Inspirational Sports Quotes & Sayings

In hindsight everything is much clearer. — Bart Cummings

Who else, when we stepped to the line in Torino, was going to be so mentally tough? Who else would have proven to himself that he could do anything he set out to do? In a sport that was always one tick away from being entirely out of control, who else would have done everything he could to take charge of the things he could-and should- control to put himself in position to excel? — Apolo Ohno

Maybe they hate me because I'm too good! — Cristiano Ronaldo

The burn is my girlfriend, failure is my ex. I'm married to the track and engaged to success. — Andre Bramble

The five S's of sports training are: stamina, speed, strength, skill, and spirit; but the greatest of these is spirit. — Ken Doherty

Soccer forces life to move on. There's always a new match. A new season. There's always a dream that everything can get better. It's a game of wonders. — Fredrik Backman

A person really doesn't become whole, until he becomes a part of something that's bigger than himself. — Jim Valvano

If at first you don't succeed, you can always become an ultramarathoner. — Bruce Fordyce

Run and become.
Become and run.
Run to succeed in the outer world.
Become to proceed in the inner world. — Sri Chinmoy

Rarely has a new player on the game captured so much attention so fast. — Auliq Ice

History shows us that the people who end up changing the world - the great political, social, scientific, technological, artistic, even sports revolutionaries - are always nuts, until they are right, and then they are geniuses. — John Eliot

One day or another every athlete feels like taking it easy. He stops trying to exceed his limits, and thinks he can keep winning because of his lucky star, or the bad luck of his opponents. You must overcome this negative instinct, which affects all of us, and which is the only difference between the person who wins a race, and those who lose. This is the battle you have to fight every day of your life. — Jesse Owens

In sport the mind serves as the acolyte and apprentice of the body. Nothing interferes with the flow of the game more than the athlete who obsesses about his every move on the court. You move, you react, you recover, you drive, and the thinking is seamless and invisible in the secret codes of your game. — Pat Conroy

It isn't hard to be good from time to time in sports. What is tough, is being good every day. — Willie Mays

Concentration is the key to success in anything in life. You need concentration to carry on a conversation, to raise children, to stay positive, to be able to communicate effectively, to succeed academically, to meditate, to succeed in business, to become good at sports, to achieve the goals you set for yourself, and the list can go on and on. — Gudjon Bergmann

You've got to go through hell ... Before you get to heaven ... Let's do 10 more — Frank Giampaolo

Healthy life is a sacred being. — Lailah Gifty Akita

I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field. — Walter Payton

The sunrise was the most amazing part of the day. The quiet of the block seemed even more silent when I watched the light make its way effortlessly into the world. Its serenity bathed itself in the rose colored light above bleeding into the sky. The road was vulnerable. The pink and the orange seeped onto the street and lit up my path, just for me. I saw it in front of my feet and it pulled me forward, my footsteps hitting the gravel. I wanted to run into it, to dive feet first and plunge into the harmony of my safe haven. It serenaded me into a calm sense of security. A calm idea that everything was just the way it was supposed to, and everything else, would always get better. Siempre mejorando. — Adriana Rodrigues

We old athletes carry the disfigurements and markings of contests remembered only by us and no one else. Nothing is more lost than a forgotten game. — Pat Conroy

Make time daily for your well-being. — Lailah Gifty Akita

I'd like to thank everyone who voted for me. And the one guy who didn't vote for me, thank you, too. — Shaquille O'Neal

What the new mate, sports car, or unexpected check could never do, Christ says, "I Can." You'll love how he achieves it. He reconnects your soul with God. — Max Lucado

Racing is an escape from society. From symbols of status, and self-perception. A chance to just be. For everyone to just be, with each other. — Erin Beresini

If you don't invest very much, then defeat doesn't hurt very much and winning is not very exciting. — Dick Vermeil

The coach's job is twenty percent technical and training, and eighty per cent inspirational. He may know all there is to know about tactics, technique and training, but if he cannot win the confidence and comradeship of his pupils he will never be a good coach — Franz Stampfl

Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision. — Muhammad Ali

Appearances can be misleading. You just never know what's inside someone until he's tested. — Daniel Rodriguez

I don't give a toss about pressure. I spent afternoon sleeping and playing Playstation. Then I went out and won the World Cup. — Andrea Pirlo

Keep your mind on the things you want and off the things you don't want. — Hannah Whitall Smith

How we approach each obstacle is relevant, whether we are on the field or not. — Colleen Mariotti

My husband is so confident that when he watches sports on television, he thinks that if he concentrates he can help his team. If the team is in trouble, he coaches the players from our living room, and if they're really in trouble, I have to get off the phone in case they call him. — Rita Rudner

Train hard while others don't, so you can win while your opponents wont. — Andre Bramble

Is it or is it not a matter of importance that a young man starts out in life with an ability to shut his jaw hard and say "I will," or "I will not," and mean it? — John William Heisman

I have to race because racing is a part of me. But I had to learn to race from a place of joy. Not pain. Not sorrow. Not anger. Not to fix things I can't control. But for a connection with other people. With the wilderness. With myself. — Erin Beresini

If you stop fighting for what you want, what you don't want will automatically take over — Gordon Attard

The coach should be the absolute boss, but he still should maintain an open mind. — Red Auerbach

Persevere with a positive attitude - Michael Jordan — Sharon Hughson

Luck? Sure. But only after long practice and only with the ability to think under pressure. — Babe Didrikson Zaharias

The secret of success is concentrating interest in life, interest in sports and good times, interest in your studies, interest in your fellow students, interest in the small things of nature, insects, birds, flowers, leaves, etc. In other words to be fully awake to everything about you & the more you learn the more you can appreciate & get a full measure of joy & happiness out of life. — LeRoy Pollock

In sports teams, apart from talk of sporting prowess and the imparting of inspirational thought, an extraordinary amount of time is spent discussing, and flaunting, material possessions. — Harsha Bhogle

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

When you're as small as I am, people don't expect you to be much of an athlete. You either wilt under the weight of low expectations, or you rise above them. — Daniel Rodriguez

Review and question what you already know or have. In most ball sports and games, you confirm whether you have scored by checking whether the ball has gone into the goal or hit its target. So evaluation of results means that you must look at your goal to see if the ball has hit its target. Look at your educational aspirations or dreams and say "am I on track to meet my 2020 PhD target? — Archibald Marwizi

The trouble with being a good sport is that you have to lose to prove it. — Croft M. Pentz

Do you believe you're a starter or a benchwarmer? Do you believe you're an all-star or an also- ran? If the answers to these questions are the latter, your play on the field will reflect it. But when you've learned to shut off outside influences and believe in yourself, there's no telling how good a player you can be. — Rod Carew

As a general man I tried watching movies, playing sports, going to picnics and other entertainments but I still got bored, then I tried heroism and now I am hero, and I never get bored. — Amit Kalantri

Each of us has a fire in our hearts for something. It's our goal in life to find it and keep it. — Mary Lou Retton

There is a scene in one of the Rocky movies where after the match Apollo Creed and Rocky are waiting for the scoring of their brawl all beat up and battered, obviously both fighters gave all they had to win, and Apollo Creed says to Rocky - "Your not getting a rematch" and Rocky says "I don't want one".
I love that scene.
That's when you know that you left no doubt - that your opponent, win or lose, never wants to compete against you ever again.
That's fighting. — JohnA Passaro

Our culture has become so obsessed with celebrity that it's easy to confuse fame with success. They are not the same thing. — Daniel Rodriguez

The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur. — Vince Lombardi

I'm playing; I'm here. I'm going to fight until they tell me they don't want me anymore. — Steve Nash

Sport provides the spectacle, the metaphor, the religious ritual, the putty to fill the cracks in countless lives. — Phillip Adams

I've never worked a day in my life. Don't get me wrong. I work at track. If you love what you do, it's not work. — Marion Jones

I'm just me - the way I am. — Louise Sauvage

Just as we tell women today to vote, in honour of the suffragettes who campaigned for the right to do so, we owe it to these female sports pioneers to draw inspiration from their stories, to continue the fight. — Anna Kessel

