Quotes & Sayings About The Olympic Games

I got beat real hard and heavy in the Olympic Games in 1968 by a guy who swam an incredible race one time in his whole life, but he did it right at the right time. I'd like to be that guy now. Maybe that's what I'm going to have to pull out of my hat to make the Olympic team. — Mark Spitz

I hope it really comes off. It would make my dad really proud. (about the song for the coming 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece) — George Michael

Swimming and athletics are the big gigs at the Olympic games. Cycling and rowing are pretty big for Britain, but globally, the two big things are athletics and swimming. — Clare Balding

I would prefer chess to become part of the Olympic Games. This would also lead to chess become more accepted as a sport in general. — Viswanathan Anand

For athletes, the Olympics are the ultimate test of their worth. — Mary Lou Retton

I was ready in 2008 for the Olympic Games but unfortunately I missed the Kenyan trials with a thigh injury. I watched those Olympics but it was tough to watch. But it was good in the end because a Kenyan, Wilfred Bungei, was the champion. — David Rudisha

This week, the world gathers in Beijing for the 2008 Olympic games. This is the extraordinary moment China has been dreaming of for 100 years. People have been longing for this moment, because it symbolises a turning point in China's relationship with the outside world. — Ai Weiwei

People talk about retiring. I never said that r-word. People though I went away after the Olympic Games. I took time off to do something I've always wanted to be - a mother. — Gail Devers

Would you tell a USA Olympic Team hopeful that did not qualify for The Games, to give up and try another sport? No. You would tell them to work harder. Train harder. Try again at the next Olympics.
However, that is not what we hear in life. When did it become okay to tell people to quit trying and give up? When did it become okay to promote hopelessness?
If we all believe that hard work will not pay off, that we cannot try again, that we should give up early ... well then ... imagine all he great things that will never happen.
I believe in hard work. I believe in dreams. I believe that you can fall and still get up. And no one can take that away from me. — Kevin James Breaux

The Olympic Games are always in the head of every sports athlete. We work for that. The Olympics are the most important race. They're each four years, and everybody wants to show their best performance. — Tina Maze

I have run with the Olympic Torch during the 2012 summer games in London and the 2014 winter games in Sochi. — Ban Ki-moon

The Greeks had a race in their Olympic games that was unique. The winner was not the runner who finished first. It was the runner who finished with his torch still lit. I want to run all the way with the flame of my torch still lit for Him. — Joseph Stowell

There's going to be a real ding dong when the bell goes. — David Coleman

Yeah, that's what kind of, we get the idea a little bit yeah, because other people from different countries also try as hard as they can to get a medal or a gold medal in the Olympic Games. And you know, if they can work hard, we can work hard as well. — Inge De Bruijn

I started track and field when I was 12 and didn't get to an Olympic Games until I was nearly 23. By any stretch of the imagination that's a very long apprenticeship. — Sebastian Coe

Most other competitions are individual achievements, but the Olympic Games is something that belongs to everybody. — Scott Hamilton

My main point in this regard was to compete for my country and my people and to receive the support of the entire Cuban society, to carry my flag in whatever competition I was in, the Olympic Games, Pan-American Games. — Alberto Juantorena

There's a lot more to life than just the Olympic Games. — Eric Shanteau

I am honored to be selected as Canada's flag bearer for the closing ceremony of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games. Over the past 16 days we've had some outstanding performances by Canadian athletes and it is truly overwhelming to be selected as the flag bearer amidst the most successful Canadian Olympic Winter Games team ever. — Cindy Klassen

First and foremost, my involvement within the Olympic pursuit and Games were obviously surrounded by only putting the absolute best nutrients into my body. — Apolo Ohno

And in nineteen seventy two I almost wasn't, on the team, but I knew about it just before Olympic Games for three months before this why this is was not very good for me. I'd been ready to go, you know. — Olga Korbut

