Sports Champions Quotes
Greatest Motivational, Inspirational Power Quotes / Quotations / Sayings / Phrases
from the Greatest Sporting Champions of All Time

I never looked at the consequences of missing a big shot... when you think about the consequences you always think of a negative result.
Michael Jordan, Basketball Champion / All Michael Jordan Books, DVDs and Products

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 Champion

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

Effort within the mind further limits the mind, because effort implies struggle towards a goal and when you have a goal, a purpose, an end in view, you have placed a limit on the mind.
Bruce Lee, Martial Arts Champion

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, Swimming Champion

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, Cycling Champion

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, Soccer Champion / All Pele Books, DVDs and Products

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, Running

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, Baseball Champion

I'll let the racket do the talking.
John McEnroe, Tennis Champion

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, Boxing Champion / All Muhammad Ali Books, DVDs and Products

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

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

The time your game is most vulnerable is when you're ahead, never let up.
Rod Laver, Tennis Champion

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

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

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

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 - Track and Field Champion Athlete

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

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, Tennis Champion

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, NFL American Football coach

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, NBA Basketball Coach

Ask not what your teammates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your teammates.
Magic Johnson, NBA Basketball Champion / All Magic Johnson Books, DVDs and Products

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, Tennis Champion

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, Boxing Champion

I figure practice puts your brains in your muscles.
Sam Snead, Golf Champion

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

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

If you aren't going all the way, why go at all?
Joe Namath, American Football / All Joe Namath Books, DVDs and Products

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

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, Boxing Champion / All Muhammad Ali Books, DVDs and Products

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

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

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

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, Tennis Champion

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, Swimming Champion

It's hard to be humble, when you're as great as I am.
Muhammad Ali, Boxing Champion / All Muhammad Ali Books, DVDs and Products

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, Golf Champion

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

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, Tennis Champion

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

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, Baseball Champion

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

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, Swimming Champion

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

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 Champion

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

I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.
Michael Jordan, Basketball Champion / All Michael Jordan Books, DVDs and Products

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

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

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, Volleyball Champion

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, American Football Champion / All Joe Namath Books, DVDs and Products

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

I'll beat him so bad he'll need a shoehorn to put his hat on.
Muhammad Ali, Boxing Champion / All Muhammad Ali Books, DVDs and Products

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, Football (Soccer) Champion

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, Basketball Champion / All Michael Jordan Books, DVDs and Products

Triathlon

Triathlon