Athlete Quotations | Page 3

You see a hockey player, you'd never know he's a professional athlete. But you put the skates on him, and he becomes a beast.

I don't see myself as disabled. There's nothing I can't do that able-bodied athletes can do.

It's not my place to tell you whom to vote for, to take any political stand, to tell you what religion to believe in. I'm an athlete. I can influence certain things, but when I see other athletes and celebrities telling you whom to vote for, I actually get a bit offended.

Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer.

I am a National Football League player of American Samoan heritage. Because of my status as a professional athlete, I have been blessed to play a role in educating players and fans about the culture and history of America's southernmost territory.

Growing up, I wasn't an athlete or anything like that. The only place I felt like I belonged was in the theater.

If you got anything to you at all as an athlete and a competitor, you don't care what the circumstances are. You still got competition.

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.

If we carry on filling up the calendar, we keep on pushing the athlete, we shorten the athletes longevity. The risk is to shorten a career that could have lasted 10 years because the athlete is burnt out.

It was five years since I'd won a race, so I was a bit bewildered.

Having a home away from the media glare is important to world-class athletes.

The mind is absolutely instrumental in achieving results, even for athletes. Sports psychology is a very small part, but it's extremely important when you're winning and losing races by hundredths and even thousandths of a second.

I've been in motorsport my whole life since I was eight years of age.

It was the baseball fantasy of a lifetime - to be able to sit on the bench with all those professional athletes. I got to take my son along because I wasn't sure I would be able to play with them.

Boxing is the toughest and loneliest sport in the world.

You've got to be actively involved in the process yourself and you've got to listen carefully to what the coach is saying, take that on board yourself and implement what the coach is saying.

Don't live vicariously through your kids or try to shape them into who you wanted to be, like the popular kid or an athlete. Children should be given the opportunity to be themselves.

Too many times women try to be competitive with each other. We should help support each other, rather than try to be better than each other.

When I was 17, I worked in a mentoring program in Harlem designed to improve the community. That's when I first gained an appreciation of the Harlem Renaissance, a time when African-Americans rose to prominence in American culture. For the first time, they were taken seriously as artists, musicians, writers, athletes, and as political thinkers.

I have got better things to do in working with my athletes who I feel are going to be involved in 2012.

I focus on one thing and one thing only - that's trying to win as many championships as I can.

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.

Champions are not the ones who always win races - champions are the ones who get out there and try. And try harder the next time. And even harder the next time. 'Champion' is a state of mind. They are devoted. They compete to best themselves as much if not more than they compete to best others. Champions are not just athletes.

Athletes, coaches and parents today are increasingly aware of the danger of concussion, and this awareness influences decisions about buying new and reconditioned football helmets.

The Olympic Games are always in the head of every sports athlete. We work for that.

I always liked serve-and-volley players and big athletes

With the responsibility of being a professional athlete, I believe that it is on us to go out there and help people.

I found longer races boring. I found the mile just perfect.

Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler and I used to argue for hours about who the best athletes are. I thought football players were better overall.

I just see myself as an athlete and a competitor, someone who just works really hard at trying to get better at golf.

And then ultimately what I tell the kids is: coaches can give you information, they can give you guidelines, and they can put you in a position. But the only person who can truly make you better is you.

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

You should never feel comfortable. There is something wrong if you are. You should always feel under threat, on the edge of your seat and pushing yourself. Win one and you want to win more. It's never-ending.

I feel sorry sometimes for these sportsmen and women who put in just as much effort as the footballers. For example, athletes train at least as hard as footballers but have to be happy if they can earn enough to finance a decent education.

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

I grew up an athlete. Track and field and dance. In track, I actually went to the Junior Olympics. I've always been very athletic.

I'm tall and thin but not strong, so you're either an athlete or you're funny.

As an Olympic champion gymnast, I have always stayed involved in my sport.

As an athlete, I'd average four hours a day. It doesn't sound like a lot when some people say they're training for 10 hours, but theirs includes lunch, massage and breaks. My four hours was packed with work.

I'm not used to crying. It's a little difficult. All my life I've had to fight. It's just another fight I'm going to have to learn how to win, that's all. I'm just going to have to keep smiling.

Alain will do everything in his power to win, he doesn't like getting beaten by anyone and least of all me.

It's about somebody initially knowing more about it than you do but eventually you learn a lot about it yourself and practise the skills and techniques that you've been taught.

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.

Theres that initial reticence for some athletes to take you seriously.

I know what it takes to get to the top.

You want me to own a team and deal with these rich, spoiled stubborn athletes, and try to get them to perform? No thank you.

I just want to continue the success and be an athlete that is shown in a good light in New York City.

Do you need to train two hours a day? Probably not. The reason why my celebrity clients have to train two hours a day is because their endurance level is so strong. For Madonna to get results and keep results, it's like a professional athlete training - she has to push harder.

The Olympics is about showing what you've done with your life, your dream as an athlete and sharing that with the world.

My daughter's mother and I are no longer dating, and the people I'm most likely to date are those around me, who are athletes.