A champion, he said, wins a World Series or an Olympic and is hoisted on the shoulders of teammates and fans. A hero carries the people on his shoulders. Champions live for the moment- heroes, like Jackie Robinson, transcend time. — Sharon Robinson

It was very quiet at the hotel, as if there had been a death in the family. When you have quit the Tour, nobody really knows what to say or do. ( ... ) Everything I'd previously achieved meant nothing; all I was now was a pro rider who couldn't finish the Tour de France. — David Millar

I was told over and over again that I would never be successful, that I was not going to be competitive and the technique was simply not going to work. All I could do was shrug and say "We'll just have to see". — Dick Fosbury

Look. Shit happened. Shit's going to keep happening. You don't need me to tell your life isn't fair. You're here because you know it isn't. Life doesn't care what we want out of it; it's up to us to fight for what we want with everything we've got. Seth wanted us to win. He wanted us to make it past the fourth match. I think we owe it to him to perform. Let's show the world what we've got. Let's make this our year. — Nora Sakavic

As your training integrates Mind, Body and Spirit, enjoy the process. Your journey to the marathon finish will last a few hours. Your journey to the start will influence a lifetime. — Gina Greenlee

It's not whether you win or lose - but whether I win or lose. — Sandy Lyle

Whenever an art form loses its fire, when it gets weakened by intellectual inbreeding and first principles fade into stale tradition, a radical fringe eventually appears to blow it up and rebuild from the rubble. Young Gun ultrarunners were like Lost Generation writers in the '20s, Beat poets in the '50s, and rock musicians in the '60s: they were poor and ignored and free from all expectations and inhibitions. They were body artists, playing with the palette of human endurance. — Christopher McDougall

No man who really is a man ever cared for the easy task. There is no enjoyment in the game that is easily won. It is that in which you have to strain every muscle and sinew to achieve victory that provides real joy. — Eric Liddell

If you only ever give 90% in training then you will only ever give 90% when it matters. — Michael Owen

It is in experiencing and accepting the pain of defeat, that we may truly acknowledge the joy of victory. — Andre Bramble

Exercise and sports are greatly affected by what goes into the mind, and the mind is greatly affected by sports and exercise as well. This is true among exercisers at all levels, despite their different goals. A major element in mental training is visualization ... Visualizing a positive outcome can create a pattern of success, as long as you set realistic and specific goals. — Grete Waitz

Everything you need is already inside. — Bill Bowerman

If at first you don't succeed, you're obviously not me. — Madonna Ciccone

Sport is something that is very inspirational for young people. — Pele

Many people say I'm the best women's soccer player in the world. I don't think so. And because of that, someday I just might be. — Mia Hamm

Without self-discipline, success is impossible, period. — Lou Holtz

Sport, properly directed, develops character, makes a person courageous, a generous loser, and a gracious victor; it refines the senses, gives intellectual penetration, and steels the will to endurance. It is not merely a physical development then. Sport, rightly understood, is an occupation of the whole person, and while perfecting the body as an instrument of the mind, it also makes the mind itself a more refined instrument for the search and communication of truth ... . — Pope Pius XII

There is no getting around the fact that the moment you are at your very best is the moment you begin to become worse and worse. Others will come along who can run faster, jump higher, hit harder, and you will be forgotten. Your winning moment is dated to die. — Charlie Higson

You either commit yourself as a professional racing driver that's designed to win races or you come second or you come third or fifth and am not design to come third, fourth or fifth, I race to win. — Ayrton Senna

We had a strict routine that nothing could change: we'd get up at six, and it would be my job or Meinhard's to get milk from the farm door. When w were a little older and starting to play sports, exercises were added to the chores, and we had to earn our breakfast by doing sit-ups. In the afternoon, we'd finish our homework and chores, and my father would make us practice soccer no matter how bad the weather was. — Arnold Schwarzenegger

It feels good to show some courage. — Joe Namath

What did I hope to gain from my game and from putting my parents through all this? The truth is that I loved to play. My body was fit and my mind raring to go. But I also hoped that I would get a government job through the sports quota. — M.C. Mary Kom

