20th-century Sports Figure Quotes

The research on the brain does not validate that we are singularly processing input or learning with a single sensory input.

Alpine skiers look like their feet are stuck in cement. Telly skiing is about mobility, rhythm, and balance.

Ronnie is the best player in the world at the moment, right-handed, left-handed, one-legged, one-armed, whatever you want!

It was so gnarly, dude, and I'd been on his show a couple times, so I basically figured we were homies. I yelled over to him, and I was like, 'Yo, Reg, what up?' And then get this: He called me the Red Onion! Dude, it was so epic. It was totally rad.

Mentally speaking, it sucks, man. Who wants to prepare their whole life and have it all taken away by some guy who just made a bad pass? But that's the beauty of the sport as well. Anything can happen.

Apolo Anton Ohno

The sport I love has taken me around the world and shown me many things.

Fame is almost a poison. I couldn't care less, in fact I lived better when I was a nobody.

'Practice makes perfect' is bullshit. Only perfect practice makes perfect.

If you try to win, you might lose, but if you don't try to win, you lose for sure!

I knew now that I had to stand up and start speaking about protecting our environment. From that moment on, every swim should have the aim of inspiring people to protect and preserve the world's oceans and all that live in them.

Perseverance, determination, commitment, and courage-those things are real. The desire for redemption drives you.

I didn't have to act in 'Tarzan, the Ape Man'—just said, 'Me Tarzan, you Jane.'

Johnny Weissmuller

A disease and its treatment can be a series of humiliations, a chisel for humility.

I hated the easy assumption that girls had to be slower than boys.

A publisher's view:

It's just called 'The Bible' now. We dropped the word 'Holy' to give it a more mass-market appeal.

When Fernando [Lamas] proposed to me, he said, 'Let me take you away from all this.' And I said, 'Away from all what? I'm a movie star!'

Esther Williams

If you're not mentally tough,
If nerves undo you instead of focus you,
If you don't have the inner arrogance
That you absolutely have what it takes to win,
If you don't see, in your mind's eye,
A picture of yourself winning - then you won't win;
And not because you can't.

I don't think I have made any deliberate or conscious attempt to represent the new generation. I am what I am.

Female athletes are stereotyped by the general population—and usually as homosexuals.

Billie Jean King

The scoreboard said I lost today, but what the scoreboard doesn't say is what it is I have found. Over the last 21 years, I have found loyalty. You have pulled for me on the court and also in life. I found inspiration. You have willed me to succeed, sometimes even in my lowest moments, and I've found generosity. You have given me your shoulders to stand on to reach for my dreams, dreams I could never have reached without you.

It is 100% satisfaction. When I returned to Buenos Aires after playing Davis Cup in Moscow and Malaga, you had the impression it was my fault and that hurt me. That's why I have enjoyed this moment twice as much because there are many people who have helped me through my difficult moments. Now it's like a revenge.

After winning two titles

They always have big mouths. They always talk a lot. It's happened before, so it's gonna happen again. I don't really worry about that.

By putting pressure on myself to develop a great game, I had less pressure to win. These days, I tell kids that the way I grew up, it wasn't about winning. It was about playing well, about playing the "right" way. That approach helped me enjoy the game and develop mine to its maximum potential.

I call tennis the McDonald's of sport—you go in, they make a quick buck out of you, and you're out.

The solution to a problem changes the nature of the problem.