get away from the manual labor and servant-type jobs, but there wasn't much else they were going to allow you [to] do.

There were always a couple of loonies who caused all the trouble.

There will always be cheaters. It is human nature. It will never be 100 percent clean, in any sport.

The sadness of the end of a career of an older athlete, with the betrayal of his body, is mirrored in the rest of us. Consciously or not, we know: there, soon, go I.

The romance of circumvention is one of the most destructive forces at work in our society. The American Idol freeway to greatness, Instagramming one's way into popular consciousness with selfies of our ass folds beneath short shorts, human growth hormone and performance-enhancing drugs for athletes, Adderall for the idle mind, reality television that sacrifices our dignity for fifteen lousy minutes.

These days the temptation to use steroids in sports has become too great for many young athletes.

The secret to success is doing the best that you can do. Forget about whether you might win or lose. By working hard and practicing the skills that you need to perform, the results will take care of themselves. Being successful is about doing your best.

The student-athlete should control everything that happens. From figuring out what kind of a degree they want to what type of a program they want to play for, they should control it all.

The street to obscurity is paved with athletes who perform great feats before friendly crowds. Greatness in major league sports is the ability to win in a stadium filled with people who are pulling for you to lose.

The shortstop is a perfectly conditioned athlete. You're running out on relays all the time. You're covering second base. On every pitch, you're moving.

The sport has changed so much since 2004, it's incredible. If you look even at me, the way I'm fencing now compared to 2004, it's a completely different sport. They've changed so many things just with what [the referees] are calling, they've changed the timing of the [scoring] lights. You always have to be evolving as a fencer. The Olympics is interesting because it's such a small field compared to what we're used to. This world championships, I think we had a hundred and something [athletes]. The Olympics is going to be less than 32.

The sport of wrestling is a tremendous builder of the values and characteristics which are needed to succeed in any walk of life. Much of what I have managed to achieve in life I owe directly to the years I spent in the wrestling room, as an athlete and a coach. Wrestling is a great educational tool.

The tennis wasn't really very much on my mind, so it wasn't like I was thinking about it all the time.

The thing about great athletes is that they all believe they can win the very next time.

The truth is, no one wants to face the fact that there was a huge double standard in baseball, and white athletes like Mark McGwire, Cal Ripken Jr., and Brady Anderson were protected and coddled in a way that an outspoken Latino like me never would be. The light-eyed and white-skinned were declared household names. Canseco the Cuban was left out in the cold, where racism and double standards rule.

The true athlete should have character, not be a character

The thing that concerns me the most is when I hear that people are making a lot of money a lot of ways except for the athletes, whether it's on the bowl games, the TV contracts, the conferences, the schools, the coaches, however you want to say it.

The two most important things to athletes, playing time and money.

The typical response from people when I tell them Im diabetic is, Oh, Im sorry to hear that. You know, Im not. Im a better athlete because of diabetes rather than despite it. Im more aware of my training, my fitness and more aware of nutrition. Im more proactive about my health.

The unique thing about bodybuilding is that when I compete it is just me on a stage alone. There is no field, no bat, no ball, no skis, no skates. All other athletes have to use equipment, like a football. But I don't use anything in competition except myself. It's just me up there. Me alone. No coach. No nothing.

The value of the sport and the value of sports in general, with the life lessons, the ups and downs. The depth of the life experience, what athletes are actually offering to us when they come out and play, if you look at a season and go moment by moment.

The universities will ask for money back so they can put their name on the side of a building without fully educating athletes .

The U.S. Olympic spirit award is an award that is given to an athlete who embodies the Olympic spirit in more ways than just on the playing field, in showing incredible perseverance, in overcoming obstacles, and what we wanted to do is have everybody can vote on-line.

The weird thing about rap is that you don't get compared in the same way that athletes do, even though it's probably the most competitive sport in music. In basketball, they look at a player and say: 'This guy was the best in his prime at this sport.' But in rap it's not until you're dead or retired that people think about it like that.

The water here in Cardiff is much easier than in London, so for us it is more relaxing paddling here. This race is for us a continuation of our training, we will compete in only this World cup. We don't want to travel too much before the Olympic Games and we want to focus on the Games.

The way to stay popular as a quarterback in the NFL is never to play.

The way in which sports focuses more on the peccadilloes, lives and putative personalities of athletes and less on the finer points of playing games, I've become less interested in it. I don't want to write sports profiles.

The whole Miami Heat team is my least my favorite athlete. Why? Because they keep beating my Pacers.