Great Athlete Quotes

#1. I always had that desire to become a great athlete.

Lauren Jackson

#2. You can tell a great athlete by, like, not how many times he wins, unlike when he loses. Because that's what is gonna make a swimmer.

Ryan Lochte

#3. There has never been a great athlete who died not knowing what pain is.

Bill Bradley

#4. Wilt Chamberlain had a great deal to do with the success of the NBA. His dominance, power, demeanor and the rivalry with Bill Russell says it all. He will be sorely missed by myself and everyone in the basketball community. Wilt was a great performer and a great athlete.

Red Auerbach

#5. Had I been a great athlete, I'm not sure I would have even gone into coaching. I may have turned out feeling that my life ended when my athletic career ended, as happens so many times with various athletes.

Lou Holtz

#6. All athletes, without fail, are potentially great and good. A great athlete is a little man tirelessly inspired.

Sri Chinmoy

#7. When I started out as a little kid, I didn't say 'I just want to run football.' I wanted to be a great athlete.

Herschel Walker

#8. In front of the world, all of a sudden I'm a great athlete and I'm put into an environment with 25 other women and I'm expected to go to team meals, team functions.

Hope Solo

#9. My brother David was a great athlete and I knew there was no way I could live up to that.

Billie Joe Armstrong

#10. You can no longer just be a good sailor. You have to be an incredible athlete as well. Having said that, you can be a great athlete, the strongest guy in the world, but if you can't anticipate and make decisions under stress and exhaustion and think ahead, then you won't be able to cut it, either.

James Spithill

#11. I used to love to see Willie Pep and Ray Robinson. To me, the epitome of a great athlete is a great boxer. I just love the rhythm of seeing a man dance, slip punches. I loved the dancers and boxers. I would see them and be mesmerized.

Emanuel Steward

#12. I might not be a great athlete, but I think I'm a real good football player.

Steve Largent

#13. My father was an athlete, a great athlete, fought in the Marines in World War I. He was all sports and activity. My mother was all academics. I still have the complete works of Shakespeare that she had.

Marv Levy

#14. Ask any great athlete or the concert pianist or the successful actor if they have arrived at the place where they need no further practice. They will tell you that the higher you climb in proficiency and public acceptance, the greater the need for practice.

Eric Butterworth

#15. I used to pray that God would make me a great athlete, and He never did.

Lou Holtz

#16. We thought I was going to be a great athlete, and we were wrong, and I thought I was going to be a great entertainer, and that wasn't it either. I'm going to be an American Citizen. First class.

Dick Gregory

#17. People assuming that because I'm a great athlete, I can dance. But no. My rhythm is off a little bit.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee

#18. I wouldn't say I'm a phenomenon, just a great athlete.

Usain Bolt

#19. We have a terrific economy, it's like a great athlete that's had a cardiac arrest.

Howard Warren Buffett

#20. I want to be remembered as a great athlete. As a boxing champion.

Idi Amin

#21. Becoming a great leader, a great athlete, or great chef takes more than desire or even knowledge. It takes effort. It takes practice.

Dave Anderson

#22. I remember making the all-star team in Little League when I was around 11 years old. I was not a great athlete, but I loved it, so making starting second base in the all-star was great for me. I think someone must have been sick and they slotted me in.

Ralph Macchio

#23. When I broke into professional hockey at 17 I was told that I was too small and too slow and I wouldn't make the NHL. Now it's kind of flip-flopped and the sense is I can't be a good coach because I was a great athlete.

Wayne Gretzky

#24. Being a great athlete is something that requires a lot of training and dedication, it does not come as easily as some people may think.

Haile Gebrselassie

#25. Each great athlete must some day bow to that perennial old champion, Father Time, even as I, for Time eventually wins.

Major Taylor

#26. I always said I wanted to be a great athlete, ever since I was an overweight little kid. I just love competing in any kind of athletics.

Herschel Walker

#27. Durability is part of what makes a great athlete.

Bill Russell

#28. Adam [Sandler] is a good basketball player, so he is a natural athlete, he worked with Sean Salisbury to make his footwork and delivery smooth, and he did a great job.

Bill Goldberg

#29. Definitely if you're an athlete, you're gonna be having all the baseball fame you can have. That's the great thing about baseball and sports. You can measure ability.

John Leguizamo

#30. 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.

Tony Robbins

#31. (On returning to Austin to run at his collegiate stadium) It is almost like coming home with the crowd, the people, and it just brings it home for me. For me, it is a very special place, it is great energy, and again I always seem to run very well here. So I love coming back.

Leonel Manzano

#32. It's great to win, but it's also great fun just to be in the thick of any truly well and hard fought contest against opponents you respect, whatever the outcome.

Jack Nicklaus

#33. By continually increasing the difficulty of the sport, we are discouraging younger athletes from starting and continuing in the sport. But most importantly, we are losing the beauty of our sport. We do not want gymnastics to lose what makes it so great - its artistic beauty.

Svetlana Boginskaya

#34. Golf has humbled, humiliated, and just about licked all the great athletes who tried it.

Earl Blaik

#35. I'm not an athlete; I'm a quarterback. I don't have great speed, and I can't throw 90 yards down the field. I win games because I've done the mental preparation.

Joey Harrington

#36. I was worried that all the corners of the earth had been explored, all the great battles fought. The famous people on TV were athletes and actresses and singers. What did they stand for? I wondered: Had the time for heroes passed?

Eric Greitens

#37. The really great athletes make their news on the field, not off the field.

Jimmy Haslam

#38. The great thing about having a pool in L.A. is that I can use it year-round. And since I've always been an athlete, staying fit is very important.

