Athlete Best Quotes

#1. Growing up, I started developing confidence in what I felt. My parents helped me to believe in myself. I wasn't the best looking guy, I wasn't the best athlete in the world, but they made me feel good about myself.

Herschel Walker

#2. Every time you compete, try harder to improve on your last performance. Give nothing short of your very best effort.

Elgin Baylor

#3. You know what's sad about this? Not the gambling, but the best way to reach college athletes is the Cartoon Network.

Jay Leno

#4. I was a professional athlete, the best baseball player in the world at one point.

Jose Canseco

#5. If we had to play Augusta National in one hour, the best athlete would win the Masters. But as it is, they give us time to hang ourselves. Every swing is a 'thought shot'. So instead of the best athlete, you end up with the best thinker as the winner.

Joe Inman

#6. The best way to show respect to your fellow athletes is to give the best performance you can.

Cheng Fei

#7. You are not an athlete because of what you can do, but because of who you are: a team player, someone who never quits, who strives to be his personal best, and who believes in fair play.

Rosemary Rawlins

#8. I try to be a smart quarterback. I'm not the fastest or the best athlete, but if I can know what the defense is doing and stick to my job and what needs to be done I can make the plays needed to move the ball and score.

Eli Manning

#9. 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.

Rebecca Lobo

#10. You owe it to yourself to be the best you can possibly be - in baseball and in life.

Pete Rose

#11. When I watch a singer perform, or an athlete, I can't help but be driven to be the best I can be at my craft.

Jonathan Sadowski

#12. Doing your best is more important than being the best.

Shannon Miller

#13. I'm sick of the media making female sports athletes into supermodels, when they're clearly sixes at best.

Daniel Tosh

#14. Your best athletes might give basketball a try just when they think, geez, this might be something that pays off for me in the end.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

#15. As a professional athlete, I believe that I need to explore my opportunities to the maximum, in order to excel and continue to play the best football I can.

Hidetoshi Nakata

#16. To me the Olympic spirit embodies the magic of competition, hard work and coming to a point in your career when you're around the best athletes in the world, and having the whole world watching.

Julia Mancuso

#17. The best thing about sports is the sense of community and shared emotion it can create.

Bob Costas

#18. The left's obsession with the high incomes of corporate executives never seems to extend to equally high - or higher - incomes of professional athletes, entertainers, or best-selling authors like Danielle Steel.

Thomas Sowell

#19. I'm an athlete, so I can dress down with the best of them. I can throw on t-shirts and sweats with the best of them.

Dwyane Wade

#20. Carl Yastrzemski was the best all-around player. He could run, throw and hit. He had the ability to play a number of different positions. He signed as a shortstop. He could play the outfield, of course, and third base and first, too. He was a tremendous athlete. Mickey Mantle was unbelievable, too.

Al Kaline

#21. As an athlete, you only have so much time. The window only has so much time and then it closes. You have to take care of yourself the best you can.

Barry Bonds

#22. All I got to do is keep getting the most out of each one of my days and keep trying to be the best athlete I can become.

Derrick Rose

#23. Talent is never enough. With few exceptions the best players are the hardest workers.

Magic Johnson

#24. Our best intentions are often thwarted by external forces - forces that we ourselves set in motion long ago. Decisions, especially bad ones, create their own kind of momentum, and momentum can be a bitch to stop, as every athlete knows.

Andre Agassi

#25. You've got to look for tough competition. You've got to want to beat the best.

Grete Waitz

#26. I'm trying to take a positive out the disappointment, but I'm also trying to do what's best for my career as well.

Dathan Ritzenhein

#27. At the Cardiff World Cup I really would like to make the final. The favorites are still Peter, Daniele or Vavra, but I will try to do my best in order to be closest as possible to these athletes.

Benjamin Boukpeti

#28. Mediocre athletes that tried like hell to get good are the best coaches.

Mark Rippetoe

#29. For any athlete growing up, the Olympics is the one thing you watch with your family, and it's the one thing you dream about. Seeing your country's flag go up as you get a gold medal is the best thing you can achieve.

Abby Wambach

#30. Twenty years from now, I can look at this medal and say, 'I was the best quarter-miler in the world on that day.' If you don't think that's important, you don't know what's inside an athlete's soul.

Vincent Matthews

#31. I just started training with the best fighters in the world trying to get better. I was a pretty good athlete so I did pretty well with the team and that gave me confidence that I would be able to compete with people.

