Top 64 Quotes & Sayings by Famous Gymnasts

It's not about winning or losing a competition, it's about beating the doubt from within yourself and knowing at the end of each day you are one step closer to your goals.

Everyone works hard when they want to, when they get quick results, when it's convenient to put forth effort. The best work hard when they don't want to, when it's inconvenient to give it that little extra effort... and that extra effort might be just what they need to place them on top.

This is how [the] sport has contributed to my personality, toughness and discipline. I have a plan, and I work on it. I was going to add [the] before the word sport since I thought was either a typo or a problem translating what she said, but then I thought it made sense without it too , so I left it as is. Just know that that's not a typo on my part.

I've learned that you don't have to win first place to win.

The one day you don't go into practice and use that day to the fullest is the one day someone is going to beat you.

Competing in gymnastics is the greatest reminder of being alive as a human being.

When you are on the podium nobody is asking you if you are 15 or 30 years old. What matters is who can do great gymnastics.

The eyes of a young girl can tell everything. And I always look in their eyes. There I can see if I will have a champion.

I'm quite happy there is a man in the world who can overcome my record, finally.

Look don’t sit there behind the computer like a useless vegetable and tell me how to train

Gymnastics has become degraded as the participants have become younger. Once it was a sport of grace for women, never for little girls.

Mentally there's no question about whether I still like the sport and love doing it. I think it's pretty clear to everyone here that I love the sport. I love doing gymnastics and I love performing. So that's not really a question.

[Dmitry Bilozerchev] is a genius of gymnastics.

If you believe you can get through an injury and fight back, and you really love gymnastics enough, you can get through it.

I always tell myself, 'Keep on fighting.' I wasn't always a good diver—I had to work my way up to where I am now. If I had given up, I wouldn't be in the position I am today. I would have so many regrets.

The best way to show respect to your fellow athletes is to give the best performance you can.

Consistent achievement happens only if you love what you are doing

There's mornings where I have to clear my mind and think, "OK, why am I doing this? Why am I putting myself through this kind of training every day?" I can literally see myself standing on top of a medal podium winning a gold medal next to my teammates, something I've never accomplished. It reminds me: That's why I do what I do. That's why I love it. Let's get in the gym and have a good workout.

Anybody could be as good as Nemov. Yeah, he's a great gymnast, but anyone can be that good.

I tell my coach all the time "Hey, listen, coach. You know the hardest person on me isn't you, right? It's me." I'm the hardest person on myself, my biggest critic, always pushing. But there are days when I have to tell myself, "Relax, breathe, you're too stressed out." When it's no longer fun, when it's no longer something you can tolerate, that's when you have to take a break.

There's a point in gymnastics where once you get to a certain age your body just isn't going to be able to handle it anymore. But I'd like to continue on as long as I'm able to help the team out and be a contributor to the success of the U.S. team.

I'm able to support my wife and family off of gymnastics. But at the same time I do take it very seriously - it is a job for me.

It should be judged primarily on grace, elegance and beauty rather than simply on mechanic tumbling.

Don't sacrifice what you want most for what you want now. Write down what you want most and see it often.

My mom and dad were extremely supportive. But my mom, she definitely made a lot of sacrifices, specifically because she wasn't working at the time. She ended up going and finding a job so she could continue to put me through gymnastics.

I changed my diet drastically. In college, I was a typical college guy who ate junk food all the time. When you're in college, your metabolism is through the roof. I felt like my body started to change when I was 22 or 23, so I started meeting with a nutritionist and it completely changed everything.

Forty-eight years is almost enough time to hold a record.

I will find out what the normal life is like. I will be a coach. I have achieved everything I could achieve in gymnastics.

There is a period of tapering when we're not in the gym quite as long to try to save our bodies, but leading up to the competition we try to keep things similar to the rest of the year.

It's tough. Gymnastics isn't basketball or football or baseball, where you can get these huge contracts and make a lot of money.

After thorough reflection, I realized that my desire to achieve my goals in this sport outweighed my self-doubt. This perseverance has helped me to be successful not only in gymnastics, but in my non-athletic life as well.

These are friendships that these girls are making that will be a lifetime and they're doing things that are so abnormal and to such a high level, that there's a bond that's like no other.

I eat very clean foods, healthy foods and drink a lot of water.

Practice as if its competition, but compete as if its practice.

Another big difference about not being in college: In college, you're on the team, you're competing for the NCAA - luckily I had a full scholarship and I was taken care of - then all of a sudden you're a pro and you've got to take care of yourself. I'm gonna keep doing the same thing, keep training, and hopefully everything works out.

I'm no perfect gymnast. I want to go out and eat junk food, or I maybe don't sleep as much as I should, or some days I'll leave the gym and think, "Maybe I should have worked a little harder. Maybe I'm not as tired as I need to be." Every day you push a little harder, eat a little better, maybe go to bed a little earlier.

