Track And Field Athletes

"A lot of people will go in the races and they’ll think you have to run times. It’s not about times, you’ve just gotta be in front of everybody. That’s the secret."

"I had not practised or used the starting block before. I was using it in Egypt for the first time. I did not know the blocks had sensors that could detect sensitive reactions, So, I triggered the block before the shot. I was disqualified for misusing it."

"Till today, the picture and video are still with the IOC and still at the museum. It shows the true picture of Olympics. We didn’t win the gold or the silver but bronze, however it was a golden bronze. To the IOC it depicts what the Olympics is all about."

"Wherever they are, despite the situation, they should not lose hope and must keep training."

"If I had got married to someone who was not sport-inclined, a typical African who would want you to have a regular job or stay at home as a mother; it would have been a disaster."

"Sport has always being seen as a man’s domain. It was a breakthrough period for women in sports and I am proud to say that I am one of the leading women that championed the breakthrough which led to the recognition of women in sport, both in Nigeria and Africa."

"Whenever I lose, I take it as a learning curve; I don’t beat myself over it."

"Hard work, discipline, determination and dedication. You have to learn what you do and do well in what you do."

"Talents are usually found in communities and schools. If kids are not identified early, it would be difficult to train them when they are older."

"There can only be one Michael Jordan, there can only be one Michael Jackson and there can only be one Mary Onyali."

"The table kind of turned on me, instead of me being managed when I was an athlete, now I have to manage people."

"The separation of sports and education has made it difficult to discover other stars."

"When other nations are planning to win, we are praying. God hears our prayers but you have to help yourselves too."

"She (Blessing Okagbare) is good, she’s got good character and she’s doing fine. She’s hardworking; she sprints and jumps well. I also want to sprint like her."

"I feel like most of the time, really some of us don’t pay so much attention on ourselves and try to put other people or other things into it. At the end of the day, we lose focus on the things we’re supposed to focus on."

"Sports is big business. You have to invest. And you know we have great talents in Nigeria but you know, at the end of the day, all do not pay attention to these talents. They don’t prepare us for these major championships."

"You get to another stage of your life where you just don’t say things or do things like ‘I don’t know if I want to do this thing, I’m not sure’, no you have to want it, that’s just it."

"It starts from the way you eat or sleep, the people you surround yourself with, the people that educate you, the people that sponsor you, the people that tell you that you can do it, versus Nigerians, the majority of whom just criticize."

"There is no magic in sports, as much as we the athletes want to go there and win, but there is always somebody who is working harder than you are, and more is being invested in that person than in you."

"I am confident that we will qualify for #WorldChamps because we have a very robust team. Come on #TeamBW #WorldRelays"

"There is nothing we can do specially for the male athletes to do better it’s just the way it is. The competition in the male category is stiffer. They do their things with more energy, power, ego etc so they are their own monsters creating their own competition or sports making it more stiffer and competitive. It is every where in the world, it’s a general thing."

"Personally I believe our female athletes are much better than the males because we are naturally good listeners, attentive, focused and a little more disciplined than the male athletes. The male athletes on the other hand get distracted easily than the females just like mothers will be very attentive to the care and needs of her children and I think that’s why we women bring in anything we do not just sports but in anything we find ourselves."

"Do not focus entirely on sport, because there will be a day when your body will fail you. When that day comes, and you do not have the educational background to face the real life after sport, something will fall off you."

"Part of the contract stipulated that you must have a minimum of 2.5 GPA or you would be kicked out. A lot of us were from financially poor background. So, it would be silly to lose such an opportunity."

"El presidente Hugo Chávez fue un pilar fundamental para el deporte en mi país. Impulsó muchos métodos para que el deporte llegara a los más bajos niveles y para que los niños vieran que el deporte era importante para la salud, para los valores humanos."

"My best advice would be to just have fun and enjoy yourself. If you love what you do it doesn't seem like hard work, just passion. Yeah you have to train hard but you're always going to have fun along the way."