Robbie Lawler

#32. You are worth so much more than points on a scoreboard or wins vs. losses. The best athletes I know are also some of the best people I've ever met.

Jimmy Moody

#33. You have to have the mentality of executing your game when you don't feel like there's a lot of hope. I think the best feeling is when somebody pushes you to the limit and you dig down a little bit extra. By the same token, you also need a little luck. Sometimes they come together.

Andre Agassi

#34. It takes patience to become the best runner you can be. Top athletes realize that running is a long-term sport. It is set up for people who value delayed gratification and who like hard-earned success.

Anthony Famiglietti

#35. It's easy to forget when you're an elite athlete that everyone else gets nervous as well. Even the best people in the world, at whatever they do, they're still nervous

Leisel Jones

#36. It is to create the best Games the world has ever seen by unlocking the UK's unrivalled passion for sport, by delivering the best Games for athletes to compete in, by showcasing London's unmatched cultural wealth and diversity and by creating a real and lasting legacy.

Sebastian Coe

#37. Guess what, the cheerleaders in college are the best athletes in college. You think, I'm joking, they're almost all gymnasts, the stuff they do on hard wood, it blows my mind.

Joe Biden

#38. You will be competing against athletes from many nations. But, most important, you are competing against yourself. All we expect is for you to do your very best, to push yourself just one second faster, one notch higher, one inch further.

Ronald Reagan

#39. 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.

Barbara Cochran

#40. I think you can just go out and try to be the best you can be, deal with people with respect, with honesty, with integrity, have a high moral standard. I've always really tried to exemplify that as an athlete. I'll continue to try to do that.

Tom Brady

#41. People want athletes to cater to their image of what an athlete should be, but they also want them to fail so they can feel like their screwups are all right. If I make a priority shift, I'll make it because it's best for me.

Bode Miller

#42. Truthfully, this is how I approach my workout: I want to be the best athlete I can possibly be. If I can out-perform some of the better athletes then I'm happy. When I look at the NFL or the NBA, these guys look how I want to look - it's useable, functional muscle.

Channing Tatum

#43. Like books, sports give people a sense of having lived other lives, of taking part in other people's victories. And defeats. When sports are at their best, the spirit of the fan merges with the spirit of the athlete.

Phil Knight

#44. You can be an ordinary athlete by getting away with less than your best. But if you want to be a great, you have to give it all you've got-your everything.

Bill Vaughan

#45. Looking good is important. We're our own premium brand as professional athletes, so you want to be thoughtful about presentation and represent yourself and your city and sport as best you can.

C. J. Wilson

#46. From the very start in 1969, I wanted to be a part of helping our Special Olympics athletes succeed. I wanted to be on Eunice Shirver's team as another set of eyes, another set of hands and a heart working to be there for them, finding a way to help them be the best they can be.

Rafer Johnson

#47. A helluva athlete, the best ever to play his position in the history of the game.

Al Davis

#48. In my Olympic history I don't think I have achieved my potential as an athlete. That's what I want when I look back at my career. I want to be able to say I gave it my best shot.

Paula Radcliffe

#49. I think today's athletes generally are spoiled by what's happened to salaries, but I also think that golfers have maintained the best demeanor of any sport.

Arnold Palmer

#50. Definitely, injuries are tough, and they happen to every athlete in every sport. The best athletes put it behind them and keep pushing forward. I haven't really had a choice; I've had so many injuries. And the love of BMX, I haven't wanted to stop no matter what.

Tory Nyhaug

#51. Strive to be the best you can be ... focus, watch, listen, and learn. Try never to be satisfied with 'good enough' ... and above all, love what you do-share that passion with others, and always stay humble. Nobody likes a 'big head' no matter how good you are.

Robby Naish

#52. The reason I became such a successful athlete was my mind was saying that no matter who you put up against me, I am better, I am the best.

Michael Jordan

#53. I know I will have to come to forgiveness and acceptance of what has happened for me to go on and be happy in the future. And I know I will get there eventually. I wish him all the best in the future, as a person and as an athlete ... I feel privileged to have witnessed a part of his golfing career.

Elin Nordegren

#54. Fatigue makes fools of us all. It robs you of your skills and your judgment, and it blinds you to creative solutions. It's the best-conditioned athlete, not the most talented, who generally wins when the going gets tough.

Harvey MacKay

#55. Sport, at its best, at its most human, is able to inspire an innocence and joy that is unique to each of us.

Richard J. Corman

#56. I feel like at the Olympics I gave the best performance of my life and I wasn't rewarded for that as an athlete. Yes, my fans and my mom were happy about it, but I didn't win that gold medal.