Vera Wang

#39. I don't fold under pressure, great athletes perform better under pressure, so put pressure on me.

Floyd Mayweather Jr.

#40. You've got to have great athletes to win, I don't care who the coach is. You can't win without good athletes but you can lose with them. This is where coaching makes the difference.

Lou Holtz

#41. I'd love to have a lasting impact as far as growing the game. It would be cool to be remembered as a major champion. I'd like to be remembered as a great golfer but also a great person, as far as growing the game and charity work. The whole well-rounded athlete.

Rickie Fowler

#42. The Madden NFL franchise holds a special place in popular culture and the cover is a coveted position for players all over the league. I'm honored to be the first cover athlete chosen by Madden NFL fans and it's a great way to cap off an amazing year for the Saints and the city of New Orleans.

Drew Brees

#43. To win at Augusta and to win The Open Championship at St. Andrews, it's hard to put it into words as a golfer, as an athlete, as a guy - I'm not rich in history, I can tell you that. I'm not a great historian.

Zach Johnson

#44. The most important key to achieving great success is to decide upon your goal and launch, get started, take action, move.

John Wooden

#45. I like to think of myself as a pretty good athlete, I don't think I'm a great sprinter, but 200, 400, maybe 800. I won't say excel in them, but I'd do pretty good.

Grant Hill

#46. Born on an island, I could swim before I could walk, thrown many times into swimming pools and warm transparent Caribbean waters: sink or swim, that was my first lesson. While I'm not a natural athlete, I'm still a strong swimmer and feel a great affinity with the sea.

Monique Roffey

#47. I think you always strive to get better as an athlete. That's the difference between good and great, in my opinion.

Arian Foster

#48. Most people do not know themselves. The real you is not that person you are when times are great, the real you shows when everything goes wrong. Can you hold on, can you keep pushing or do you quit?

Ian Warner

#49. What drove me to become the world's greatest bodybuilder is no different from what drives other athletes to become great tennis players or boxers or jockeys.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

#50. Great coaches are great humanitarians. They really care for the athlete as people first and athletes second. This is paramount in gaining respect.

Gordie Gillespie

#51. As a professional athlete and someone who has spent almost his entire life in boxing, not a day goes by when I don't think about coming back, but I am retired, and after speaking to my family and following a great deal of introspection, I have decided to stay retired.

Oscar De La Hoya

#52. I think I've gotten more attention after the Olympics than any other U.S. athlete, and it's really great that people are recognizing who I am and what I do. You look at Shaq and you see a basketball player. You look at Tiger Woods and you see a golfer. But people are responding to who I am.

Johnny Weir

#53. I hate divers, like Cristiano Ronaldo, who might be the greatest athlete in the sport, but he's a big baby. If things are going well he's great, but when things are going badly it's the ref's fault, it's his teammates' fault.

Viggo Mortensen

#54. There are a lot of young great athletes out there; they're much better athletes than what we were. They're bigger, faster, stronger, unfortunately, there're fewer places to go.

George Steele

#55. My father was a really good athlete, so his pop-ups really were sky high. Eventually I learned how to judge them properly and catch them well. It was great training for when I started to play on teams, which I did all through school.

Artie Lange

#56. Bill Russell is one of the great names in basketball, an all-American ... and the only athlete to ever win an NCAA Championship, an Olympic Gold Medal, and a professional championship all in the same year-1956 ... But Bill Russell had this one problem: He threw up before every game.

John Eliot

#57. I'm a huge wrestling fan. Wrestlers have so many great qualities that athletes need to have.

Bob Stoops

#58. I'm proof that great things can happen to ordinary people if they work hard and never give up.

Orel Hershiser

#59. What makes a great endurance athlete is the ability to absorb potential embarrassment, and to suffer without complaint.

Lance Armstrong

#60. 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

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

Michael Wilbon

#62. Growing up as an athlete, I started skating very young. My parents didn't know anything about the sport, so they went with the flow. I had two great coaches who gave great advice and gave guidelines for my parents. My parents let the coaches dictate what was going on on the ice.

Kristi Yamaguchi

#63. It's a great feeling as a coach to see your athlete run well, hearing the oohs and aahs as she picks people off.

Bob Kersee

#64. I wish I was a better athlete. That would have been a little cooler, being a great boxer and walking into a room and going: "I can knock everybody out!" That's a good feeling.

Adam Sandler

#65. Muhammad Ali is a combination of personality and athlete who is probably better known around the world than any other. He became a great hero.

Will McDonough

#66. Great people and great athletes realize early in their lives their destiny, and accept it. Even if they do not consciously realize the how, the where, the what.

Percy Cerutty

#67. All of us get knocked down, but it's resiliency that really matters. All of us do well when things are going well, but the thing that distinguishes athletes is the ability to do well in times of great stress, urgency and pressure.

Roger Staubach

#68. Paul Robeson was an athlete, Rutgers valedictorian, lawyer, writer, actor in movies and plays, great voice - a black male doing it all, back when some people thought he shouldn't. One reason I do all the things I do is to break stereotypes that people can only do certain things.

Dhani Jones

#69. It's like athletes: To be a great company you need great competitors ... It's what keeps you alive and keeps you honest.

Craig R. Barrett

#70. Athletics is a great sport with many different events and athletes come in all shapes and sizes. I'm one of the smallest athletes on the track. They call me the 'pocket rocket'.

Jenny Meadows

#71. I think any great performer or athlete has to have a little bit of a gut to be great.

Lance Berkman

#72. It's always been a dream of mine, and a childhood fantasy, to play a great champion. I would much rather haven been an athlete than an actor. This is like some second place consolation prize.

Mark Wahlberg