Medal Quotes

Athens is a great place for me. It is my second home. It's where I won my first world championship medal, it's where I set my world record.

To have this gold medal around my neck is an indescribable feeling. I'm the happiest person right now.

If I do something for my kids, I get a medal, because most fathers don't.

It took putting one foot in front of the other every single day to get through it to the point where I made it back on the team and won a gold medal in 2008.

I wouldn't say that there's ever been an Olympic champion that didn't deserve to win an Olympic Gold Medal.

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

I've always dreamed of an Olympic medal.

People think the gold medal is yours and they say you're going to win - but they have no idea how hard it is. People aren't doing it negatively - they're mostly lovely and they really do want you to win - but they don't understand the difficulty and intensity of competition.

Winning a gold medal is not easy but I believed in myself, especially over the last four years.

The Olympics is a special event and winning is very important. For me as a world record holder and world champion, the only thing I am missing is the Olympic gold medal and that is what I want to achieve in my career.

I had my Olympic gold medal cut up into eleven pieces. Gave all eleven of my kids a piece. It'll come together again when they put me down.

Growing up, watching the Premier League as far back as I can remember, feeling the trophy and having the medal around my neck was an unbelievable feeling.

That's the awesome part. Little girls now have a chance to look up and see women playing soccer, basketball, softball and now hockey - and know they can win a gold medal, too.

If I bring back only one gold people are going to say it's a disappointment. But not too many of them own an Olympic gold medal so if I get one I'm going to be happy.

Coming in as a veteran, I'd like to finish with a gold medal.

So I went in front of the judge, and I had my St. Jude prayer book in my pocket and my St. Jude medal. And I'm standing there and that judge said I was found guilty, so he sentenced me to what the law prescribed: one to 14 years.

I think if I am to win an Olympic medal I'll have to score like I did today.

I won my first medal when I was nine years old. It was at the Boston Open.

And I want a gold medal more than anything. I just want a gold medal, so that's been pushing me forward.

It surprised me, the feeling I got when I won the Oscar for 'Scent of a Woman.' It was a new feeling. I'd never felt it. I don't see my Oscar much now. But when I first got it, there was a feeling for weeks afterward that I guess is akin to winning a gold medal in the Olympics.

The greatest memory for me of the 1984 Olympics was not the individual honors, but standing on the podium with my teammates to receive our team gold medal.

Many medal winners dream of competing in a sport other than the one they're famous for.

My salvation was a free gift. I didn't have to work for it and it's better than any gold medal that I've ever won.

Olympic medals are the one medal that I don't have; I've won just about every other competition that I've been at.

I don't know where my first gold medal is.

I've learned that winning isn't everything, and it's more about the journey. But at the end of the day, I just want to stand on the podium with the gold medal.

It really means a lot that I won the gold medal - but I woke up the next morning expecting to feel different. I felt the same.

Well my thoughts on American swimming are that our prospects look favorable, but we may not have as strong a showing in the gold medal count as in previous Olympics. But I am not coaching.

I wasn't really expecting me to win the gold in this race. To get another medal for myself and for the U.S. was a pretty good thing to happen, I'd say.

I would be happy with an Olympic bronze. What I don't have is an Olympic medal.