With Russia about to hold the Winter Games in Sochi, the country is open to pressure. American and world leaders must speak out against Mr. Putin's attacks and the violence they foster. The Olympic Committee must demand the retraction of these laws under threat of boycott. — Harvey Fierstein

At the most elite level, your nutrition becomes a lifestyle: it's not something you have to do when you're preparing for Olympic games or World Cup games - you just do it. You're more inclined to eat healthier because it's better for your muscles. — Abby Wambach

Aristotle compiled the first known comprehensive list of all winners of the Olympic Games. Which means that quite probably he was sat in a bar with Plato, muttering 'Go on then, give me any year you like and I'll tell you who won the four-man bobsleigh.' — Mark Steel

I never had one day that I didn't want to be on the ice, because I always had an objective for that day. I had a rigorous plan and schedule in place that I had to adhere to. It was a step-by-step process of slowly but surely inching toward the Olympic Games and using every day as a series of goals to be accomplished. — Apolo Ohno

The Olympic Games is the ultimate level of competition. — Russell Mark

I'll have to say winning the Olympic gold in Atlanta is a crowning achievement, along with the gold in the relay in the same games. — Donovan Bailey

Female success stories from sporting events like the Olympic Games have played a role in shifting the Indian perception to see the female athlete as a hero and a role model for young Indian girls. — Richard Attias

Besides film, I'd like to be the young Regis. That would be great. Going back and forth from L.A. to New York. Doing stuff on food. Doing stuff on kids. Just talking about issues that are relevant. Doing things on the Olympic Games. — Apolo Ohno

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. — Herb Elliott

When you get rid of the estate tax," he (Warren Buffet) said, "you're basically handing over command of the country's resources to people who didn't earn it. It's like choosing the 2020 Olympic team by picking the children of all the winners at the 2000 Games. — Barack Obama

At the Olympic Games, it isn't the most beautiful or strongest who are crowned, but those who compete. — Aristotle.

If you want to understand what a year of life means, ask a student who just flunked his end-of-the-year exams. Or a month of life: speak to a mother who has just given birth to a premature baby and is waiting for him to be taken out of the incubator before she can hold him safe and sound in her arms. Or a week: interview a man who works in a factory or a mine to feed his family. Or a day: ask two people madly in love who are waiting for their next rendezvous. Or an hour: talk to a claustrophobia sufferer stuck in a broken-down elevator. Or a second: look at the expression on the face of a man who has just escaped from a car wreck. Or one-thousandth of a second: ask the athlete who just won the silver medal at the Olympic Games, and not the gold he trained for all his life. Life is magic, Arthur, and I know what I'm saying because since my accident I appreciate the value of every instant. So I beg you, let's make the most of all the seconds that we have left. — Marc Levy

As many as three million people are expected to attend the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia. The security concerns and economic opportunities are great for both Canada and Washington state. — Rick Larsen

African runners regularly work out in the United States and Europe, and the International Olympic Committee sends some of the cash from the Games to Olympic committees in poor nations, which use the money to finance their own programs. — Alex Berenson

In the spirit of the Olympic Games, they traditionally ask that all fighting and warfare around the world stop. So, there's hope for a ceasefire within the Jackson family. — Jay Leno

When I was first writing, I was writing mostly about sporting events, which was really what my assignments were. I was working on the Tour de France bike race and the Barcelona Olympic Games, and those songs tend to be very big, very bombastic-type music, which is the type of music that I love to write. — John Tesh

To be here, is a dream come true. A dream is something that you set for yourself, not what other people set for you. When I qualified in Seville I burst into tears. I couldn't believe that I was going to the Olympic Games. — Natalie Du Toit

I was at the Olympic Games winning medals and I still doubted my image. I doubted what I looked like. That's sad. — Shawn Johnson

To have been selected to represent Team South Africa at the London 2012 Olympic Games in the individual 400m and the 4x400m relay is a real honor and I am so pleased that years of hard work, determination and sacrifice have all come together. — Oscar Pistorius

