Gymnast Quotes & Sayings

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

I was a gymnast for years. — Kelly Preston

I pay attention to my diet to be a healthier gymnast, but I'm not obsessive over it. — Shawn Johnson

The main thing for a gymnast is total concentration while competing. At such moments one has to put everything else behind. I know that other gymnasts can do so with a smile, but I can't. And I don't even try to. — Ludmilla Tourischeva

I was into sports and swimming as a kid and didn't spend a whole lot of time sitting down. I was a gymnast. — Mads Mikkelsen

I was a rhythmic and athletic gymnast for a little while. Then, when I quit gymnastics, I fell in love with yoga. So sometimes I think I'd like to open up a yoga studio. — Nina Dobrev

I didn't want to be a dancer. I just did it to work my way through college. But I was always an athlete and gymnast, so it came naturally. — Gene Kelly

I think the scores for Olympic gymnastics are affected by what countries the judge and the gymnast are from. That's wrong. That type of political pandering isn't meant for gymnastic Olympic events. It's meant for the Supreme Court. — Craig Ferguson

As a gymnast, you always wear spandex. Being a teenager wearing spandex? It was tough accepting how my body looked, especially if there was any weight gain. — Alicia Sacramone

Creative people inspire me. Athletes also inspire me to come alive, especially my daughter, a competitive gymnast who works very hard, as much as six hours a day on her gymnastics skills. — Nathan East

The complete novelist would come into the world with a catalog of qualities like this. He would own the concentration of a Trappist monk, the organizational ability of a Prussian field marshal, the insight into human relations of a Viennese psychologist, the discipline of a man who prints the Lord's Prayer on the head of a pin, the exquisite sense of timing of an Olympic gymnast, and by the way, a natural instinct and flair for exceptional use of language. — Leon Uris

I'm not just a normal guy. I'm a gymnast. — Action Bronson

Growing up I definitely looked up to Dominique Moceanu. She was my favorite gymnast and she was on that '96 Olympic team. She was always so fun to watch. I kind of wanted to model my career after hers. — Alicia Sacramone

Giving interviews is the most difficult thing about being a gymnast. — Gina Gogean

My parents, Romanian immigrants, struggled to provide me a better life than the ones they had left in their homeland. They worked hard to give me every opportunity in life, and once I showed natural talent as a young gymnast, they spent every last penny on my training. — Dominique Moceanu

I don't run away from a challenge because I am afraid. Instead, I run towards it because the only way to escape fear is to trample it beneath your foot — Nadia Comaneci

I was a gymnast for twelve or thirteen years. Then I got into surfing and now I paddle board and hike and do whatever I can. I think it's my love of the outdoors. — Serinda Swan

God is holy. A lot of people say that whatever you believe about God is fine, so long as you are sincere. But that is comparable to describing your friend in one instance as a three-hundred-pound sumo wrestler and in another as a five-foot-two, ninety-pound gymnast. No matter how sincere you are in your explanations, both descriptions of your friend simply cannot be true. — Francis Chan

I uncurled my legs and pushed until I had both arms fully extended and both legs straight up in the air. My dress fell down over my head, so if any of our neighbors were up and about, they saw more than just me going all Russian gymnast on our fence. — Rachel Hawkins

It sounds funny, but the 2008 Olympics were something that just kind of happened, and I was lucky they came at a point when I was uninjured and well prepared. As a gymnast, you can't ask for much more. — Shawn Johnson

I actually sing horribly, but I used to dance pretty good. I was a gymnast, and you can usually use those gymnastic tricks with dance. Plus, they're so much fun to do. That wasn't really a big part of my career. It was just a phase. — Robert Englund

Gymnastics is a lot like life. You don't become an Elite gymnast by bickering and having a negative attitude. You have to be positive to get to that level. — Shannon Miller