Johnny Weir

#57. About strip clubs and athletes. The best way I can explain why a lot of players end up there is because it's one of the safest places a high-profile person can spend time in a boring city.

Shaquille O'Neal

#58. Adversity, if you allow it to, will fortify you and make you the best you can be.

Kerri Walsh

#59. I would say that one of the really special gifts about playing an athlete is that it's the best motivation you'll ever have to get in top shape and stay in top shape because you know that you're going to be expected to deliver.

Holt McCallany

#60. Do your best ... really that's all you can ask for from an athlete.

Jessica Penne

#61. Understand that I'm at my best when it comes to proving a point, not only to show that I'm a better fighter and a better athlete at 40½ years old, but I'm at my best when I know I've got to beat the system again.

Bernard Hopkins

#62. To me, breakfast is my most important meal. It's often the meal you play a game on. I make sure I have oatmeal, milk, and fruit. It's the fuel you use to hopefully do your best, so eating right is a big part of being a professional athlete. I wish I paid more attention to it earlier in my life.

Andrew Luck

#63. To achieve in sports you first have to have a dream, and then you must act on that dream. The best athletes are those who truly enjoy what they are doing and display a tremendous amount of work ethic. They continue to persevere in spite of setbacks and never lose sight of their ultimate goal.

Dianne Holum

#64. Being in school is the best place to be if you are an athlete because you can structure your own time.

Frank Shorter

#65. I was always blessed growing up with opportunities and access to facilities, equipment, and playing with my brothers in the backyard to be the best athlete I could be.

Rob Gronkowski

#66. I'm just a skinny kid from Maywood trying to do my best. I never took anything for granted. I never wanted to come off like some kind of big-headed, conceited athlete.

Michael Finley

#67. The Olympic Games are always in the head of every sports athlete. We work for that. The Olympics are the most important race. They're each four years, and everybody wants to show their best performance.

Tina Maze

#68. Peter Forsberg's skills and determination made him one of the most powerful forwards in the NHL during the best years of his career. Hearing of his retirement is sad news but one day every athlete has to come to this decision. He should be very proud of all he accomplished throughout his career.

Patrick Roy

#69. This year I spent two months in Australia, and I did all the training camps in London. It was a really hard winter because I want to give the best performance of my career at the Olympic Games! That is the only title I'm missing and I will do my best to take it!

Peter Kauzer

#70. I think when you are the parents of a gifted athlete, the best thing in the world you can do is to encourage them, in my opinion. My dad didn't push me and I didn't push my children in athletics.

Bob Lilly

#71. If you're looking to be a professional athlete on the top tier of any sport, my best advice is to put everything you have into it. If you're not, somebody else is. It's got to be all or nothing.

Dominick Cruz

#72. The best athletes in any sport take stretching very seriously before and after matches. Stretching is instrumental in any athlete's physical success.

Jozy Altidore

#73. I've defined myself, privately and publicly, by my brief, intense years as an athlete, a swimmer. I practices five or six hours a day, six days a week, eating and sleeping as much as possible. Weekends were either spent training or competing. I wasn't the best; I was relatively fast...

Leanne Shapton

#74. As an athlete you've got to watch your hydration and your nutrition, and use the right kinds of fuel to help you perform your best.

Derrick Brooks

#75. You can wish as hard as you like but all that really matters is the shape you're in on the day of the race. I've always felt these really big races aren't necessarily won by whoever is the fastest. They're won by the athlete who is the smartest and in the best shape on the day.

Paula Radcliffe

#76. When you reach a certain level, you live in a bubble when all you think, dream and breathe is becoming the best athlete in the world.

Katarina Witt

#77. Ideally I would start by racing my athletes once every two weeks. But, such a program has to be flexible because some runners improve better with weekly races or even bi-weekly races. A coach has to adjust to what is best for the runner.

Gerry Lindgren

#78. I've never felt that I was less of an athlete or not accomplished athletically because I didn't win an Olympic medal. It's definitely something I would have liked to have added to my resume, but at the same time I think I can look back at my athletic career and feel that I was one of the best.

Mary Decker

#79. I was probably in the best shape of any athlete at the time, but you don't get to pass judgment on yourself.

Steve Carlton

#80. I realize that there are many variables outside my control in my quest, but focusing on the big goal down the road really motivates me. To help me stay focused, I set micro-goals such as races or training achievements that bring me one step closer to being at my best for major goals

Lance Armstrong