Winning is great, but being able to finish my last Olympic Games on American soil was very important. Even though I was injured, I didn't let my psyche get the best of me and cause me to doubt myself, so I was willing to pull every muscle in my body in '96 in order to get the job done and I came away with the bronze medal. — Jackie Joyner-Kersee

I graduated a the top of my class in the '84 Olympic Games; I won a gold medal. — Scott Hamilton

No wrong in aiming or applauding the win but always agnize one's efforts. — Mohith Agadi

I remember as a kid watching one of the Olympic games, and I was cheering for a big track athlete. He was the favorite to win, and he lost. I realized in that moment the pain he felt was so much greater than the pain that those who never thought they were going to win would have felt had they lost. — Malcolm Gladwell

It has been said that the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games is something that an athlete will remember for the rest of their life. It is true. That moment when you walk into the Olympic Stadium as part of the Australian Olympic Team, is a moment that I will never forget. — Jeff Fenech

The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well. — Pierre De Coubertin

As it happens, I have personally been something of an enthusiast for the London Olympic games, mainly on the grounds a) that a bit of wasteland will be made nice and b) that it tends to make everybody happy that their country should be the centre of world attention for a couple of weeks in their life. — Evan Davis

Leo resisted the urge to throw a grenade in Frank's face. "I suppose I should know who Pelops was?"
"He was a prince, won his wife in a chariot race. Supposedly he started the Olympic games in honor of that."
Hazel sniffed. "How romantic. 'Nice wife you have, Prince Pelops.' 'Thanks. I won her in a chariot race. — Rick Riordan

I have a phenomenal team behind me who have helped get me here and I, along with them, will now put everything we can into the final few weeks of preparations before the Olympic Games, where I am aiming to race well, work well through the rounds, post good times and maybe even a personal best time on the biggest stage of them all. — Oscar Pistorius

Pythagoras used to say that life resembles the Olympic Games: a few people strain their muscles to carry off a prize; others bring trinkets to sell to the crowd for gain; and some there are, and not the worst, who seek no other profit than to look at the show and see how and why everything is done; spectators of the life of other people in order to judge and regulate their own. — Michel De Montaigne

I'm so over the moon that I have the opportunity to represent my country at a third Olympic Games. — Libby Trickett

The Olympic Games are not just ordinary world championships but a quadrennial festival of universal youth ... celebrated by each succeeding generation as it arrives on the threshold of adulthood. — Pierre De Coubertin

A Dominican monk, Father Henri Didon, used it as a watchword for his pupils in sports at Arcueil College in Paris. Baron Pierre De Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, made it the Olympic Games ideal adopted at the Antwerp Games in 1920. I never mentioned winning to my players. I mentioned constantly that all I wanted them to do was the best they could. If they're good enough, the score will be to their liking; if they're not, it won't be but that's nothing to hang their head about. Sometimes the other fellow is just better than you are. — John Wooden

During my time, squash was not even part of Asian or Commonwealth Games. Considering the dominance of Jansher Khan and I in the '80s and '90s, it goes without saying that Pakistan would have bagged a plethora of medals through us at these games. And yes, the ultimate prize would have been an Olympic gold. — Jahangir Khan

Searching for funds to continue my skating career when I was 17, I called the Women's Sports Foundation in New York. The intern who answered the phone suggested that I might be a great candidate for the Travel and Training fund, and she sent me an application form. I applied for a grant. With the funds I was awarded, I bought a new pair of skates and a plane ticket to the 1988 National Championships, where I achieved my highest national finish. Four years later, I won the gold medal at the 1992 Olympic Games. — Kristi Yamaguchi

The water here in Cardiff is much easier than in London, so for us it is more relaxing paddling here. This race is for us a continuation of our training, we will compete in only this World cup. We don't want to travel too much before the Olympic Games and we want to focus on the Games. — Pavol Hochschorner

