No.1 Sports Champions Quotes
Top Inspirational Quotes from Greatest Winners

Training & Workout Motivation

You live during the match, and you have strong emotions, but you don't want to get too overexcited. My body's totally flat now. I cannot move anymore. I'm totally exhausted, just because of the tension out there.
Roger Federer Tennis

Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.
Babe Ruth Baseball

"Often I visualize a quicker, like almost a ghost runner, ahead of me with a quicker stride. It's really crazy. In races, this always happens to me. I see the vision of a runner ahead of me, maybe just 15, 20 meters ahead of me, and the cadence of that runner, which is actually me in the future, is a little quicker, so if I'm going (his rhythm/breathing), then my ghost runner, the vision of me, ahead of me, like opening up and just going for it, is quicker".
Gabe Jennings Running

“I have a system of ridding my mind of negative thoughts. “I visualize myself writing them down on a piece of paper. Then I imagine myself crumpling up the paper, lighting it on fire, and burning it to a crisp'.
Bruce Lee Martial Arts

"Some guys need to see things on a grease board, ... I like when you can see it in your mind. And that's what Marvin does, too. He visualizes. He sees things in his mind so well."
Peyton Manning American Football

Two things help me be a winner.  One is I try to stay on an even keel.  I don't get too high or too low.  Two is I do a lot of visualization.   I never see a bad pitch.  I always see a good one.
Ila Borders, first woman starting pitcher in a men's professional baseball. Baseball / Batting / Pitching

When I go to the press conference before the game, in my mind the game has already started.
Jose Mourinho Soccer

"I have been visualizing myself every night for the past four years standing on the podium having the gold placed around my neck."
Megan Quann Swimming

"Visualization is something I use to calm my nerves. I did something like that before, but when I came to Oregon State they really helped me hone in on those skills of actually picturing the bar routine, the movement and think the exact same thoughts you would be doing it. That makes me more prepared and confident when I compete."
Makayla Stambaugh Gymnastics

"When I’d get tired and want to stop, I’d wonder what my next opponent was doing.  I’d wonder if he was still working out.  I tried to visualize him.  When I could see him still working, I’d start pushing myself.  When I could see him in the shower, I’d push myself harder".
Dan Gable

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I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.
Wayne Gretzky Ice Hockey

People ask me ..what was going through your mind in the race?.. and I don't know. I try and ...let my body do what it knows.
Ian Thorpe

There is no room in your mind for negative thoughts. The busier you keep yourself with the particulars of shot assessment and execution, the less chance your mind has to dwell on the emotional. This is sheer intensity.
Jack Nicklaus

Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.
Lance Armstrong

I play with a fear of letting my team down. That's what motivates me.
Jonny Wilkinson Rugby

Every kid around the world who plays soccer wants to be Pele. I have a great responsibility to show them not just how to be like a soccer player, but how to be like a man.
Pele

Doctors and scientists said that breaking the four-minute mile was impossible, that one would die in the attempt. Thus, when I got up from the track after collapsing at the finish line, I figured I was dead.
Roger Bannister

The pitcher has got only a ball. I've got a bat. So the percentage of weapons is in my favor and I let the fellow with the ball do the fretting.
Hank Aaron

I'll let the racket do the talking.
John McEnroe

Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision.
Muhammad Ali

An athlete cannot run with money in his pockets. He must run with hope in his heart and dreams in his head.
Emil Zatopek

The man who has no imagination has no wings.
Muhammad Ali

It is not the size of a man but the size of his heart that matters.
Evander Holyfield

We've got this thing called a wolf pack. Our saying is "the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is his pack. Join the pack".
Willie Loane

I can beat anyone, either male, female, animal, vegitable, or mineral.
Jim Cornette

I was so surprised. Then again, I was so relaxed in the water, it felt amazing.
Pieter van den Hoogenband

The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be
Bruce Lee

I train myself mentally with visualization. The morning of a tournament, before I put my feet on the floor, I visualize myself making perfect runs with emphasis on technique, all the way through to what my personal best is in practice.... The more you work with this type of visualization, especially when you do it on a day-to-day basis, you'll actually begin to feel your muscles contracting at the appropriate times.
Camille Duvall