When you speak of role models, when we talk to our kids, everybody is a role model, everyone, just as you look at a Michael Jordan to be the terrific athlete he is.

Little did I know that there's nothing more competitive in the world than a professional ballroom dancer. They are as competitive as Olympic athletes.

If we could have just screwed another head on his shoulders, he would have been the greatest golfer who ever lived.

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.

People ask me to describe myself, but it's a very personal thing. You don't feel comfortable.

As a young athlete, it was first about having fun; then it was about winning.

The moment an athlete doesn't train, things start to get a bit rusty.

It's not a break until you hold your serve.

I never look backwards. I have always been an athlete. I boxed before I acted.

As an athlete, I was never really comfortable with being a celebrity.

I have spoken with many former athletes, and they tell me the best time they had was in sports. I listen to them and use their experience in my career.

The Masters is going to be an awesome challenge.

The athlete of today is not an athlete alone. He's the center of a team - doctors, scientists, coaches, agents and so on.

Jeremy Lin is the only Asian American in the NBA today and one of the few in any professional U.S. sport. His arrival is surely leading other talented Asian American athletes this week to contemplate a pro career.

When I go out on the ice, I just think about my skating. I forget it is a competition.

But I sometimes think we have too much of a fixation about 2012.

Being on TV is similar to being an athlete. You get no second chances.

I don't think you're human if you don't get nervous.

I couldn't disappoint people. I did not want to fail and exhaust myself, because I was the kind of runner who trained so little that I couldn't race again within another 10 days.

I love watching a good horse do what he's bred to do - I guess that's what I like the most about it. And I love to see good athletes do what they're bred to do.

You look at a Pete Rose to be the terrific athlete he is and then he falls on hard times, but when he played the game, I got something from the way he played the game because he hustled every play, and just because he had one mistake in his life, am I supposed to throw back everything that I gained from him?

Whatever luck I had, I made. I was never a natural athlete, but I paid my dues in sweat and concentration and took the time necessary to learn karate and become world champion.

My biggest weakness as a endurance athlete has been in not drinking enough water after training, thereby racing sometimes while dehydrated.

It's like an athlete. He has a string of hot years, and then he fades into nothingness. The actor doesn't necessarily fade into nothingness. After his hot years, he fades into a different category.

Both parents supported my becoming a world class athlete.

You don't play against opponents, you play against the game of basketball.

I'd like to see the high schools put in a rule that limits recruitable athletes from playing on teams outside a 100-mile radius from their home or school.

It's a fine balance for an athlete in enjoying the moment and being really satisfied, say, with a run, and with your day, and knowing you can make it better in the future.

The most important part of this is to prepare the athlete for life in general and then be able to compete.

Because it is my second season with the team, no time has been wasted in getting to know the people I'm working with. I am aware of what the team is capable of and how the organisation works, and they are familiar with what makes me tick.

Developing the muscles of the soul demands no competitive spirit, no killer instinct, although it may erect pain barriers that the spiritual athlete must crash through.

In the marathon a crazy athlete can just keep pushing from the beginning, at a championship you don't need a time just to win the race.

When you're young, you don't know what you don't know, so it's easier to get into that magical thing.

The only way to prove that you're a good sport is to lose.

Every GP Masters race will stand out because we will be available for fans, media and sponsors.

Meeting sports athletes that are the best in the world is a thrill to this day.

At my age, you need to verify that everything is fine. I put a lot of pressure on my body, and I feel sometimes pain in my back and in my knees, so I have to be sure that I can keep on training hard before going on.

I ain't got no right to judge someone.

In reality, we can prove that the incidents of drug, alcohol abuse and violence have dropped dramatically among professional athletes - but the problem is it would be impossible to convince than fans, because of what they read on the AP wire.

I am a coach on the outside of the establishment and that works.

I think every athlete will tell you no matter what sport you're in, when you train so hard and when you care so much about doing what you do, there's a little bit of nerves that come with that. But nerves that won't prevent you form performing, nerves that, hopefully, allow you to be that much more motivated and inspired to do well.

I was an All-American in wrestling in high school, was National Champion in Chinese kickboxing in 1999 and have spent a lot of time around professional athletes, which includes my eight-plus years as CEO of a sports nutrition company.

Boxing was not something I truly enjoyed. Like a lot of things in life, when you put the gloves on, it's better to give than to receive.

When you look at athletes, they have fundamentals.

Good is not good when better is expected.

But now - look, I have to take care of myself. I work out every day. I'm a dancer. I've always been an athlete, and I'm one of those people who start to go crazy if they don't run or do something.

But as much as I am personally proud for winning five championships, I'm equally proud just being part of a women's division that has gotten so much better with all these great athletes here.

It's a question of spreading the available energy, aerobic and anaerobic, evenly over four minutes. If you run one part too fast, you pay a price. If you run another part more slowly your overall time is slower.

The greatest feeling of accomplishment for me is the fact that I was an athlete who was somewhat disabled.

I'm still an athlete, I'm still a stockbroker, I'm still an actor. I think of it as more of an opening of new doors than an actual transition. I enjoy all of those things, which is why they remain a part of my life.