The goal of this book is do for you what Greg did for me: reframe 26.2 miles as accessible and inspire your first marathon journey, one mile at a time. — Gina Greenlee

Set your goals high, and don't stop till you get there. — Bo Jackson

I find it surreal, then perfectly normal. I'm struck by how fast the surreal becomes the norm. I marvel at how unexciting it is to be famous, how mundane famous people are. They're confused, uncertain, insecure, and often hate what they do. It's something we always hear - like that old adage that money can't buy happiness-but we never believe it until we see it ourselves. Seeing it in 1992 brings me a new measure of confidence. — Andre Agassi

I have three messages," said the breathless Nyad."One is we should never ever give up. Two is you are never too old to chase your dreams. And three is it looks like a solitary sport but it takes a team. — Diana Nyad

If running a marathon excites you, create space in your life for it. Adding a new commitment means recalibrating different areas of your world. Logging more miles as your race date approaches means less time invested in other pursuits. Not forever, just during the months you train. Too, you will find how training fits into your world serves not only crossing the finish but other areas of life. — Gina Greenlee

The story of John Ritter illustrates what it means to be a hero and how we treat our heroes. When we idealize real people they lose their humanity. They are turned into idols that we worship and may later want to destroy. Heroes are transformed from conscious-feeling fellow homo sapiens into characters in our stories. The greatest hero-characters will become legends or even mythic characters. We might think we know them, but when they are idolized they become more like treasured memories, existing in our minds as archetypal characters, rather than living-breathing human beings with thoughts and feelings of their own. — Jeff Rasley

Positioning yourself and effective branding should not be left to sports and movie stars. Your need a personal coach, manager or mentor otherwise your expertise, skills or talent will not go far. You might have what it takes but sometimes you lack strategy and some finer elements. — Archibald Marwizi

The mainstream media perpetuates the notion that women should focus entirely on a static image of a perfect body as the end goal. There are no messages about the process, the active body, how it makes us feel in that moment. — Anna Kessel

Manny has swung with many men, but many men never seen Manny's blissful swing. — Anthony Liccione

Never underestimate the heart of a champion! — Doc Rivers

It's because you absolutely love the sport. — Nastia Liukin

Play to win but never fear to lose. Win or lose-either way you are a winner. — Debasish Mridha

Killing animals for sport, for pleasure, for adventure, and for hides and furs is a phenomena which is at once disgusting and distressing. There is no justification in indulging is such acts of brutality. — Dalai Lama

When he throws one in from half court and raises his arms triumphantly, spectators' emotions rise in sympathetic gasps of joy; childhood revisited for a brief moment — Brian Triptow

I love football. I love the aesthetics of football. I love the athleticism of football. I love the movement of the players, the antics of the coaches. I love the dynamism of the fans. I love their passion for their badge and the colour of their team and their country. I love the noise and the buzz and the electricity in the stadium. I love the songs. I love the way the ball moves and then it flows and the way a teams fortune rises and falls through a game and through a season. But what I love about football is that it brings people together across religious divides, geographic divides, political divides. I love the fact that for ninety minutes in a rectangular piece of grass, people can forget hopefully, whatever might be going on in their life, and rejoice in this communal celebration of humanity. The biggest diverse, invasive or pervasive culture that human kinds knows is football and I love the fact that at the altar of football human kind can come worship and celebrate. — Andy Harper

The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be only sustainable competitive advantage. — Arie De Geus

A champion always prepares to win. — D.C. Gonzalez

Awareness is the novelty of our youth — Brian Triptow

Getting more exercise isn't only good for your waistline. It's a natural anti-depressant, that leaves you in a great mood. — Auliq Ice

What's tough is being good every day. — Willie Mays

Find something you love, and go after it, with all of your heart. — Jim Abbott

You stop accepting yourself and stop connecting three realms of the triangle of awareness within you. You fail to realize that this is mistaken notion that "a lighter you is a happier you" isn't making you happier at all. — Scott Abel