Olympics Quotes

I always wanted to be a dentist from the time I was in high school, and I was accepted to dental school in the spring of 1972. I was planning to go, but after the Olympics there were other opportunities.

This Olympics is almost a little sad. It is my final Olympics. There are a lot of good memories.

I was still young when I missed Beijing. I was favourite to win a medal but I knew I had time. My coach advised me to stay at school and finish my exams. Even if I had gone and won the Olympics, I might not have handled the pressure. So I moved on.

When I was trying out for my first Olympics at 16, my family and coaches tried to regulate what I ate. But the stricter they got, the more I rebelled.

Gymnastics is my whole life, and I dream of going to the Olympics and being a world champ.

My experience at the 1992 Winter Olympics was my fulfillment of dreaming the Impossible Dream.

In 2008 I didn't take it all in enough. I was so wrapped up in just the competition that I missed what was going on around me. If I am given that opportunity again to go to the Olympics and be an athlete I want to take it all in because I feel like this is my last shot and I want to feel the team spirit. I want to really live and breathe the USA.

I am at the Olympics, I forgot to tie my suit, how is this gonna happen?

The highlight of my career? The Olympics, of course.

I'd always said that I'd like to have a title by the next Olympics, so this is a great opportunity, and could be the start of my climb to a world title.

In terms of my career, having the gold definitely changed my life. The Olympics are different, you know? They're every four years and it's such a small group.

The big push for me is the Olympics this year. If I'm healthy, I'm not worried about my ranking. I think I can hit the ball. It's just about my body cooperating. It's about being able to play matches in a row. Right now, I'm not sure how much I can do with that, but we'll see.

The Olympics are great for notoriety right off the bat, but your body of work is what people remember you for.

I think after the 2008 Olympics I wasn't really satisfied with the outcome, so I knew I had to change some things.

People think coming in under the radar is like being a fighter pilot and actually coming in under the radar. It's a completely ridiculous idea to come in under the radar. It's the Olympics; everyone is on the radar here.

Waving the flag at the 1976 Olympics wasn't my idea. It was too much apple pie and ice cream. Not that I don't love my country, but I felt it was my victory up there, I put all the time into it.

The human rights record within China seems to rise and fall over time, but it's very clear that in the run up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics and since then, there's been a greater intolerance of dissent and the human rights record of China has been going in the wrong direction.

I really want to do the Olympics. Obviously, I can't let things out of the bag, so to speak.

I have to consider my greatest accomplishments winning the Olympics because everything that I've done after that is really because of the Olympics.

I've decided to make my main priority for the next two years not playing the violin, but training for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Because Great Britain has self-confidence, it doesn't need a monumental Olympics.

I think the most surprising thing about the Olympics would be the amount of interaction and partying that goes on behind the scenes. They have nightclubs at the Olympic Village. It's like college all over again.

But it is nice to know that you have other races lined up, because sometimes you can get so focused on your next marathon that it can become kind of unhealthy in some ways. So it's nice to have something else to slap you in the face and say, all right, there is life after the Olympics.

I think about my goals. There were a lot of times in gymnastics when I really didn't want to go in and train, but you can't make it to the Olympics if you don't train!

I'd love to compete in the Summer Olympics.

I woke up on the plane this morning and was turning on my phone and I had to put my pin number in. That's when I realized that since the age of 10 I've been using 2012 as my pin number. But now that I've won gold in the 2012 Olympics, I've achieved that goal and, for the first time in 14 years, I'll have to change my pin.

The Olympics: not one of my better memories.

Seeing the Olympics come to China made me want to get more involved.

To finish off this whole Olympics by finally getting the gold medal, it's the best feeling in the world.

The Olympics remain the most compelling search for excellence that exists in sport, and maybe in life itself.