The Olympic Games are for 'the youth of the world,' but they're organized and scored by countries. It's no surprise that countries treat them as vehicles of national pride, and assume that their people will be most interested in their own athletes. So anybody who was saving up to write an angry letter, blog post, or op-ed about NBC's chauvinistic coverage: don't bother! They're actually more above-the-fray than most. Also, their coverage is not shown anywhere except America - I know, it's because I can't get it that I'm watching Women's Air Pistol - so can't ruffle feathers elsewhere. — James Fallows

The Olympic Games are the quadrennial celebration of the springtime of humanity. — Pierre De Coubertin

It's been a dream for me since I was six years old to go to the Olympic Games and to finally have that dream realised is something massive for me. — Natalie Du Toit

Women made up 44% of Olympic competitors at London 2012 - the greatest show of gender equality in Olympic history. By comparison, in the 1908 Games men outnumbered women 53 to 1. — Donna De Varona

The 2012 London Olympic Games fostered a generation of hope. I witnessed women participating for the very first time, representing every nation. — Jackie Joyner-Kersee

The Olympic Games are a national cause, and a national cause calls for a nationwide attitude. — Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki

I pretty much knew that I was going to come in fourth, but then I said, 'I'm fourth at the Olympic Games. What are you talking about? Why is that disappointing?' — Gracie Gold

The Olympic Games were created for the exhaltation of the individual athlete. — Pierre De Coubertin

When you're at an Olympic Games watching someone you've known for a long while and he or she has done something, even if it's only coming in the top 50, then you have a monumental night. — Steve Bunce

I walked down the track, beaming with pride. God had brought me so far, through war, through eating garbage and running to forget about my empty stomach. No matter what I went through, God was always with me. He had always had this moment planned for me through both the good times and the bad, from the killing fields of Sudan to these Olympic Games and back again. — Lopez Lomong

If your Olympic Hero were to use the Worm in the 1996 Olympic Games, it would be so embarassing to all the other atheletes - and our country, mind you- that the USA would have finished behind Guam. — Kurt Angle

The result of all this muscular effort, on both the larger scale and the smaller, is that your body burns calories and consumes oxygen at a rate that is unmatched in almost any other human endeavor. Physiologists, in fact, have calculated that rowing a two-thousand-meter race - the Olympic standard - takes the same physiological toll as playing two basketball games back-to-back. And it exacts that toll in about six minutes. — Daniel James Brown

You would fain be victor at the Olympic Games, you say. Yes, but weigh the conditions, weigh the consequences; then and then only, lay to your hand-if it be for your profit. You must live by rule, submit to diet, abstain from dainty meats, exercise your body perforce at stated hours, in heat or in cold; drink no cold water, nor, it may be, wine. In a word, you must surrender yourself wholly to your trainer, as though to a physician. — Epictetus

The Republic-of-China - back in the Olympic Games for the first time — David Coleman

I am always amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill between the nations, and that if only the common peoples of the world could meet one another at football or cricket, they would have no inclination to meet on the battlefield. Even if one didn't know from concrete examples (the 1936 Olympic Games, for instance) that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred, one could deduce it from general principles ... There cannot be much doubt that the whole thing is bound up with the rise of nationalism - that is, with the lunatic modern habit of identifying oneself with large power units and seeing everything in terms of competitive prestige. — George Orwell

My family love living in London. It is a fantastic city and a city such as this deserves to host the Olympic Games. — Jose Mourinho

It's the Olympics. And it was a long way for me. To compete at the Olympic Games, I dreamed of any medal, but frankly speaking, I wanted a gold one. — Adelina Sotnikova

In the name of all competitors, I promise that we will take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by all the rules which govern them in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honour of our teams. — Pierre De Coubertin

If the Olympic Games ever served a true altruistic purpose, they have long since outlived it. Yeah, the pursuit of athletic excellence, sportsmanship and international goodwill is plenty noble. But the modern Olympics are at best a vehicle for agitprop; at worst, a scandal magnet. — John Ridley

Just as at the Olympic games it is not the handsomest or strongest men who are crowned with victory but the successful competitors, so in life it is those who act rightly who carry off all the prizes and rewards. — Aristotle.

