Sports Athlete Quotes

#1. 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

#2. Ruth was probably the greatest athlete to perform in any sport. Never has there been anybody like him.

George Steinbrenner

#3. On today's athletes: I wish I could turn back the clock a little bit so I'd have a chance to cut it up with those guys.

Eric Heiden

#4. 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.

Willi Smith

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

Earl Blaik

#6. I think what bothers us about fighting sports isn't the damage to the athlete but the fact that you win by doing more harm to your opponent than he does to you. It just seems ugly.

Jonathan Gottschall

#7. Make sure your worst enemy doesn't live between your two ears.

Laird Hamilton

#8. I'm a Gatorade athlete because dance is being recognized as a sport now. It always should have been, but now it is. It's very exciting.

Stephen Boss

#9. 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

#10. Being an athlete helps me get those grandiose emotions of pleasure and pain that are involved in sports.

Yanni

#11. Sport is quite a simple thing. It is play, and in play, people of all ages find the chance to engage their most profound emotions-love, fear, excitement, disappointment, anger and joy.

Timothy Shriver

#12. I'd noticed him watching me for a year or so, especially when we'd play games where there was running or jumping.

Jesse Owens

#13. 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

#14. All the athletes are individuals. This isn't a team sport. We all have our own styles, our own clothing preferences and our own way of doing things. That's the way I do things and I'm proud of it.

Nick Goepper

#15. Unlike the traditional athlete, I've got to do more than just engage in my sport to put food on the table. When I'm done running, it's straight to the office.

Dean Karnazes

#16. 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

#17. Reading about ethics is about as likely to improve one's behavior as reading about sports is to make one into an athlete.

Mason Cooley

#18. Men sometimes seem more ready to accept women as brain surgeons than as athletes.

Janice Kaplan

#19. As a passionate sports fan, as well as an athlete, I am excited to be a part of CBS Sports Network's historic sports-focused program hosted entirely by women, especially at a time when the influence of women in sports has evolved to where it is today.

Swin Cash

#20. You'd definitely think of me more as a good sport than as an athlete.

Gabrielle Burton

#21. I'd never been much of an athlete, due to a physical condition I'd had since birth (unathleticism). Perhaps if there were a sport centered around lying on your couch in a neurotic stupor all day, I'd take an interest.

Colson Whitehead

#22. I was an athlete growing up. I did a lot of sports: soccer, basketball, so I was always so used to hardcore training, a lot of running. I got to a point where I felt like I just wanted to get toned; I didn't need to shed pounds, so now I do Pilates.

Jacquelyn Jablonski

#23. When you see athletes like me win gold medals, you only see the finished product, you dont see the real effort that the likes of Ron have put into making that product. Without the Ron Roddans of this world, you would have no sport.

Linford Christie

#24. I'm slightly influenced by sport in that I like the idea of trying, like an athlete, to keep absolutely ready. That's an emotional thing, almost. I don't mean physically, although I play tennis. But you try to keep yourself ready.

Colm Toibin

#25. I was a total athlete. I loved sports, but when I realized I wasn't going to be a professional athlete, I realized I wanted to be in movies.

Seann William Scott

#26. 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

#27. My life has been centered around sports. It is where I have met my closest friends and shaped the values that have made me a successful athlete, student and role model for young people.

Jennie Finch

#28. You have to train your mind like you train your body.

Bruce Jenner

#29. An athlete gains so much knowledge by just participating in a sport. Focus, discipline, hard work, goal setting and, of course, the thrill of finally achieving your goals. These are all lessons in life.

Kristi Yamaguchi

#30. Just as an athlete with natural gifts may fail to develop the fundamental skills necessary to play their sport after their talent fades, so people naturally disposed to faith may fail to develop the skills necessary to sustain them for a lifetime.

Stanley Hauerwas

#31. Luck? Sure. But only after long practice and only with the ability to think under pressure.

Babe Didrikson Zaharias

#32. I squirm when I see athletes praying before a game. Don't they realize that if God took sports seriously he never would have created George Steinbrenner.

Mark Russell

#33. I didn't set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I'm happy to start the conversation,

Jason Collins

#34. If there is one thing I learned by reading Epstein's "The Sports Gene" it is that world-class athletes are, by definition, abnormal: that is, the kind of person capable of competing at that level is necessarily very different from the rest of us physiologically. They are outliers.