If you aren't going all the way, why go at all?
Joe Namath

The greatest efforts in sports came when the mind is as still as a glass lake.
Timothy Gallwey

My thoughts before a big race are usually pretty simple. I tell myself: Get out of the blocks, run your race, stay relaxed. If you run your race, you'll win....Channel your energy. Focus.
Carl Lewis

You can't put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.
Michael Phelps

You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy.
Arthur Ashe

Leaders aren't born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that's the price we'll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.
Vincent Lombardi

One of the things that my parents have taught me is never listen to other people's expectations. You should live your own life and live up to your own expectations, and those are the only things I really care about it.
Tiger Woods

There are only two options regarding commitment. You're either IN or you're OUT. There is no such thing as life in-between.
Pat Riley

Ask not what your teammates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your teammates.
Magic Johnson

You have to have the mentality of executing your game when you don't feel like there's a lot of hope. I think the best feeling is when somebody pushes you to the limit and you dig down a little bit extra. By the same token, you also need a little luck. Sometimes they come together.
Andre Agassi

To win takes a complete commitment of mind and body. When you can't make that commitment, they don't call you a champion anymore.
Rocky Marciano

I figure practice puts your brains in your muscles.
Sam Snead

The more I practice, the luckier I get.
Gary Player

Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of great opportunity.
Michael Johnson

Be here now. Keeping your mind in the present moment is essential, as thinking about the past or the future take your mind's focus away from your goal.
Craig Townsend

I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark.
Muhammad Ali

You have to find it. No one else can find it for you.
Bjorn Borg

"If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always got"
Mark Twain

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Life doesn't run away from nobody. Life runs at people.
Joe Frazier

The difference of great players is at a certain point in a match they raise their level of play and maintain it. Lesser players play great for a set, but then less.
Pete Sampras

When I go out and race, I'm not trying to beat opponents, I'm trying to beat what I have done ... to beat myself, basically. People find that hard to believe because we've had such a bias to always strive to win things. If you win something and you haven't put everything into it, you haven't actually achieved anything at all. When you've had to work hard for something and you've got the best you can out of yourself on that given day, that's where you get satisfaction from.
Ian Thorpe

It's hard to be humble, when you're as great as I am.
Muhammad Ali

I'm a very intense person. When I go after something, I want to go after it with everything I have. I want to push myself to the edge.
Greg Norman

Find the good. It's all around you. Find it, showcase it and you'll start believing in it.
Jesse Owens

Find something that you're really interested in doing in your life. Pursue it, set goals, and commit yourself to excellence. Do the best you can.
Chris Evert

I think the key is for women not to set any limits.
Martina Navratilova

You start chasing a ball and your brain immediately commands your body to 'Run forward, bend, scoop up the ball, peg it to the infield,' then your body says, 'Who me?'
Joe DiMaggio

I'm not afraid of anyone, but sometimes I'm afraid of myself. The mental part is very important.
Justine Henin

Being compared to Ian Thorpe, that could be one of the greatest compliments you could ever get in swimming - being compared to him and Mark Spitz.
Michael Phelps

I’m not the next anyone, I’m the first Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova

I have been visualizing myself every night for the past four years standing on the podium having the gold placed around my neck.
Megan Quann

I'm a perfectionist. I'm pretty much insatiable. I feel there's so many things I can improve on.
Serena Williams

I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.
Michael Jordan

The only way of finding a solution is to fight back, to move, to run, and to control that pressure.
Rafael Nadal

You owe it to yourself to be the best you can possibly be - in baseball and in life.
Pete Rose

Volleyball is the sport through which I am able to express my God-given talents of being an athlete. It is a sport which involves relating, pushing, and encouraging your teammates. It has helped evolve me into the person I am today.
David Beard

Football is an honest game. It's true to life. It's a game about sharing. Football is a team game. So is life.
Joe Namath

Show class, have pride, and display character. If you do, winning takes care of itself.
Paul "Bear" Bryant

I'll beat him so bad he'll need a shoehorn to put his hat on.
Muhammad Ali

My private life is perfect. If your private life and your life outside football is good, then it is good on the field for you.
David Beckham

Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
Michael Jordan

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