A Quote by Pat Summitt

I was like, 'I don't know if I could be an Olympian...' But my dad really influenced me to stay and be in the Olympics. — © Pat Summitt
I was like, 'I don't know if I could be an Olympian...' But my dad really influenced me to stay and be in the Olympics.
First and foremost, I'm an athlete. And I'm an Olympian. I'm not a gay Olympian. I'm just an Olympian that's also gay. I don't mind reading that - like, 'gay Olympian Adam Rippon.' It's fine. I hope that, in a way, it makes it easier for other young kids who are gay. If they go to the Olympics, they can just be called Olympians.
I remember watching the summer Olympics as a kid and knew that I wanted to be an Olympian one day. At the time, snowboarding wasn't in the Olympics, but I knew that wouldn't stop me.
My dad has actually really influenced me musically. I have a weird love for '80s and '90s music. A lot of people are like, 'Are you serious? It's so lame.' But my dad always plays that in the car whenever we're together.
I grew up playing softball, and at the age of nine, I decided I was going to be an Olympian. I didn't really know what that meant at the time. I thought it might be in a warm summer sport like softball, but I played a variety of sports growing up - basketball, soccer and track. I really didn't care. I just wanted to be an Olympian.
I didn't know how I was going to get to the Olympics, and in the beginning, I didn't really care. And that was the best part, because my desire exposed me to so many different sports, and in all of them, I always dedicated my best effort because I knew that's what it was going to take to become an Olympian.
I'd clash with my dad over other things, you know, like difference of opinion and me getting testosterone, you know what I'm saying? Me feeling like I'm a little tough, being a teenager. But my big brother would come in drunk and really, really try my dad and I didn't want to do that.
You ask any Olympian what the year after the Olympics is like - you always get the Olympic blues.
I'm a two-time Olympian, but ever since I was a little girl, the Olympic dream has influenced me.
People gather details and comparisons but it doesn't really bother me or land on me of any sort. I don't know if I was... Maybe I was influenced by them, maybe I wasn't, but I don't know. I was probably influenced by everything I've heard. So it doesn't bother me at all, but it doesn't sway me either.
I haven't really met anyone else who has influenced me, but you never know, it could happen next year or next month. I just like to go with the spur of the moment.
I love politics. It could be that, or it could be that my dad was always really big on, 'This is your job. You are going to work...' You know, it's really funny cause he was such a cowboy, and he doesn't like the concept of guys coming in like cowboys - unshaved and wearing flip flops - and stuff like that would eat him alive.
I feel very fortunate. I feel like an Olympian. When I watch the Olympics, I cry because I have been through that journey.
I was really good at a young age, but every day I had to walk in the house, and walk past my dad's jersey framed on the wall because he was an Olympian, so I was like, all right, I haven't done anything yet.
My dad is a really cool guy, but he showed me 'The Shining,' and I was like, 'Hey, dad. I'm thirsty. Let's go get a Coke.' So we went to the vending machine, and he hid... and I turned back, and I was like, 'Dad? Dad?' And the elevator scene came to my mind.
The Olympics were something that was put in my path. I knew I was capable, I worked so hard for it, so I guess it's like, Why wouldn't I want to go to the Olympics? But it was never something that I was really, really dead set on. It was just what my coaches and everyone else forced upon me.
I don't know how many people really knew who I was before the Olympics and that's the fun thing of the Olympics - you get to know someone who captures your heart, hopefully.
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