Olympics Quotes

69 Sourced quotes

Shawn Johnson

Peggy Fleming

John F. Kennedy

Aristotle

Adolf Hitler

Donald Trump

Fidel Castro

Of course, when you're training your whole life to get to the Olympics, you train for gold.

In 1968, in the midst of the tumultuous 1960s, the Olympics were much more than just another event

If surviving assassination attempts were an Olympic event, I would win the gold medal.

Many people are afraid to fail, so they don't try. They may dream, talk, and even plan, but they don't take that critical step of putting their money and their effort on the line. To succeed in business, you must take risks. Even if you fail, that's how you learn. There has never been, and will never be, an Olympic skater who didn't fall on the ice.

I've been practicing. I bowled a 129, It was like special olympics or something.

Secondly, the educated citizen has an obligation to serve the public. He may be a precinct worker or President. He may give his talents at the courthouse, the State house, the White House. He may be a civil servant or a Senator, a candidate or a campaign worker, a winner or a loser. But he must be a participant and not a spectator. "At the Olympic games," Aristotle wrote, "it is not the finest and strongest men who are crowned, but they who enter the lists-for out of these the prize-men are elected. So, too, in life, of the honorable and the good, it is they who act who rightly win the prizes."

John F. Kennedy

Finishing second in the Olympics gets you silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion.

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.

Sporting chivalrous contest helps knit the bonds of peace between nations. Therefore may the Olympic flame never expire.

The 2008 Olympics has created an illusion of China to the public and to the outside world. It is so fantastic, so unreal, that the entire meaning of the games is being distorted.

Your recent meetings with Chinese dissidents at the White House are to be commended. However, your participation at the opening ceremony of the Olympics will send a signal to the Chinese people and the international community that could be misperceived as your approval, and that of the American people, for the draconian policies of the Chinese government. Therefore, it is essential that you unambiguously speak out for human rights and meet with the families of jailed prisoners of conscience while you are in Beijing.

I love the Olympics, because they enable people from all over the world to come together and—regardless of their political or cultural differences—accuse each other of cheating.

This year I'm planning on hibernating from October until the Olympics next August. It's that important to me. It drives me. And it's very addictive. One of the cruellest things about the sport is that you're never fulfilled or completely happy with your performance. You're running against a clock so you always want to go faster and think that you can. That becomes an addiction.

If God awarded us medals, as they do in the Olympics, love would win the gold, joy the silver, and peace the bronze.

I wanted no part of politics. And I wasn't in Berlin to compete against any one athlete. The purpose of the Olympics, anyway, was to do your best. As I'd learned long ago... the only victory that counts is the one over yourself.

When that fire hit your ass, it will sober your ass up quick! I saw something, I went, Well, that's a pretty blue. You know what? That looks like... FIRE! Fire is inspirational. They should use it in the Olympics, because I ran the 100 in 4.3.

We need to stop playing Privilege or Oppression Olympics because we'll never get anywhere until we find more effective ways of talking through difference. We should be able to say, This is my truth, and have that truth stand without a hundred clamoring voices shouting, giving the impression that multiple truths cannot coexist.

[The Olympics are] an event manipulated into misleading people into believing that we have entered a new, successful and harmonious period in our history. This is not true.

In 20 years time, I want to say 'didn't I have a go when I was in my prime', and I went back to play rugby league, tried to make the Rugby World Cup, tried to make the Olympics or tried to win the World Cup with the Kiwis.

Sonny Bill Williams

The Olympics are an opportunity to redefine the country, but the message is always wrong.

My favorite athletes of any Olympics are always the African distance runners. You never have to drug test an African distance runner.

Upon winning four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics:

After all those stories about Hitler and his snub, I came back to my native country, and I couldn’t ride in the front of the bus. I had to go to the back door. I couldn’t live where I wanted. Now what’s the difference?

I soon had a few thousand people I didn't know sending me messages like OMG! Is it really you? I love it when old ladies blog, one early follower remarked. … and they really shone when, during the Olympics, I said that "Own the podium" was too brash to be Canadian, and suggested "A podium might be nice." Their own variations poured onto a feed tagged #cpodium: "A podium! For me?" "Rent the podium, see if we like it." "Mind if I squeeze by you to get onto that podium?" I was so proud of them! It was like having 33,000 precocious grandchildren!

Margaret Atwood

The improved performances at Commonwealth Games, London Olympics and world tournaments by chess, billiards, snooker badminton and tennis players are evidence of the improved progress that we have made.

When it comes to desiring, we are all experts. If there were an Olympics of desiring, we would all make the team.

William Braxton Irvine