"I think even if I was to go out there and win the Olympics, everyone’s still going to remember the pre-race routine that I do and the video that went viral so, y’know, that’s alright for me, anything that brings attention to athletics is a good thing, we’re a fairly low-profile sport and I’m just doing what I can to try and give us a bit more of a profile."

"I have gotten more flak for being a conservative Republican than I have for being trans."

"Gay marriage... I'm a traditionalist. I'm older than most people in the audience. I kind of like tradition, and it's always been a man and a woman. I'm thinking, 'I don't quite get it'."

"I think, like a lot of people on this issue, I have really changed my thinking here to, ‘I don’t ever want to stand in front of anybody’s happiness.’ That’s not my job, okay? If that word – ‘marriage’ – is really, really that important to you, I can go with it."

"The track, to me, was like an open book, in which I could read the meaning and purpose of life. I revered it like I would the sanctum sanctorum in a temple, where the deity resided and before whom I would humbly prostrate myself as a devotee. To keep myself steadfast to my goal, I renounced all pleasures and distractions, to keep myself fit and healthy, and dedicated my life to the ground where I could practice and run. Running had thus become my God, my religion and my beloved,"

"You can achieve anything in life. It just depends on how desperate you are to achieve it."

"Each of these moments brings back bitter sweet memories as they represent the different stages of my life, a life that has been kept afloat by my intense determination to triumph in my chosen vocation"

"Sprinting from one shady patch to another to escape the blistering heat of the sun on my journey to school Felling the massacre on that fearsome night when most of my family was slaughtered racing trains for fun outrunning the police when I was caught stealing in Shahdra leaving every one behind in my first race as an army jawan so that I could get an extra glass of milk surging past my competitors in Tokyo when I was declared Asia’s best athlete Running in Pakistan and being hailed as "The Flying Sikh"."

"When I reflect upon my life, I can clearly see how my passion for running has dominated my life. The images that flash through my mind are those running....running…running…"

"Discipline, hard work, will power....My experience made me so hard that I wasn't even scared of death." But one story reflects his desire clearest."

"He emphasized that I must maintain my speed for the first 300 metres, and then give it my all in the last 100 metres. He said that if I ran the first 300 metres at full speed, Spence would do the same, although that was not his running strategy."

"Our American coach, Dr. [Arthur W] Howard, had accompanied the Indian team [to Cardiff] ….Because of Dr. Howard's motivation and advice, I won heat after heat and effortlessly reached the finals."

"I was moved to tears by the thought that from being nobody the night before, I had become somebody."

"Our entire village of Gobindpur Kot had been massacred, as the elders had taken a collective decision not to convert to Islam as they had been asked to. Among those killed were my parents and two of my sisters. My elder brother survived; a sepoy in the British army, he was posted at Multan. Two of my other sisters were married and lived elsewhere."

"I would not stop till I had filled up a bucket with my sweat. I would push myself so much that in the end I would collapse and I would have to be admitted to hospital, I would pray to God to save me, promise that I would be more careful in future. And then I would do it all over again."

"My most enduring memory of that year is not the birth of India and Pakistan. I could not even comprehend what was happening. As a teenager from a backward village in Pakistan, I had never seen a cycle, car or train. I was completely bewildered at the turn of events. All that mattered was how to get my next meal, usually a roti and an onion."

"Io devo prendermela con qualcuno per ottenere risultati."

"Are you running out of breath? Go faster! (Life credo)"

"Essentially, we distinguish ourselves from the rest. If you want to win something, run the 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon."

"I was not talented enough to run and smile at the same time."

"It's at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys."

"It is not gymnastics or ice skating, you know."

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift."

"Herman Brix brought a presence to the screen that many people feel personifies the Tarzan of the books … lean and muscular, articulate and dignified. He moved with the superb athletic grace that my grandfather envisioned."