I mean, I take that with the biggest amount of pride there could possibly be because I have so many idols of gymnasts that were before me. I think having perspective now on how hard it is for all of the starts to line up for something like that to happen, I'm just very proud of that moment and that whole atmosphere.

I’m a true believer in the mental side of gymnastics – the 95% mental and 5% physical. It’s totally true. As you get to an older age, at 25 years old, I’ve pretty much learned everything that I need to learn in gymnastics. Now it’s, can I mentally push through the daily grind? Can I push through the small injuries and the aches and pains?

It’s called the pursuit of perfection. The pursuit is the idea that you’ll never be perfect in gymnastics but you can continue to pursue it as long as you’re doing it. I don’t think it’s possible to be perfect in gymnastics. It’s just one of those sports that you’re always trying to improve and pursue that perfection.

I'm not letting any 17 year old beat me tonight

I'm very disciplined in many aspects of my life, and I think a lot of that has to do with how I was raised and the sport I've been in my whole life.

[Alexei Nemov] has the best feel for the aesthetics of the sport. He doesn't just do a skill; he makes it look gorgeous. Some gymnasts think if their arm is bent a little it doesn't matter, but Nemov understands it matters.

When I was 22, I finally reached that huge goal. Now I'm going for another one. It's so satisfying. It's something that I worked for for so long, and just to know that I got it feels so great.

Trust in your training, and make it happen.

When I moved down to Houston, I had people who were willing to support me with sponsorships and different endorsement deals. That's really how I stayed afloat. It isn't ridiculous money where you can live however you want - I still have to be disciplined - but I've been very blessed with having people to support me.

I am very honest with them - with an understanding that I'm doing them a disservice if I'm not telling them what I see. At the same time trying to remember that they're people and they're children and you know they are going to have off days and that's something that I feel like I've had to work on as I've gone down the coaching route.

Four years ago, I was thinking… no Olympics, who am I? Probably in ’04, I was identified with gymnastics. I thought gymnastics was who I am and I have to be an Olympian and I have to make this team. That’s probably why I was a little bit devastated when I didn’t make it. You know, I was kinda lost. Now I realize that we’re all magnificent, regardless of what we do or whatever career path we choose, you know, that career doesn’t have to define us as a human being. There’s so much more to being human than all of this.

One of the things about my sport that's important is consistency - being able to do your routines consistently and training consistently. If you change it up or try to make everything more intense because the Olympics is coming up, you tend to put too much pressure on your mind and your body.

When I was younger, the people making the sacrifice were my parents. It's not a cheap sport. Luckily, I had parents who made a lot of life sacrifices so I could continue in gymnastics.

I am completely honest and truthful when I say I don’t want a gold for myself. I want a gold for the team. You go up there and do it as a collective group and it’s so much more satisfying, I mean you look around and you see the faces and just wow, this was a team effort and we did this together. It’s incredible and that’s my dream. I wanna win a gold medal and see the flag go up, hear the national anthem and just know that I did it with my brothers standing next to me.

The Olympics is a huge deal, and there's such an adrenaline rush, but I am one of those people that finds every little victory in life extremely satisfying - the day I got married, the day I moved into my house, the first car I bought, becoming an uncle. The little victories in life really keep you going, and none of those are any less special than the Olympic team.

There's very few of us who are able to be successful, which is why so many guys out of college can't continue the sport. It's unfortunate because there's just no financial backing. I've been very blessed with sponsors.

It's hard to put what it means into words. It's just a dream I had when I was a little kid. It's not every day [you] get to make your lifelong dream come true. The point of doing things in life is you pursue a goal, and you go after it, you reach it and you pick another one. But they're hard to attain.

I knew well in advance even before I stepped on the stage for my first event that I was going to lose.

It was definitely a big change in my life going from the college scene to really kind of being on my own. I got married and moved to Houston and started a whole new journey. It was scary in a way, but what's great for me is just focusing on gymnastics and my wife. I'm really able to put 100% into what my goals are.

Gymnastics is definitely my job, but the great thing about that is I love my job.

I want to stay involved in gymnastics forever, but the Olympics really opened up doors in terms of motivational speaking. I'd like do some type of broadcasting or commentating for gymnastics events on TV, or even give my insights as a gymnast into other sports; I'm kind of a sports junkie in general.

There's mornings when my body aches or my mind is just not with it. But that's part of being an athlete and accomplishing a goal that seems unattainable. You have to find your motivation, what inspires you.

Part of being a good gymnast is being very disciplined - you have to know how to train right, eat right, sleep right.

Too many judges are fooled into thinking a smile equals style.