In the two weeks following the All-Star Game, baseball was largely upstaged by the events of the XXI Olympiad in Montreal, including Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci's seven perfect 10.0 scores, Bruce Jenner's record-setting decathlon triumph, and the five gold medals won by U.S. boxers Howard Davis Jr., Sugar Ray Leonard, Leo Randolph, and brothers Leon and Michael Spinks - the mightiest performance of any American boxing team in Olympic history. — Dan Epstein

Ove glares out of the window. The poser is jogging. Not that Ove is provoked by jogging. Not at all. Ove couldn't give a damn about people jogging. What he can't understand is why they have to make such a big thing of it. With those smug smiles on their faces, as if they were out there curing pulmonary emphysema. Either they walk fast or they run slowly, that's what joggers do. It's a forty-year-old man's way of telling the world that he can't do anything right. Is it really necessary to dress up as a fourteen-year-old Romanian gymnast in order to be able to do it? Or the Olympic tobogganing team? Just because one shuffles aimlessly around the block for three quarters of an hour? — Fredrik Backman

As a competitive gymnast, my life has always been filled with challenges that would ultimately define my future. From day one, I was taught to be prepared at all costs. — Dominique Moceanu

Everyone needs a coach. It doesn't matter whether you're a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast or a bridge player. — Bill Gates

When I was young I wanted to be a gymnast. I used to compete at it, but then I grew too tall. — Miranda Kerr

First, don't cry. That's the worst thing a gymnast can do in training, because it can ruin your concentration and lead to injury. Second, always place the highest demands of yourself in the sport. — Rozalia Galiyeva

I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and was a very competitive (and stressed out!) gymnast before getting into entertainment, but it was never the actual gymnastics that was my true love. I loved the performing aspect of it all. — Rachele Brooke Smith

Allow some warm-up time each day to stimulate your creative flow. A pianist does keyboard exercises. A gymnast stretches. An artist needs to loosen up, too. It takes a few minutes to shift from the real world into a creative mode. — Nita Leland

I was never invited to the White House. They invited that Olympic Russian gymnast - that little Communist, Olga Korbut. — Bobby Fischer

I was a gymnast when I was little, like 8, 9, 10. — Pamela Anderson

Anybody could be as good as Nemov. Yeah, he's a great gymnast, but anyone can be that good. — Blaine Wilson

I love physical movement. Dance was my favorite thing, and I was a gymnast. I find that expression through movement is easier, in some ways, than expression through words. — Kristin Kreuk

I'm not doing it for media attention, not doing it for sponsors, not for money. — Nastia Liukin

Yet, every day, I miss the feeling of flying. I will never experience it again. Sometimes, if I run far enough, past my limits, I can beat my legs into numbness, almost replicating the feeling of being a young gymnast on a good day. I can make myself feel numb but heavy. Never light. And I always feel the pain later. I pay the price with sore shins, aching ankles, and "hip pointers" jabbing into my pelvis.

Still, I have a love affair with gymnastics, with that period in my life. Often, I dream dreams of weightlessness. When I feel most disheartened, heavy with the burdens of everyday life, I imagine myself buoyant, floatable. I waft, on my own accord, propelled by my own volition, in effortless control. Completely powerful, resilient, substantial, agile.

I miss it every day. — Jennifer Sey

What the hell, I'll just eat some trash. — Jerry Seinfeld

He had, indeed, one of those advantages which men who had lived and moved in the world enjoy over others, even men of intelligence and refinement, who have never gone into society, namely that they no longer see it transfigured by the longing or repulsion with which it fills the imagination, but regard it as quite unimportant. Their good nature, freed from all taint of snobbishness and from the fear of seeming too friendly, grown independent, in fact, has the ease, the grace of movement of a trained gymnast each of whose supple limbs will carry out precisely the movement that is required without any clumsy participation by the rest of his body. — Marcel Proust

I was a semi-professional gymnast as a child. I did rhythmic gymnastics, but I sustained an injury and strained all the muscles in my spine. — Gwendoline Christie