Malcolm Gladwell

#35. Female athletes are stereotyped by the general population
and usually as homosexuals.

Billie Jean King

#36. The problem with many athletes is they take themselves seriously and their sport lightly.

Michael Waltrip

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

Daniel Tosh

#38. 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

#39. Think of yourself as an athlete. I guarantee you it will change the way you walk, the way you work, and the decisions you make about leadership, teamwork, and success.

Mariah Burton Nelson

#40. An athlete experiences the emotions of pain and elation through triumph and defeat, through teamwork and individuality, as nothing more than a human being ... that is the true glory of sport.

Aimee Mullins

#41. When I was younger I only read sports books. I loved the biographies that told how athletes developed. When I got into coaching, I did start to read more instructional books, but I was always more interested in the people behind the ideas.

Tony Dungy

#42. Curling is not a sport. I called my grandmother and told her she could win a gold medal because they have dusting in the Olympics now.

Charles Barkley

#43. On the court, Jason Collins is not a huge basketball star, but he has already claimed his place in civil rights history as the first openly gay athlete to play in one of the four major U.S. sports leagues.

Nancy Gibbs

#44. A serious athlete to me is one who is committed to excellence at any level, at any age, in any endeavor and in either sex. This commitment begins with a dream and a sense of talent and skill and determination to make that dream come true.

Carol Mann

#45. The most important thing that a young athlete must do it pick the right sport. Not one that they like just a little bit, but one that they love. Because,if they don't really love their sport, they won't work as hard as they should. Me? I loved to hit.

Babe Ruth

#46. I have often been asked whether I am a women or an athlete. The question is absurd. Men are not asked that. I am an athlete. I am a women.

Billie Jean King

#47. 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

#48. He has the body of a professional athlete, chiseled to perfection in all the right places.

Collette West

#49. I was always a mean and lean athlete - not tall - not large.

Edwin Moses

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

Bob Costas

#51. Sports for me is when a guy walks off the court, and you really can't tell whether he won or lost, when he carries himself with pride either way.

Jim Courier

#52. I was a huge athlete as a kid. I was on every sports team.

Bonnie Bassler

#53. As an athlete, you choose your sport and are drawn into it but your passion should never be driven by fame and fortune but a desire to create something special that people will always remember.

Katarina Witt

#54. You must allow your players to become the athletes they can be. Don't make them into anything just to become the kind of winners fans, friends and others think they must be.

John Kessel

#55. 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

#56. You can't put a limit anything.

Michael Phelps

#57. I try to help my athletes visualize their full potential, and then get out of the way as they achieve it.

Pat Roberts

#58. Athletes have a certain stubbornness that carries us through and makes us do things that people say we can't do.

Kim Clijsters

#59. I've been an athlete all my life. I was a competitive figure skater, and then when I realized skating was not an adult sport I took up tennis and played that quite seriously from the time I was about 18.

Condoleezza Rice

#60. 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

#61. I want to compete in the next Olympics. If I go to Rio, it will be my third time, which is a rare feat for an Indian athlete. For me, Olympics is important because it's the biggest event on earth for a sports person. I hope this time around I come back with a medal.

Vijender Singh

#62. Overall, I think Michael Jordan is the greatest athlete in any particular sport. He dominated the game for the Chicago Bulls and brought the NBA to its greatest peak of popularity.

Will McDonough

#63. The modern athlete is an individual corporation. I'm not quite sure it's very good for sport, or good for team work, or those different things that sport says it's about. This is about business.

LeBron James

#64. He saw the irresistible allure of high school sports, but he also saw an inevitable danger in adults' living vicariously through their young. And he knew of no candle that burned out more quickly than that of the high school athlete.

H. G. Bissinger

#65. He was a professional athlete and coach, a Ferrari who lived his life in the fast lane. She was a girl-next-door kind of girl, closer to a golf cart than a sports car.

Emily March

#66. I feel like every woman, and actually any guy who hasn't played that many sports, you secretly wonder, like, 'Would I be a pro athlete?'

Emily Ratajkowski

#67. Track is full of the absolute nicest and most polite athletes in all of sports, and where does it get us?

