Tancock Quotes & Sayings

Swimming has given me a lot. It's given me a respect for people and different cultures around the world when I've been competing abroad. I've learnt many life skills and met so many friends around the world that I might not have had otherwise. I'm focused and driven and I guess swimming has made me that way. — Liam Tancock

I started at a 'learn to swim' scheme when I was about five-years-old. I did it to learn water safety, but it was fun and I loved the water. I went to a club, moved up through the ranks and got better and better before taking part in my first national championships. — Liam Tancock

I do not like money, either for itself or for what it can buy, since I want nothing we know about. — Rene Magritte

I try to relax and enjoy it. I don't really get nervous, I get excited! I love training, but my main excitement comes from when I'm racing and the better the standard of people I'm racing, the more excited I get and the more 'up for it' I get. — Liam Tancock

You've got to focus and understand that what you've done in training is the best that you could possibly do. Once you've done that you can really settle down and let your body take over. — Liam Tancock

And then there are always clever people about to promise you that everything will be all right if only you put yourself out a bit... And you get carried away, you suffer so much from the things that exist that you ask for what can't ever exist. Now look at me, I was well away dreaming like a fool and seeing visions of a nice friendly life on good terms with everybody, and off I went, up into the clouds. And when you fall back into the mud it hurts a lot. No! None of it was true, none of those things we thought we could see existed at all. All that was really there was still more misery-- oh yes! as much of that as you like-- and bullets into the bargain! — Emile Zola

'Sacrifice' seems like such a strong word to me because I wouldn't say I've sacrificed anything. If I didn't enjoy what I do, I wouldn't do it. I might have missed out on a few things when I was younger and growing up. — Liam Tancock

You've got to put a lot of hard work in and it's not just in the swimming pool. You've got to look after yourself, you've got to sleep well and you've got to recover between the sessions, whether that's resting or getting the right food inside you. I always try to get the best out of myself and strive for perfection. — Liam Tancock

Self-worth and net worth are not the same. — Rick Warren

We line our lives with beautiful things to create a cushion of stability: the illusion of a cohesive past, the promise of an unclouded future. — Holland Cotter

I don't want to be ordinary. I'm willing to do the work. I'm willing to suffer the indignities of comedy because I want to be great. I don't want to just be good. I want to be great. — Judd Apatow

In the same way, I saw our General once approach the table in a stolid, important manner. A lacquey darted to offer him a chair, but the General did not even notice him. Slowly he took out his money bags, and slowly extracted 300 francs in gold, which he staked on the black, and won. Yet he did not take up his winnings - he left them there on the table. Again the black turned up, and again he did not gather in what he had won; and when, in the third round, the RED turned up he lost, at a stroke, 1200 francs. Yet even then he rose with a smile, and thus preserved his reputation; yet I knew that his money bags must be chafing his heart, as well as that, had the stake been twice or thrice as much again, he would still have restrained himself from venting his disappointment. — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

If there was a birthday party or a gathering and I was at training and couldn't make it, then I guess I might have missed out on a few things, but I wouldn't see them as sacrifices because I love what I do so much. I feel I've made the right choices in the way I've lived my life. — Liam Tancock

And if such a gift could come to him at such a time, then anything - dear girl from Rockford dressed up for her meeting, rushing above the Rock River - he opened his eyes, and yes, there it was, the perfect knowledge: Anything was possible for anyone. — Elizabeth Strout

I've got a strength and conditioning coach, a weights coach, but I've also got a nutritionist, a physiotherapist and a masseur available to me if I need it. It's quite a good network. I've also got sports scientists who record the technical information, so that, after the race, we can analyse the video and check comparisons between, not only me and the other competitors, but me and my best performance. I couldn't do it without these guys, but I'm the one who gets all the credit. — Liam Tancock

I do not myself find it agreeable to be 90, and I cannot imagine why it should seem so to other people. It is not that you have any fears about your own death, it is that your upholstery is already dead around you. — Rebecca West

Humor is the shock absorber of life; it helps us take the blows. — Peggy Noonan

It's the one thing, a compromise I guess. On network it's the one thing you can't smoke on network. That's one of his character traits. We're working around that. We're trying to get aspects of it in there as much as possible. We'll see. — Neil Marshall

Dedication and time management are two of the biggest things. I hate being late for anything. If anything, I prefer to be ten minutes early rather than thirty seconds late. I'm also very dedicated and I want to do my best in everything I do. I believe swimming has helped transfer that into my life as well. — Liam Tancock

It is only upon life's new journey & pathway that your greatest learning - will be experienced. — Eleesha

Can there be anything more sad than a girl dying on the day of her first communion, in her new dress. A little bride of death ... — Georges Rodenbach

Education is fantastic. In my case I had to split my university course so it took a few more years. I really want to excel at everything I do, so I sat down and spoke with both my swimming coach and my tutor and we worked out a good plan to get the best out of both my swimming and my education. — Liam Tancock

Get down to your local swimming pool or your local swimming club, join up and see what it's like. I can guarantee that you're going to meet some great friends. Just being involved in water makes me happy and I'd like to see that transferred across to other people. — Liam Tancock

I set goals, but they're mostly very personal goals. I never try and set a goal where 'I want to win this,' or 'I want to do this,' where other people can affect what I do. If I want to swim a new best time, I sit down and work out the best way of doing that. Whether I can shave a few tenths of a second off a turn or the start, my goal is putting them all together in a race. That's the way I set my goals. — Liam Tancock