No one will burn out doing aerobic running. It is too much anaerobic running, which the American scholastic athletic system tends to put young athletes through, that burns them out.
As athletes, we think we're heroes, but when you witness firsthand what I saw yesterday, you realize who the real heroes are.
The Olympics is about showing what you've done with your life, your dream as an athlete and sharing that with the World.
I believe in God. He is the secret of my success. He gives people talent.
If you are afraid of failure, you don't deserve success.
Mediocre athletes that tried like hell to get good are the best coaches.
All great human deeds both consume and transform their doers. Consider an athlete, a scientist, an artist, or an entrepreneur. In service of their goals, they lay down time, energy and many other choices and pleasures; in return, they become most truly themselves. A false destiny may be spotted by the fact that it consumes without transforming, without giving back the enlarged self.
I had over-trained. I put too much pressure on myself because I wanted that gold medal too much. If I had trained 15 per cent less, I would have won. I was training like a crazy person. There was a lack of self-confidence and a lack of maturity. An athlete does not only train with his body. He trains with his mind.
To know you are one with what you are doing, to know that you are a complete athlete, begins with believing you are a runner.
When anyone tells me I can't do anything, I'm just not listening anymore.
I like the challenge of getting players to rise to certain levels, but that's the easy part. The biggest challenge is to get them to believe in what we're doing. They have to understand that it's O.K. to have good days and bad days.
I've found that a person does not need protein from meat to be a successful athlete. In fact, my best year of track competition was the first year I ate a vegan diet.
To be a top-class athlete, you have to train hard, you have to eat right, you have to get enough rest. I feel the way golf is going nowadays, you have to treat yourself as an athlete.
Canada needs individuals to whom educators can point, and of whom we can be proud, whether athletes or astronauts or anything else. I think the role each of Canadian plays is not so much "Look at me," but rather, "Look at our country".
There are plenty of difficult obstacles in your path. Don't allow yourself to become one of them.
It's a round ball and a round bat, and you got to hit it square.
Concentration is a fine antidote to anxiety.
It is the inspiration of the Olympic Games that drives people not only to compete but to improve, and to bring lasting spiritual and moral benefits to the athlete and inspiration to those lucky enough to witness the athletic dedication.
Like an athlete, [dance] is an everyday job. You have to stay in shape - unless you just want to loaf through a couple of hoofing routines. But that just didn't satisfy me.
I know what I have to do, and I'm going to do whatever it takes. If I do it, I'll come out a winner, and it doesn't matter what anyone else does.
The wisdom acquired with the passage of time is a useless gift unless you share it.
I'm not a woman that's an athlete! I'm an athlete!
I don't know if I'm a good kickball player; I know I'm a good athlete.
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.
If you want to tell something to an athlete, say it quickly and give no alternatives. This is a game of winning and losing. It is senseless to explain and explain.