One shorter woman had written 'Gymnast' and another had written 'Mareen Biologest'.
Ten bucks said that she wasn't one - those bif fake breasts would make it impossible for her to stay under the water. — Jessica Clare

Part of being a good gymnast is being very disciplined - you have to know how to train right, eat right, sleep right. — Jonathan Horton

Mind you, I'm a fine one to talke. I mean, I killed myself and just look at me now: I'm a qualified pilot, I can escape from a cockpit in five metres of water and I'm halfway up a mountain with a nutty gymnast who wants to chuck herself off the edge. — Steve Voake

I never even thought about being an actor. Somebody asked me if I'd like to learn the craft, and I said, 'Okay.' I was a gymnast in a show at that time, and somebody asked me afterwards one night. I performed as a gymnast for nine years, and then I did acting after that. — Mads Mikkelsen

I love all the attention, people noticing me. 'There's the gymnast. There she is!' — Gabby Douglas

I told myself after 2008 that I was done for good. But they say you can't keep a gymnast away from her sport. — Shawn Johnson

If you want to take it up a step and aim to become a competitive gymnast, you have to be mentally strong and prepared to take on the workload of going to the gym every day, rain or shine. — Shannon Miller

I don't want to be considered a gymnast anymore. — Mitch Gaylord

I also get fed up with the fact that casting agents and directors have this impression of me as being frail and petite. I find it very patronizing. I'm quite beefy and strong. I was a gymnast in school and I have lots of muscles. — Helena Bonham Carter

The Worst Gymnast — Thalia Kalkipsakis

The ideal gymnast would be between 4 feet 7 and 5-2. I wouldn't be able to pinpoint an ideal height, however. It would be foolish to say that a gymnast above 5-2 could not be great. — Bela Karolyi

I'm no perfect gymnast. I want to go out and eat junk food, or I maybe don't sleep as much as I should, or some days I'll leave the gym and think, "Maybe I should have worked a little harder. Maybe I'm not as tired as I need to be." Every day you push a little harder, eat a little better, maybe go to bed a little earlier. — Jonathan Horton

dressed like a 14 year old Romanian gymnast... — Fredrik Backman

Maybe she's a gymnast with superior muscle control."
"She'd have to be in Cirque de Soleil to manage this. — Huntley Fitzpatrick

Talent alone is not enough. I believe that a really good gymnast is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. — Vladislav Rastorotsky

A person who undertakes the study of Zen and learns concentration and meditation is like a gymnast. You become a gymnast of the mind. — Frederick Lenz

As a child, I was very active. I was a gymnast, I played touch football, netball and basketball. When I was 16 years old, I started yoga. I started working out at an early age. — Miranda Kerr

The process of reading is not a half sleep, but in the highest sense, an exercise, a gymnast's struggle: that the reader is to do something for him or herself, must be on the alert, just construct indeed the poem, argument, history, metaphysical essay
the text furnishing the hints, the clue, the start, the framework. — Walt Whitman

I've never wanted to be anything but a gymnast. Maybe it is dangerous-but when you start thinking about danger, you might as well give up. — Olga Korbut

If you've got hips, you can't be a gymnast or dancer. That ruled me out. — Mia Hamm

Howard Altmann has found a way to make language transform itself. If the elusive moment between I and Thou could speak, it might be one of his quietly amazing lines-'you ask the silence to invert itself / like a gymnast in the dark ... ' Without a trace of rhetoric, In This House reminds us of the power of poetry: to show us how to live in a world in which we are strangers. It's a thrill to come close to such an original and deeply realized art. — Dennis Nurkse

I was a gymnast for many years before I was a dancer, so it comes in pretty handy when we do stunts. — Mads Mikkelsen

I realize how much ballet gave me, and because of ballet, I'm known as a graceful gymnast. — Svetlana Boginskaya