If you could have the arms of Hercules, legs as swift as the wind. If you could leap shoulder high above the rim, have the kick of a dolphin, the reflexes of a cat. If you could have all these, you would have the body, you would have the tools. But you would not have greatness until you understand that the strongest muscle is the heart. To me, that's the soul of the Olympic Games. — Andrea Bocelli

We have made drugs an Olympic event. It receives most of the coverage at the Games and even the suspicion of guilt can ruin a reputation for life. — Bill Toomey

The Olympic Games is a celebration of discipline. — Sunday Adelaja

The Olympic Games of the Modern Era began in 1896 in the city of Athens. — Bill Toomey

I did get to go to the Olympic trials in '88 and '92. I was 7th and 11th, so I didn't place high enough to go to the games, but, still, it was a blast. — Dot Jones

I love the Olympic Games. The Olympics are an event that few can fathom but all can enjoy, and that's why athletes work our whole lives to put on the greatest show on Earth. — Johnny Weir

Pitching in the Olympic Games, Pan Am Games and Central American games prepared me to pitch at the big-league level. — Jose Contreras

The Olympic games should be a matter between individual athletes and the gods. Noisy flag-waving dishonors gods and men alike. — Dave Beard

I hope the BWF (Badminton World Federation) will seriously do something about the Olympic qualifying format or risk getting badminton dropped from the Games. — Taufik Hidayat

I never dreamed of being a flagbearer. Every athlete has a wish to get to the Olympic Games. I had that wish, but to carry the flag of your country is doubly thrilling. — Shani Davis

Olympics are probably the most important thing for Russians than any other athletes in the whole world. Since I was a little kid and since everybody was a little kid, their dream was playing in Olympic Games, especially if we have a chance to represent our country in Sochi, it's unbelievable and it's going to be a great thing. — Alexander Ovechkin

The pressure of the Olympic Games is real overwhelming. — Natalie Coughlin

The important thing in life is not victory but combat; it is not to have vanquished but to have fought well. — Pierre De Coubertin

Nothing I have done professionally will top the feeling I got when singing with John Farnham at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. — Olivia Newton-John

A lot of the Olympic games just boil down to genetics. Michael Phelps is genetically built to swim better than other people if he trains the same way. You might as well have a competition for who's the tallest, and act like it's anyone's game! — Doug Stanhope

The Olympic Games must not be an end in itself, they must be a means of creating a vast programme of physical education and sports competitions for all young people. — Avery Brundage

I never expected to win three medals in the Athens Olympic Games. Of course, I would rather have won one gold. — Marian Dragulescu

My goals were last year to win the world champs and this year to win the Olympic Games and I've done that and I couldn't be happier. — Sally Pearson

The torch relay is an excellent embodiment of all that the Olympic Games have come to symbolise - a celebration of the human spirit. Personally to me, it represents striving to be the best in whatever we do, never giving up despite the odds, and a commitment to health and fitness. — Lakshmi Mittal

Many track and field people know that if I stay relaxed and run my race like I'm supposed to, I will be the winner at the Olympic Games. — Asafa Powell

I have the mentality of a winner. I first went to the Olympic Games when I was 17, three weeks after my O-levels, and I remember sitting in a dining-hall filled with the world's best athletes. — Daley Thompson

There can be distractions, but if you're isolated from the heart of the Games, the Olympics become just another competition. — Mary Lou Retton

It has been a wonderful experience to compete in the Olympic Games and to bring home a gold medal. But since I have been a young lad, I have had my eyes on a different prize. You see, each one of us is in a greater race than any I have run in Paris, and this race ends when God gives out the medals. — Eric Liddell

The Olympic games are already there and we don't have even half of what you need to train well. — Dayron Robles