Malcolm Gladwell

#68. I fought, I fought harder ... but one cell at a time, panic crept into my body, taking me over.

Jesse Owens

#69. The person, the student, the athlete, all are considered equal.

Pat Summitt

#70. It's like having a pet dog for a long time. You get attached to it, and when it dies you miss it.

Jesse Owens

#71. 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

#72. As an athlete, I hope we can remain focused on the Olympic spirit which celebrates achievement in sport by peoples of all nations.

Brian Boitano

#73. No athletes talk to themselves like tennis players. Pitchers, golfers, goalkeepers, they mutter to themselves, but tennis players talk to themselves-and answer. Tennis players look like lunatics in a public square.

Andre Agassi

#74. I love sports. I was an athlete in high school, and my school was so small we didn't have a football team, so it's the one sport I didn't bother to learn the rules to because I never went to game.

Katie Aselton

#75. I think when young kids can see Jason Collins, myself and Michael Sam, and Abby Wambach and Megan Rapinoe and different athletes come out, it will definitely change and encourage younger gay men and women to play the sport.

Robbie Rogers

#76. 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

#77. I'm a sports fan. I'm not just an athlete who plays football.

Reggie Bush

#78. Female success stories from sporting events like the Olympic Games have played a role in shifting the Indian perception to see the female athlete as a hero and a role model for young Indian girls.

Richard Attias

#79. In sport, part of the game is accepting the umpire's call, no matter how hard that might be. Sometimes the calls go your way, and sometimes they don't.

Dot Richardson

#80. I enjoy sports, and love being involved in any outdoor sport from volleyball to softball. I'm not being immodest when I say I'm a natural athlete.

Ginger Rogers

#81. 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

#82. You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours.

Herb Brooks

#83. One of the privileges of being an athlete is that on days when I have practice and games, I'm present whether I'm present or not. It's not fair, but that's the system. What can I do about it?

Erin O'Riordan

#84. In wheelchair sports, people thought athletes with disabilities were courageous and inspirational. They never give them credit for simply being competitive.

Jean Driscoll

#85. It's amazing how two thin pieces of clothing can hold such deep memories. Laughter, pain, victory, defeat, friendship, fatigue, elation ... they're all there, but only to the person who's worn the uniform

Wendelin Van Draanen

#86. After I knock out Randy Couture, I'll fight for the heavyweight title, the real heavyweight boxing title in October or November, come back and fight in the UFC in January or February. It doesn't matter, I'm a two sport athlete. The oldest man to ever do that.

James Toney

#87. My favorite thing about being linked to Oakley is getting to hang with the cool people, the cool athletes - like the X-Games guys. Those guys play sports where they can really hurt themselves, and, well, I just play golf. I'm like the wimpy guy over here.

Bubba Watson

#88. The hardest skill to acquire in this sport is the one where you compete all out, give it all you have, and you are still getting beat no matter what you do. When you have the killer instinct to fight through that, it is very special.

Eddie Reese

#89. An athlete must have a sound and trained body, and only after, indulge in sport he prefers.

Albert Azaryan

#90. I think sports for kids is the greatest thing in the world because it teaches you how to share, about winning and losing and pressure. But I don't think you should force your kid to become a professional athlete.

Wayne Gretzky

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

Dwyane Wade

#92. This ability to conquer oneself is no doubt the most precious of all things sports bestows.

Olga Korbut

#93. 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

#94. I later discovered that in order to be a good athlete one must care intensely what is happening with a ball, even if one doesn't have possession of it. This was ultimately my failure: my inability to work up a passion for the location of balls.

Haven Kimmel

#95. I am still young. I have a lot of time. And if someone breaks my records in the future, I won't cry. That's sport.

Noureddine Morceli

#96. Who is to blame for this most recent of sports disgraces in America? The culture that flings young athletes like Tyson up out of obscurity, makes millionaires of them and watches them self-destruct?

Joyce Carol Oates

#97. We didn't call it a sport necessarily, and skaters definitely weren't thought of as athletes, we were thought of as misfits.

Mike Vallely

#98. 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

#99. To uncover your true potential you must first find your own limits and then you have to have the courage to blow past them.

Picabo Street

#100. 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