Sleeping Wrestler

You are a murderer
No you are not, but really a wrestler
Either way it's just the same
For from the ring of your entangled body
Clean as leather, lustful as a lily
Will nail me down
On your stout neck like a column, like a pillar of tendons
The thoughtful forehead
(In fact, it's thinking nothing)
When the forehead slowly moves and closes the heavy eyelids
Inside, a dark forest awakens
A forest of red parrots
Seven almonds and grape leaves
At the end of the forest a vine
Covers the house where two boys
Lie in each others arms: I'm one of them, you the other
In the house, melancholy and terrible anxiety
Outside the keyhole, a sunset
Dyed with the blood of the beautiful bullfighter Escamillo
Scorched by the sunset, headlong, headfirst
Falling, falling, a gymnast
If you're going to open your eyes, nows the time, wrestler — Mutsuo Takahashi

I've still got a few moves from my days as a gymnast. — Laura Donnelly

I have been curious about the mind and body for as long as I can remember. I was a gymnast, a ballet dancer, and a philosophy and physical therapy major. Following the thread of curiosity about mind and body, I took my first yoga class in 1980 and knew from the start that it would be a lifelong passion. — Rodney Yee

That is what is marvelous about school, she realized: when you are in school, your talents are without number, and your promise is boundless. You ace a math test: you will one day work for NASA. The choir director asks you to sing a solo at the holiday concert: you are the next Mariah Carey. You score a goal, you win a poetry contest, you act in a play. And you are everything at once: actor, astronomer, gymnast, star. But at a certain point, you begin to feel your talents dropping away, like feathers from a molting bird. Cello lessons conflict with soccer practice. There aren't enough spots on the debating team. Calculus remains elusive. Until the day you realize that you cannot think of a single thing you are wonderful at. — Sarah Shun-lien Bynum

I was enough of an acrobat and a gymnast and a dancer and everything else so that I could handle the kung fu, because it's just choreography. — David Carradine

Holly slides off the chairlift like a gymnast, and I slide off like a sack of hammers. — David Mitchell

But then - I was just following him in reverie over mountain and valley - he jumped with both feet onto the middle of my body. I shuddered with wild pain, utterly uncomprehending. Who was it? A child? A gymnast? A daredevil? A suicide? A tempter? An annihilator? — Franz Kafka

I want to stay involved in gymnastics forever, but the Olympics really opened up doors in terms of motivational speaking. I'd like do some type of broadcasting or commentating for gymnastics events on TV, or even give my insights as a gymnast into other sports; I'm kind of a sports junkie in general. — Jonathan Horton

Yesterday, here in the middle of the City, I saw a wolf turn into a Russian ex-gymnast and hand over a business card that read YOUR OWN PERSONAL TRANSHUMAN SECURITY WHORE! STERILIZED INNARDS! ACCEPTS ALL CREDIT CARDS to a large man who had trained attack cancers on his face and possessed seventy-five indentured Komodo Dragons instead of legs. And they had sex. Right in front of me. And six of the Komodo Dragons spat napalm on my new shoes. — Warren Ellis

I was a gymnast when I was younger. My parents put me in gymnastics, and I was actually only good at the floor. I was terrible at everything else, especially beam. Unfortunately, you can't be a gymnast unless you're good at all of the apparatuses, so I became a competitive cheerleader. I was just the main tumbler for my squad. — Josie Loren

I had never heard of Cingular, but they needed people to jump on trampolines. Well, when I was 13, I was a trampoline gymnast. I had actually won nationals in my age group. So it was like one of those perfect, unbelievable miracles. — Nate Torrence

Definitely gymnastics, because I was a gymnast for 11 years. That's my thing. My girlfriend Betty Okino was in the 1992 Olympics and won a bronze medal. She's a gymnast. So I'm a huge fan. — Jaime Pressly

When I was younger I wanted to be a gymnast, but they have to be quite short - I was tall. — Tamara Ecclestone